String break!

[jps]

He's in Ft. Lauderdale, at the moment.

[ledbye]

Ok, after a good test an hammering the strings at practice, everything seems to be fine again So after som fine sanding, clean and check over everything I got joy!

Cheers all

[beatlefreak]

Goopd deal, Ben!

[ledbye]

Yeah, I'm pretty happy to say the least

Now I just need to fix my popping, scratching input jack!! And that, I just don't see the answer too!!! All leads appear to be solder on correctly...could it be the 'dry solder' joints I hear about??

[johnallg]

Make sure the "fingers" of the jack are making good contact with the cable plug, and don't use cheap cables as the plug diameters are metric and a bit smaller and will be loose in the jack.

Glad to see you got the breakage problem sorted - now I have to sell all my stock in string manufacturers.

[ledbye]

I'm gonna go over the jack with a fine tooth tonight I have tried heaps of different leads (and I do use good quality ones) so I don't think it's that.

[doctorwho]

If necessary, get some Caig DeoxIT contact cleaner at a local electronics shop:

deoxit.jpg

http://store.caig.com/s.nl/it.A/id.1982 ... tegory=821

[ledbye]

I thought that I may have a 'dry' solder joint in my jack somehow. I gently reheated each soldered point until it became shiney again. This seems to have helped a little, but not fully. I did dig out another lead (forth tried!) and it has a 'Ream' branded jack on it that was slightly (like 2mm) shorter than the other jacks I tried. The problem still exists, but it is a LOT less noticeable with the slightly shorter jack.

This all leads (no pun intended) to think that maybe I should make up a lead with Switchcraft jack on it.

Still, I think this is a bit ****! Every other guitar I have work fine with my leads (and they aren't cheap, rubbish leads either)...TBQH I am getting a bit sick of having to 'baby' my Rics: I just want them to function AND sound good...is that too much to ask?!

[doctorwho]

Ben, it's just like with cars ... some of them require a little more maintenance and TLC than others ... (I do feel your pain!)

[ledbye]

Thinking about it though, if it were a problem regarding leads, surely all Ric players would be in the same boat, which makes me think, maybe I have a duff input jack...anyone know where you can buy them?

[ledbye]

Glad I thought about this some more: took everything apart yet again, but used some electrical contact cleaner and a piece of fine grade sandpaper and cleaned the thing up. Put it back together and there are NO MORE CRACKLES! Woo!

[beatlefreak]

Hopefully you took a moment to bend the jack's contact for the tip of the plug slightly inward so that it makes more solid contact with the plug.

[ledbye]

Sure did

[doctorwho]

Glad I thought about this some more: took everything apart yet again, but used some electrical contact cleaner and a piece of fine grade sandpaper and cleaned the thing up. Put it back together and there are NO MORE CRACKLES! Woo!

That's great news! Glad we were able to help.

[ledbye]

OK, back onto string break topic....it's happening again and there are definitely no burrs on the saddles. I am getting pretty desperate here! I can't trust it at a gig and it is costing me a fortune in strings!

D'you think I should buy a new bridge and have it fitted? Does anyone know if you can buy replacement saddles as opposed to the whole thing?