Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Don: I have a problem with my Fender Telecaster and need your help. The input jack had been acting weird and cutting out every now and again, and just last night I unscrewed it and saw that one wire contact had come loose. By playing with it, it was making contact, but whenever the cord was bumpted it cut out. Ahh, the problem.

Should have been an easy fix to solder it back on, but the wire looked shot anyway. It has two wires total, with a central one and then one on the OUTSIDE of it surrounding it like a donut. I thought that this was odd. My question is this: can I use regular dual wire, like speaker wire, to connect the input jack to the volume pot or do I need to use this special wire? Also, is that wire designed to prevent feedback or something?
Thanks for any help you guys can provide.

Ben - what you describe is a coaxial cable (commonly used for high-frequency signals like video, since the outer wire acts as a shield from RF interference). You can use any wire to connect the jack to the volume pot, but unless the guitar's body cavity is shielded, I'd recommend using coax for the aforementioned reason of superior RF rejection. If you use coaxial, be sure to use the inner conductor as the "signal" wire, and the outer shield conductor as the "ground" wire. I hope this helps ...

Benjamin & Doug....it really is shielded wire, not coax. However, coax would be better for this use. Ben, go to any electronic store and ask for RG-174. This is a small diameter coax about 1/8" in diameter. Wire it in the same way as whatever you take out.

Thank you for your help. I will do just that.

What they said. Actually you can buy either the same stuff like Fender uses(push-back cloth wire) or the shielded stuff like Gibson uses. both arer available from Allparts or Stew-Mac. but.. if you have a good electronics supply store near you then get some "one conductor w/shield" type wire. You'll only need a few inches but I'm sure they sell it either by the foot or in a small spool. There are many good brands of wire these days. Hell, you can even use the George L's stuff like alot of people use for cables.