Send/Return 1/4 inch socket by-pass switches going open circuit

I see it all the time. You have to remember that lots of this stuff spends it life in smoky bars. The "bar ick" gets into the n.c. jack contacts and can cause intermittent connection. As long as the jack is in good mechanical condition, they can be cleaned and put back into service. I just cut card stock into thin strips, coat it with good contact cleaner and drag it through the contacts till all the ick is gone. Then treat with contact preserver. Works great.

For oxidised jacks I'll pull them out and toss 'em in tarn-x followed by contact preserver.

Too abrasive, and *way* too large for the application.

At less than $2 each, there is no excuse not to have the correct tool. Intermittent FX loop normalling contacts are fairly common, especially in guitar amps used in nightclubs, which are at the mercy of ungodly amounts of cigarette smoke, theatrical fog, perfume, dust kicked up by dancers, etc. Additionally, mixing desk channel and subgroup insert jacks also suffer from dirty normalling contacts; carrying a few TRS plugs with the tips wired to the rings is a good idea - but a temporary fix. Eventually, someone will need to clean them, using the method I outlined earlier on this thread.

LV

I see it all the time. You have to remember that lots of this stuff spends it life in smoky bars. The "bar ick" gets into the n.c. jack contacts and can cause intermittent connection. As long as the jack is in good mechanical condition, they can be cleaned and put back into service. I just cut card stock into thin strips, coat it with good contact cleaner and drag it through the contacts till all the ick is gone. Then treat with contact preserver. Works great.

For oxidised jacks I'll pull them out and toss 'em in tarn-x followed by contact preserver.

Don't get me started.

These clods INSIST on spelling the short form of "microphone" as "mic," giving rise to such ungainly and downright goofy looking constructions as "micing," "miced," etc. These same miscreants also pronounce "Alnico" as "al-KNEE-co," which, as anyone who is willing to spend half a minute checking a dictionary can easily ascertain, is completely wrong. Stupid sounding, to boot.

ARRRRGH!

Lord Valve Grammarian/Lexicographer (amateur)

Gawd I hate that. ALuminum, NIckel, CObalt. There are no knee-highs or Grape Nehi involved in the production of alnico.

dollar-bill will work in a pinch, too..

Damn straight, if there's one thing LV is good at it's pulling his own wire.

The one that always gets me is "fish and chip's" !

Graham

Yours has obviously been pulled. Again.

Here's your sign.

LV

Mice'd - what happens when you put you amp in the barn for too long a spell...

Hmmm, how about you explain the pronunciation of the word 'vagina'?

Rhymes with 'Virginia'?

;-0

'Vagina' is a real word, 'alnico' isn't, being an acronym formed from the first syllables of three real words. Although the pronunciation of an acronym doesn't always follow any rule relating to how the letter or combination of letters were pronounced in the original word from which it / they were taken, where that original pronunciation does fit in well, it's usually retained. Hence radar is pronounced ray - dar rather than radd - ar, and alnico is pronounced al - nick - co.

For what it's worth, I actually think that the correct shortened form of "microphone" should be "mic", but that this is a case where an apostrophe, which does after all indicate missing letters from a fully spelled-out word, can be used to good effect such that the words you cite become "mic'd" and "mic'ing". The two words probably don't actually exist in reality, and are just creations that indicate an action to those in the business that understand their implied meaning, so it's hard to apply any 'proper' rules to producing an abreviated form of them.

Arfa ( also a lover of the correct use of the language ... )

Anything in there about not trimming posts? ;)

Webster disagrees: http://209.161.33.50/dictionary/alnico

Mic is there too; http://209.161.33.50/dictionary/mic

-Dave

Hold on... did you just say that you DRILLED HOLES through the circuit board of someones possibly valuable/precious amplifier! after 'abrading' the contacts with a chunk of CABLE TIE! and BRASSO!

Electrolube make contact cleaning strips specially for the very job of cleaning contacts (the clue is in the name) they are pink and they work

- for a while, then the problem comes back.

Look.. don`t piss about, just replace the damn sockets with new ones add a drop of Elecrolube from one of those squeezy pen things right on the spots where the contact is made and Bob's your uncle as we say over here.

Ron(UK)

Vagina has a proper latin root meaning "sheath". Irrespective of what Webster's says, alnico *is* an acronym, which makes it not a 'real' word in the sense that I was intending, as I'm sure you really understood ... ;~)

However, that said, I do accept that a language is a living thing, and that's how new words become part of it. Common usage by uneducated people though, doesn't make them "right", and I wince every time that the Oxford English ( IMO, the only proper dictionary of the English language ) publish a list of half-arsed 'new' words, which are actually slang, that they are going to include in their next edition.

Some years back, my kids were coming home from school telling me how "face-ty" other kids had been that particular day. It took me ages to get to the bottom of this. It turned out that what they were trying to say was the word "feisty". Thickos ( not a real word either ! ) at the school had actually 'invented' a new word, by mis-pronouncing an existing one. My kids have now left school, and know what the word should be, but I'm willing to bet that this 'new' word is still in use at the school, and will spread, until in 30 years' time, the Oxford English are listing it in their latest volume !

Arfa

Wasn't me ... !!

Arfa

Son, if there is one thing a guy who has himself photographed wearing a big, floppy crocheted hat and pointing an unloaded handgun into the camera needs it's an ability to laugh at himself. Loosen up boy, if there is one act you can't carry off it's stern authority figure, you just don't have the chops for it.

Soft side of a matchbook cover. Cleans, doesn't burnish, but works a treat.