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Only get sound when jack is plugged in HALF

Bigmuffdiver

Bigmuffdiver

Mar 28, 2014
188
71
Belgium
#1
Hey guys,

I need your help!

The output on my Fender Jaguar bass was damaged, so I had it replaced.
When I picked up my guitar at the tech's place, all sounded good (only tested it in active mode).
When I wanted to play on band rehearsal, my bass wasn't working in active mode (passive/active switch)...sounded farty and the sound faded to almost nothing. Passive mode didn't work either.

-cables replaced
-placed new battery in bass
-excluded all pedals -> went straight to amp
-...everything got troubleshooted, still no sound.

My guitarist suggested to pull the jack halfway out and play in passive mode...surprise, there was sound!

I called my tech and he also finds it very mysterious. Off course, I could bring the bass back to check out what the problem is.

Did any of you guys experience this problem?

I'm really curious about what this could be... Thanks in advance!
 
#5
Now that OP has a clear answer to his question, I hope he won't mind a slight derail....

I recently read another thread in which someone had brought home a bass that had been "repaired" by a tech, only to find that it didn't work. My question is, don't techs bother to check their work before accepting payment and returning the instrument to the owner? I just find it hard to believe that after repairing something you wouldn't take two minutes to plug the damn thing in to make sure the repair was effective. How common is this?
 
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#6
I don't consider a repair done until it is tested. But the complications come when the problem is intermittent. Ive had a few that I tested after repair and all worked well, even after trying to make it fail. In one case he owner had it fail again 20 minutes into a practice session (thank goodness it wasn't in performance). The problem turned out to be that he liked using a curly-cord cable (remember them?) and it was pulling on the jack enough to cause the tip to contact ground in the cavity. The solution was simple in the end, but getting there was arduous.
 
#9
line6man's hypothesis has to be correct based on what happened later. It could even explain the "sounded farty and the sound faded to almost nothing".

The plug tip might have provided just enough ground path for the battery to energize the preamp enough to get some distorted sound through it. The signal itself may have been just a modulation of the preamp supply current.

-
 
#10
yep, there's a good chance the socket is miswired, but these sort of problems can also occur when the hot contact intermittently shorts on shielding. if there's shielding paint or foil in there, I'd also be checking there's plenty of clearance, and also that the socket has been installed with a shakeproof washer to prevent it from spinning and potentially shorting again.
 

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