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Pure Tone Multi Contact Mono 1/4 Output Jack


mettelus

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This little beauty is worth an honorable mention, since it is cheap, incredibly effective, and properly engineered. "Traditional" output jacks consist of contacts at the sleeve insert, and a single prong to engage the tip such as this one.

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The issue with this design in that weakening of the prong and/or tension on the cord can result in intermittent loss of contact. After experiencing this last weekend (on a 35 year old guitar jack) and a little searching, I found this guy which came yesterday.

s-l640.jpgPure_Tone_Multi-Contact_1_4_Output_Jack.

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I am not sure exactly when these hit the market, since they are "patent pending," but both the tip and sleeve are gripped by two prongs inside the jack cavity. These actually snap into place with some force, so will not let go or lose contact (without intent) in most cases. They also come in long barrel and stereo versions, so they have more applications than just for guitar.  Even testing an Xvive U2 wireless transmitter, the fob on that requires a little force to even spin it in the jack.

I wanted to pass this along to folks who might be interested. For $6.80 (eBay was cheapest) and a couple of solder joints, this is an impressive "upgrade" for any instrument needing love on the output jack(s).

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Interesting, not sure if I would get one though, with the jack problem, I just take the old one out, sandpaper the contacts and retention the lugs by bending them with pliers or hitting them with a hammer, fixes that problem. I only replace them if the separators are loose.

That design looks like it might be hard to get the cable out.

Edited by Tezza
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Yeah, the jack grips the plugs better for sure (5 contact points versus 2), but is not that tight. The sleeve also has tigher tolerances and seems longer, so you cannot just jam a plug in it and hope for the best (it has to lined up fairly well).  However, this might be a concern if the jack is mounted to plastic or if the plate isn't on a rigid surface, so that is something to keep in mind. This is also for something that would get motion or tension on the cable, so would be overkill on static equipment that never gets a cable pulled.

The one niggle I do have with it is that the nut size is just slightly bigger than the one I took out, so I cannot use the old ones as a spacer. I had the old jack double-nutted to make it perfectly flush to the mounting plate, but this new one sticks out 1/8". It didn't come with a second nut to use under the mounting plate. I only got one jack, so not sure if this was a packaging error.

Edited by mettelus
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