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Hey everyone, I don't know if this is the right section but...

My bass amp (hartke B60) has 2 shot input jacks, both the passive and active. They still work but any slight movement in the line causes severe crackling or kills the sound completely. Does anyone know where to get new input jacks or where I could get this fixed? Or if I have to bring it somewhere any idea how much it would cost?

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EricIndecisive Mon, 12/24/2007 - 08:38

I have checked that before when I had opened the amp up. The actual connection is fine, but the jacks are SUPER cheap pieces of crap. They are plastic input jacks with metal on the inside of it, one of them is even cracked.

Here is the dilemma: I actually have a soldering iron and tried to melt the solder on the PC board. What i wanted to do is take the jacks out altogether, but the solder would not melt. Is there a place to get replacement jacks?

Cucco Mon, 12/24/2007 - 11:14

If you don't mind doing a little wire run and soldering, this is a safe bet:

Neutrik stuff always does well by me.

If the solder didn't melt in the hole, I have to ask a few questions.

1 - Is your soldering iron hot enough?
2 - Did you tin the tip? (This will greatly help transferring heat from your soldering iron to the area needing heating. Keep a sponge close by though for de-soldering work).
3 - What are you using to remove the old solder? A specialized vacuum pump or just a bulb sucker? Or gravity?? (Hopefully not that last one - especially over nice carpet or hardwood floors! Trust me...)

EricIndecisive Mon, 12/24/2007 - 13:57

Hmm, seems that i was wrong. It doesn't look EXACTLY like it. I took apart my amp and there are 4 pins that go into the board, not 3. Now forgive my inexperience on electronics.

Cucco - it must have not been hot enough to melt the solder. I will have to bring it to a friend who has better stuff than I do, and he will probably have something to remove the solder too. (I was gonna rely on good old gravity, lol) Are all these jacks posted generally the same thing? It looks the most like what bent posted in his first post, but i dont wanna be ordering the wrong one!

bent Mon, 12/24/2007 - 19:29

OK, here's the schematic from the HA3500, it should be the same or similar in construction to the B60.
Both jacks are normally closed to chassis ground.
So, the cheap Radioshaft jack I posted wouldn't be a viable replacement.
I would think that there are two solder points for signal - one for tip, one for ground, and like Jeremy said, the other two would be for stability (though there might be a third for the closed switch, I can't tell without looking in the box).

I'm sure that someone here can speak with more authority on these connectors - probably even give you the exact part number to look for.
If not, I'll open up a Hartke on Wednesday and let you know what's in there.