Replacing broken input jacks and switches are the bread-and-butter of the amp repair business. This Chinese-built practice amp needed a new input jack. The owner was a college student and didn’t have the money or space to upgrade to something bigger. Could the Unbrokenstring Crew make this unit play again?
The cabinet is a simple, sealed-back unit. The electronics chassis is accessible, but the speaker wire is threaded thru a hole best accessed from the hole where the loudspeaker goes. So, here we are taking off the grille.
As soon as the electronics chassis was slid out the front, the printed circuit board assembly came loose.
Most of the mechanical support for the circuit board is provided by the input jack, which is plastic. As a rule, I replace input jacks with all-steel Amphenol jacks. However, that won’t work here. This forces me to replace the input jack with a similar plastic unit in order to reassemble the amp back the way it was.
The old input jack is gone. Good riddance!
A new, identical jack is sourced from a commercial vendor. Now, we have a chance of a more durable assembly because the new jack is Made In USA.
When sourcing an alternative part, the electrical function must be the same. In this case, input jacks are single-pole switched jacks; the tip circuit is grounded until a plug is inserted into the jack. This keeps the amp quiet whenever nothing is attached to the input.
Likewise, the footprint of the alternative part must mate up correctly with the rest of the amp. Here, we see that the new connector pins match the circuit board exactly!
A little solder to seal the deal!
This part of the job is ready to go.
Cleanup of the unit is easier when everything is apart.
Likewise, any electrical problems can be fixed while the unit is apart. We’re checking this guy out to verify that everything works.
We have achieved success. Time to button it up.
With the chassis in place, the leads to the loudspeaker can be pulled back into the speaker box and secured. My hands were a little full, so I didn’t take any pictures while the loudspeaker was out. Sorry.
Our job here is finished.
Thanks for reading all the way to the end!
CONTACT – David Latchaw EE
281-636-8626