Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hello, although I've been reading the forum for a while this is my first post - please be gentle with me:-).

A couple of months ago I purchased the 360 (new)from a dealer in the UK, about 200 miles from home. A thing of beauty IMO. A couple of weeks ago I noticed some crackles in the sound and also the bridge pickup was cutting out intermittantly. Fault is easily reproduced by moving the jack around the socket gently. I've tried different leads etc to no avail... so it's a (hopefully minor but un-livable) fault with the guitar. Possibly the jack socket, or could it be the pickup itself?

Any suggestions as to where to proceed? I'm not a guitar tech by any means and I wouldn't want to undertake anything myself that could harm the instrument. However, as I have already mentioned, the supplying dealer (and also Rosetti, the UK importers) are far far away from me. Also I kept the cardboard shipping box for a few weeks, the threw it out just before I noticed the problem, so shipping is not going to be easy.

Thanks in advance, Graham

With litle doubt, it's bent contacts in the output sockets, which are usually caused by Asian guitar cords with abnormally shaped plug tips.

It's a simple fix. Undo the four jack plate screws, pull the assembly out of the guitar enough that you can see the contacts, and then readjust the contact leaves with a pair of needle nose pliers. You can insert/remove the cord as you do this to verify the action.

The stereo signal goes first to the stereo jack and then over to the mono jack. The mono output depends upon the switching contacts mixing the stereo signals as you insert the cord otherwise the treble pickup is gone or intermittant as you describe.

Thanks for the speedy response.

Sounds as if it should be within even my capability to attend to this, I'll have a go this evening or over the week-end. I've checked my lead (or at least the one currently in use) and it's actually made in the US by Horizon, although I've no idea if this good or not I do not usually buy cheap leads - in my experience they break down very quickly.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks again, Mr Hall.