Input Jack Troubles

[MarkF]

Hello all:

I'm nearly finished with my first strat and have one snag left.  After installing my input jack, it's really hard to plug my guitar cable in.  I have to push really hard, and then I finally get a "pop."

My guess is that the input jack is too close to the side wall of the guitar and is being pushed against the wood when I plug in my cable.  My guess would be that I could go in and take out some more of the wood on the inside of my guitar with a dremel and that would give the jack room to move when I plug in the cable.  Has anyone ever had this problem before?  I thought I'd ask for suggestions or tips before I screw something up.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Mark

 

[bpmorton777]

maybe you could unscrew the jack and twist it a little so the inserted cable is not touching the sides and see if this solves your problem before carving out the inside of the jack hole.

Brian

 

[jackthehack]

If this is a Strat with a top angled jackplate you need to loosen the nut and rotate the jack around, then retighten the nut and screw the plate back down.

 

[MarkF]

Thanks for the comments.  I've tried moving it around at different angles, but always end up with the same problem.  I guess I messed up by drilling the screw holes before I had the jack connected and now it doesn't have enough room.

I thought about rubbing a marker on the input jack, installing it and connecting the guitar cable, and then removing it to see exactly what part is rubbing against the body.  That way I could limit the area that needed to be sanded down to make the jack work better.

Any other thoughts or similar experiences?

 

[jackthehack]

Ohhhhh.... I'm still assuming this is an angled top jack for a Strat body; if you drilled the pilot holes for the jack plate pushed back towards the center of the body and that's causing the problem, you may have enough overhang from the plate to make new holes and still cover up the old ones, moving the plate slightly closer to the edge of the body. You should be able to check this by firmly holding the jackplate in place while inserting the plug.