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I was lucky enough to come by a 1976 Ibanez solid body lawsuit-era Les Paul. For its age, it plays and sounds great.

I do have one concern. I bought a mid-range guitar cord to go from the guitar to the amp. This cord is 90 degree angled at the jack port. On past guitar/cord setups, I was able to pull the cord around my strap and remove the slack.

With this setup, if I don't allow slack between the jack port and the strap, there is ground hum.

Is this because I bought an inferior guitar cord, or does it sound like the jack port is need of some TLC?

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    Are you certain you're correctly identifying 'feedback'? This doesn't feel like a plausible cause/effect.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Jan 14, 2021 at 12:10
  • Do you have a recording of the noise? 'feedback' is unlikely. Perhaps ground hum?
    – Нет войне
    Commented Jan 14, 2021 at 12:10
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    I think it's more likely to be the jack, but if you knew someone who could lend you another cord for 10 seconds, you could at least eliminate the possibility of it being the cord. The cord would have to be broken inside to cause something like this - just being a bit cheap or low quality isn't an issue (until that cheapness causes it to break..!)
    – Нет войне
    Commented Jan 14, 2021 at 14:01
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    What happens when you put the lead the other way round? As in swap over jacks.
    – Tim
    Commented Jan 14, 2021 at 15:59
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    If you do buy a quality lead, try one with a Neutrik switching jack. I use them in the studio - there's no speaker-wrecking noise when they're being plugged in or out.
    – Tim
    Commented Jan 14, 2021 at 16:38

1 Answer 1

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Most guitar jack sockets are made of 30 cents' worth of bent tin.

If you want to try diagnose/fix it then your simplest running order is

  1. Spray it with contact cleaner.

  2. Loosen the socket a bit & see if you can rotate it 90 - 180° so your cable pulls at a different angle. (If you think this might be too faffy, combine it with 3.)

  3. Take the socket out & bend the crappy bit of tin over a couple of mm to tighten up the fitting. (The longevity of this fix is likely dependant on how many times it's been done before. It will get weaker & less springy every time, until eventually it will break off.)

  4. Replace the socket.

None of these is difficult or expensive, so they're in order of invasiveness/effort.

From Guitar setup: how to fix a broken jack socket

enter image description here

That's the level of cheap crappiness we're discussing.

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  • Thanks. I will try a new cord first, then escalate to a new socket and plate. I wanted to replace the plate anyway because it's very plain.
    – Jason P Sallinger
    Commented Jan 14, 2021 at 14:48
  • I have cheap crappy sockets like that which are still in use 50 yrs on. How crappy is that?
    – Tim
    Commented Jan 14, 2021 at 16:01
  • Yeah, me too - but I don't treat 'em rough. I've seen people with reasonably new guitars & an almost permanent, certainly infuriating, push it this way then tape it up attitude to their crappy socket.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Jan 14, 2021 at 16:34
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    Well, it’s not as if the contact point between the instrument and the external electronics is that important... :0
    – John Belzaguy
    Commented Jan 14, 2021 at 17:41
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    Good article. Just read it. I feel well informed and armed.
    – Jason P Sallinger
    Commented Jan 14, 2021 at 18:31

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