Replacing Fender Input and Headphone Jack with Switchcraft possible?

[bbking67]

I have a Fender Frontman 15G which the plastic jacks have basically disintegrated... the plastic has become brittle and the threaded part is broken. I really don't like the PCB mount plastic receptacles so I had the idea of replacing the jacks with the switchcraft style.

As soon as I took apart the amp I realized that it's a little more complex than I imagined!

Input Jack - Can I replace the Fender with a Switchcraft shorting jack? Which pins do what? I might be able to figure this one out.

Headphone jack - well I dont actually have a stereo switchcraft jack. The plastic Fender jack has a lot of connection points... so im wondering if using a switchcraft is possible for starters... and then which switchcraft stereo jack to use (open circuit, shunting, etc.)

I guess worst case scenario I'll order the crappy Fender jacks. Any help would be appreciated!

[Jazz P Bass]

I would simply order the 'crappy' Fender jacks and be done with it.

[Mick Bailey]

Not only do you have the pin connections to consider, but the sockets are isolated from the chassis ground. A regular 'open' style socket will connect the signal ground to chassis ground which can cause hum. The way to test for this is to plug in a guitar and headphones with a metal bodied plug and use a length of wire or a clip lead to short each plug body to a point on the chassis such as a screw head or somewhere else that isn't electrically isolated. If you get hum then any replacement socket will need to be isolated.

If you have space a Switchcraft 12A shorting socket could replace the input. If you need to isolate it then you can get insulating bushes or use a pair of thin fibre washers either side of the panel, open out the hole and centre the threaded socket bush in the panel with a ring of thin insulation stripped from a piece of hookup wire. The connections needed are shown on the amp schematic. Whilst there are metal 1/4" sockets with banks of switched terminals that give the correct switching for the headphones, these are very large, weigh about 1/4lb and cannot be used in a guitar amp.

There's always a way around any electrical or electronic problem, but by far the best way is to take the advice of Jazz P Bass and replace like-for-like.

[J M Fahey]

Same here.
Yours may have been abused, no surprise, but Fender uses proprietary multi pin jacks, lots of tiny switches inside, which may or may not be used but force you to use same type replacements.
And they re not that bad, dfinitely not crappy, they are used by the Millions and 99% work properly.
They do not fail by themselves but by yanking cables, stepping on them, etc.

[Enzo]

I have replaced many of those jacks, but mostly in small amps. The main reason? People step on their guitar cord and it yanks down on the plug. Don't over tighten the nut. But also do not let the nut get loose. Loose nuts on plastic jacks allow them to move and eventually slam the threads.

How old is this amp? 20 years or so? That plastic jack lasted that long. AS a pro tech, I would just install a new exact replacement as Jazz suggests. Probably last another 20 years.

[Jon Snell]

The input jack is a switched mono jack but the headphone jack is a 'stereo' socket. They are not interchangeable!
If you are UK based, I stock them as do most suppliers. Don't be tempted to use fleabay!

[bbking67]

Yeah I'm inclined to buy the originals, but I'm in Canada and the cost of the part + shipping is prohibitive. I was thinking that the switchcraft style would be an upgrade! I think it's time to just retire the amp unless I can find replacements for under $20-$30.

It's a cute practice amp and yeah it lasted pretty long until my then 10 year old trashed it by pulling on the patch cord. The plastic is very brittle now too I noticed... probably normal for a 20-30 year old amp. Otherwise the amp has very good build quality and sounds good. I actually have a Squier 15 that looks similar but doesn't sound as good--however it has metal jacks.

Surprisingly it works fine as is, but with the external part of the barrel the cord can wiggle around. Admittedly I did search eBay and the replacement seems reasonable, except for the $15 US dollar shipping cost per jack!

I think I may be able to get the part from a Canadian or USA supplier with reasonable shipping--I havent seen these available from China with free shipping like i do for other stuff. I know I've been warned against that, but I do it all the time, usually with decent results.

If this were one of my vintage tube amps I'd buy the best, but in this case I just need something that works.

Thanks again for the tremendous amount of input on this! I truly appreciate the feedback!

Rock On!

https://classicrockalbumbyalbum.libsyn.com/website

[bbking67]

I think what I need is either the J506 , J506B or J507 for the input jack and probably the J-545 for the headphone jack. Is there a resource out there that I can check to nail the part down definitely? I'd hate to order the wrong thing.

https://www.amprepairparts.com/fenderjacks.htm

The Frontman 15R service manual lists the 031570 as the part number for the stereo jack (Im not sure how close the models are but probably pretty close!) The 15G schematic seems to be from 1997 which makes sense because my belief is that it's late 90's era.

[Jazz P Bass]

You can find the real Fender item here: Fender amp jacks (darrenriley.com)

[g1]

Yeah I'm inclined to buy the originals, but I'm in Canada and the cost of the part + shipping is prohibitive.

Have you tried to get them from a Fender dealer like L&M or some other local music store? Use the Fender part numbers you have.