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Topic: Lap steel with mini-jack repair |
William Benfield
From:
Tokyo, Japan
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Posted 23 Jul 2021 12:48 am |
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A friend of mine was having a big clear out and gifted me an old Hofner lap steel. It has a tiny jack of a type I've never seen before, which creates some pretty awful humming and crackling. I tried to get it repaired but the guy in the store said it was unfixable, maybe just to get rid of me. Has anyone had experience with repairing this kind of jack? I'd be quite happy to replace the PU and get a regular size jack fitted providing it's feasible and not wildly expensive. Otherwise this guitar will just be a wall-hanger. Any advice would be much appreciated.
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Jon Light (deceased)
From:
Saugerties, NY
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Posted 23 Jul 2021 3:58 am
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The pickup should not need replacement. Unless, after the jack work is done, it turns out to not be very good.
The jack work should be relatively simple for a competent (electric) guitar tech. They ought to be able to eliminate the hum & the crackle in the existing hardware and with more invasive work, they ought to be able to upgrade this to a standard 1/4" jack although you will need to determine how much money you want to spend on this inexpensive (free) instrument. |
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Bill Groner
From:
QUAKERTOWN, PA
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Posted 23 Jul 2021 4:08 am
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That is a cool looking lap steel. Any idea what year it was made?
_________________
Currently own, 6 Groner-tone lap steels, one 1953 Alamo Lap steel, Roland Cube, Fender Champion 40 |
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Eric Dahlhoff
From:
Point Arena, California
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Posted 23 Jul 2021 7:00 am
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It sure looks like it would be a very minor job to replace the jack with a standard 1/4".
The existing one looks like a power plug. You might even be able to just use contact cleaner on it.
_________________
"To live outside the law you must be honest." (Bob Dylan) |
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William Benfield
From:
Tokyo, Japan
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Posted 23 Jul 2021 7:54 am
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| Thanks, everyone, for your kind responses, from which it seems like there's a chance I can turn this back into a playable instrument, which is all the info I needed. All I now need to do is find a competent tech willing to do the work. As for the year of this instrument, I'm guessing the 1960s, though a guess is all it is. I got it from a composer/producer friend, who amassed a bunch of instruments in the hope they would somehow come in handy one day, though I suppose he never quite got around to using this one. |
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Jack Hanson
From:
San Luis Valley, USA
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Posted 23 Jul 2021 8:53 am
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If you have a soldering iron and solder, the correct screw driver, a 1/2" open-end wrench or nut driver, and a Switchcraft #11:
it's a job that should not take longer than a few minutes. |
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Bill Groner
From:
QUAKERTOWN, PA
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Posted 23 Jul 2021 10:14 am
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| Jack Hanson wrote: |
If you have a soldering iron and solder, the correct screw driver, a 1/2" open-end wrench or nut driver, and a Switchcraft #11:
it's a job that should not take longer than a few minutes. |
And less than $10!!!
_________________
Currently own, 6 Groner-tone lap steels, one 1953 Alamo Lap steel, Roland Cube, Fender Champion 40 |
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Jon Light (deceased)
From:
Saugerties, NY
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Posted 23 Jul 2021 10:20 am
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| Quote: |
| Topic: Lap steel with mini-jack repair |
Mini-jack might be mounted in mini-hole. Hole in plate may need to be bored out or reamed. |
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William Benfield
From:
Tokyo, Japan
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Posted 23 Jul 2021 5:48 pm
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| Thanks for the tips on jack installation. Jon Light is probably correct in thinking that doing this would require a new hole to be bored in the metal plate, which I think is going to be my best option. BTW, this is my first interaction on the site, and I'm very happy to get such quick and supportive responses. Thanks again. |
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Bill Groner
From:
QUAKERTOWN, PA
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Posted 24 Jul 2021 2:20 am
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| Jon Light wrote: |
| Quote: |
| Topic: Lap steel with mini-jack repair |
Mini-jack might be mounted in mini-hole. Hole in plate may need to be bored out or reamed. |
By the looks of the plate it is either chrome plated steel or polished stainless steel and both are on the hard side to drill. A regular drill bit will most likely catch and could tear and or bend the metal. They are not designed to drill thin material. Opening up a hole in thin metal can be a little tricky. Depending on how much material has to be removed to make it fit a new jack a reamer may not work. Reamers usually can handle .015 to .031. A good choice on thin material would be a unibit. They are used to drill thin sheet metal. They are also stepped so you and gradually increase the diameter of the hole till it fits your jack. If you can find a step reamer that would do the same thing. Neither are cheap and will add to the price of your project. When using either one, keep the RPM's on the slow side or they are burn the cutting edge and the cutter will be toast. Here is a picture of what unibits look like and this is from Harbor Freight @ $8.99. That won't break your buget, but keep in mind a lot of times you get what you pay for. If you are going to use it occasionally this would most likely be your best bet, and it looks like if you dull one you could use the other two to get the job done.
_________________
Currently own, 6 Groner-tone lap steels, one 1953 Alamo Lap steel, Roland Cube, Fender Champion 40 |
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Edward Dixon
From:
Crestview Florida
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Posted 24 Jul 2021 2:45 am
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Having no idea of what is actually causing the noise problem I would 1st check the cable and if that's where the problem is, cut the plug end off and splice it on to a new cable. I assume the other end is a standard 1/4" plug and the cable is only 2 wires.
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"Faith don't need no second opinion." |
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Jeff Highland
From:
New South Wales, Australia
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Posted 25 Jul 2021 2:02 pm
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That appears to be a very thin body, a standard switchcraft may not fit. Alternatives to consider would be an acoustic endpin type or even just hard wiring a cord in place like a lot of old supro's had.
Any competent tech should be able to do it.
_________________
Duesenberg Fairytale
1949 Supro Supreme
1950 National New Yorker
2008 Highland Baritone Weissenborn
2020 Highland New Yorker.
2020 Highland Mohan Veena
2021 Highland Weissencone |
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Jim Pitman
From:
Waterbury Ctr. VT 05677 USA
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Posted 8 Aug 2021 4:25 am
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| Anything is fixable - I'd leave it as is. |
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Allan Revich
From:
Victoria, BC
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Posted 8 Aug 2021 7:15 am
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You don’t have to touch the metal plate to install a 1/4” jack. Go on in from the side. You just need a couple of drill bits and you’re good to go. Use a Telecaster type cover plate if you want to get fancy.
_________________
Current Tunings:
6 String | G – G B D G B D
7 String | G6 – e G B D G B D (re-entrant)
https://papadafoe.com/lap-steel-tuning-database |
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William Benfield
From:
Tokyo, Japan
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Posted 10 Aug 2021 12:19 am
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| Thanks again to everyone for all the suggestions. Much food for thought there. |
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