I need info about splicing wires together to extend the length of the wires on my electric guitar's output jack. I have a Schecter Classic electric guitar and one of the wires broke off the output jack. I don't know if this is normal but the way mine is built, there is a main grey wire with two parts. One part is a seperate smaller white wire, coming out of the end of the grey wire, that's soldered onto one part of the output jack (this white wire is still soldered to the output jack). The other part is just an exposed piece of the grey wire soldered onto the other part of the output jack (this is the part that broke off of the output jack). This is a picture of the wires and the output jack:
This will be the second time this piece broke off and had to be re-soldered. I'm worried that if it breaks again I won't have enough wire to work with so I'm wondering if I can splice another piece of wire to the end of that grey wire. What kind of wire will work? Went to Radio Shack and other than the speaker wire, I only saw something called AMW type wire that came in 22 and 18 gauges (description says it's good for wiring your car's audio system). Will this work or will I need to get something else? Also, is splicing the two wires as simple as exposing two ends and twisting them or maybe soldering them together or is there something else I'll need to do?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
that wire sounds a little big for that application, if you can find some smaller gauge higher quality wire that would be better, you can solder the wires together and cover it with some heat shrink tubing(tape works too but it's not as good).
http://schecter.musicianscentre.com/home/schecter-wiring-diagrams
that is the wiring site for schecter but the classic diagram on there doesn't show a 3rd wire, unless you have active pickups. that diagram can be found under C1FR.
The long term question is why does it keep breaking? Is your jack loose - even just slightly - thereby allowing it to rotate and eventually breaking the wire? Have a look at the sticky thread in this group on loose jacks.
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Thanks for the replies guys. I found some usable wire from a stereo system antenna (it was silver) and spliced it onto the output jack wire. Don't know if I had to but I used two pieces of that antenna wire since it was only 30 gauge. Twisting the exposed 'fibers' (little silver wires within the shielding) together seemed good enough so didn't need to solder that end. Soldered the other end to the output jacked and now my guitar works again :mrgreen:
I bought that 22 gauge AMW wire from Radio Shack I mentioned in my first post but it had a single copper wire instead of small fibers. Don't know if speaker wire works but I think this wire would've worked as well.
that wire sounds a little big for that application, if you can find some smaller gauge higher quality wire that would be better, you can solder the wires together and cover it with some heat shrink tubing(tape works too but it's not as good).
http://schecter.musicianscentre.com/home/schecter-wiring-diagrams
that is the wiring site for schecter but the classic diagram on there doesn't show a 3rd wire, unless you have active pickups. that diagram can be found under C1FR.
I really appreciate that diagram. My guitar is the Scheckter C1 Classic (volume & tone dials, output jack with a hot output and ground wire, 2 humbuckers, and a 5-way switch). This will come in handy if anything else happens to it. The wire itself was kind of strange. Inside the thick grey wire was that small white wire with shielding and more exposed silver fibers which I think is the grounding portion.
Definitely should've spliced more wire onto the grounding part in the first place since it's getting too short to work with. If that white wire breaks I think I'll splice more wire onto whatever's left since I don't want any more of the original wires breaking.
The long term question is why does it keep breaking? Is your jack loose - even just slightly - thereby allowing it to rotate and eventually breaking the wire? Have a look at the sticky thread in this group on loose jacks.
The main issue I had was that the sound would keep cutting out. I couldn't figure out what was causing it so I'd open up the output jack and place it in certain positions to see if one of the pieces was touching something it shouldn't. I'd take the output jack out of the guitar while still plugged into the amp, strum the strings, and the sound would be fine. I'd put the output jack back in and the sound would cut out again. Too much twisting and that's how it broke that second time. Never did figure out what was causing that but after I respliced the wires and resoldered it to the output jack I don't seem to have that problem anymore. :?:
Ah well, my guitar works now and the sound isn't even cutting out intermittently.
It sounds like the "silver antenna wire" you used is a type of co-axial cable
No harm in using that, but it may be a bit overkill.
For this application almost any wire will work.
Generally stranded wire is preferred, but only because it is more flexible than solid wire.
Any gauge (thickness) would work, but I'd prefer to use something not too heavy (lower the gauge number, the thicker the wire) for flexibility and ease of working on it.
I'd pick anything between 18 and 24 Gauge, if I had a choice.
And a +1 on Hyperborea's question about why it keeps breaking.
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I suggest that the reason it kept breaking was that it was too short. That would put continual pressure on the connection.
You may just have solved the long term problem by extending the overall length of the wire.
I started with nothing - and I've still got most of it left.
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