Re-wiring an Ibanez Jack

[Philosoful]

Hello all. I wish to put a locking jack on my Ibanez, however, the locking Jack I have aquired has 3 cables and my guitar 'appears' to only have 3 for the jack? Can anyone aid me in how I'm supposed to do this/which cable goes where? Many thanks.

[gingataff]

It looks like a Neutrik TRS so it can be used for stereo or balanced connections.
You can still use it though, just connect the ground to the left side tag on the back of the socket (this is the bare wire in your photo) and the hot to the bottom tag (the red wire in your photo) you don't need to connect anything to the 'ring' (the black wire).

[WezV]

those sockets have markings to show where stuff goes - you only need to use two of the lugs for this

they should be marked:
'TI' - is the tip, solder your hot connection here (red wire if thats coming from the volume pot/switch lugs)
'RI' - is the ring, this is used for switching on electronics or stereo signals - leave it empty
'GR' - is the ground, should be a bit fatter - wire your ground here (black & bare, should be coming from the back of a pot and generally you only need one - but solder both and see if you have noise/grounding issues first)

[Philosoful]

those sockets have markings to show where stuff goes - you only need to use two of the lugs for this

they should be marked:
'TI' - is the tip, solder your hot connection here (red wire if thats coming from the volume pot/switch lugs)
'RI' - is the ring, this is used for switching on electronics or stereo signals - leave it empty
'GR' - is the ground, should be a bit fatter - wire your ground here (black & bare, should be coming from the back of a pot and generally you only need one - but solder both and see if you have noise/grounding issues first)

The Locking jack is labelled 1 - bare wire, 2 - red wire, 3 - black wire. 3 = Ground then? It is only 1 wire so I'm not sure if your 'solder both' comment is relevant?

Gingataff - So I understand I need to solder the bare wire and red wire but I'm not sure what to? The 2 wires left in my Ibanez are a white one and a bare one? Is it bare jack - bare Ibanez and red jack wire to white Ibanez wire?

Thank you both so much, sorry for my massive naivety on electronics.

[WezV]

strange,   most of the jacks like this i have used had the markings molded into the body ??

anyway - one of teh lugs is fatter than the rest - this is where the gound goes.  the ring (the one we dont use for normal mono opperation - but has a black wire in you photo) is opposite it so the hot connection goes to the lug next to the gound - the one opposite the red locking button with a red wire in your photo

on the ibanez the bare wire will go to that fat ground lug, like it does in you picture.  and the white wire will go to the one with a red wire attached in your photo.  there will be no wire where you currently have the black one

i would remove those 3 wires from the jack first - they seem to be confusing the issue.  then wire as above

[Philosoful]

strange,   most of the jacks like this i have used had the markings molded into the body ??

anyway - one of teh lugs is fatter than the rest - this is where the gound goes.  the ring (the one we dont use for normal mono opperation - but has a black wire in you photo) is opposite it so the hot connection goes to the lug next to the gound - the one opposite the red locking button with a red wire in your photo

on the ibanez the bare wire will go to that fat ground lug, like it does in you picture.  and the white wire will go to the one with a red wire attached in your photo.  there will be no wire where you currently have the black one

i would remove those 3 wires from the jack first - they seem to be confusing the issue.  then wire as above

Perhaps it's because this one I took off of a patchbay, hmmmmm.

Yep, I see the fatter one/understand now, thank you so much for your help. Now all I need to do is solder it as said and sand the edge of my Ibanez so it's flat for the jack without removing too much of the finish around the edge that'll be visible after...

[Oli]

If it's come from a patchbay, then it would likely have been used in balanced operation, which is Sleeve Ground, Tip Hot, and Ring Cold (unless it's the US, where Hot and Cold might be swapped). For unbalanced operation (as is with guitars), you ditch the Cold connection, and this can be connected to ground if you want.

You'll probably need to drill out the hole for the socket as the locking ones are bigger, but i'm sure you've seen that already :)

[Philosoful]

If it's come from a patchbay, then it would likely have been used in balanced operation, which is Sleeve Ground, Tip Hot, and Ring Cold (unless it's the US, where Hot and Cold might be swapped). For unbalanced operation (as is with guitars), you ditch the Cold connection, and this can be connected to ground if you want.

You'll probably need to drill out the hole for the socket as the locking ones are bigger, but i'm sure you've seen that already :)

*Has just increased the size of the jack hole via drill though 'tis still inadequate!*

Does connecting it to the ground actually do much then? You all appear to be saying it in a way as though it doesn't really matter?

Thanks again, you guys rule.

[WezV]

when installing these i usually drill out undersize and finalise with a dremel with small sanding wheel so i can make it a good fit - they are chunky and this saves from drilling accidents where you bust through the top or back

[Oli]

If it's come from a patchbay, then it would likely have been used in balanced operation, which is Sleeve Ground, Tip Hot, and Ring Cold (unless it's the US, where Hot and Cold might be swapped). For unbalanced operation (as is with guitars), you ditch the Cold connection, and this can be connected to ground if you want.

You'll probably need to drill out the hole for the socket as the locking ones are bigger, but i'm sure you've seen that already :)

*Has just increased the size of the jack hole via drill though 'tis still inadequate!*

Does connecting it to the ground actually do much then? You all appear to be saying it in a way as though it doesn't really matter?

Thanks again, you guys rule.

In the guitar world, grounding the ring will not have any effect-- if, however, you were plugging into a device with a balanced input, you'd need to ground the ring for the signal to pass, although it would still be an unbalanced connection, it'd be feeding a balanced input :)

To conclude, you can leave the ring unconnected, if you don't fancy tying it to ground, it'll work both ways :)

[Philosoful]

Butchered it a bit today :lol: The jack is attached but not volume, probably too much lumpy solder, I'm not too great at it, did do it as said though so hope it is just that. Funfunfun!