Don’t know jack

What is up with the jacks on these semi-hollowbody Epiphone guitars.  When I was shopping for guitars in the stores, I often saw Epiphone Dots and Sheratons with the jack missing inside the guitar.   How can that be good for sales?!  And when reading in the Epi forums, I saw folks complaining of this happening to them.  Does this happen on the more expensive Elite Epi’s, or other semi-hollow body guitars?

Update: I added a 1/4″ inner-tooth lock washer between the nut and round washer, and it has stayed tight ever since.

I never thought it would happen to me.  I made a point of periodically hand-tightening the jack when plugging in a cable, just to be sure.

Epiphone Jack FailThe first time it happened was a hair pulling experience, trying all kinds of implements, knitting hooks, paperclips, and finally a coat hanger, before getting it back in.  Took more than 30 minutes, and countless expletives.

So, of course, I promised myself I’d be extra careful, but then it happened again!  I tried some glue, but it apparently didn’t stick, and it happened again!   So now I’m pretty good at getting it back in there.  My time is down to about 5 minutes, requiring about 5 attempts before nailing it.

Today, I actually did it on purpose, so I could make a video to demonstrate how to get it back in there.  Hopefully this might save someone an expensive trip to the repair shop.

My plan is to replace the jack with a Switchcraft L12A 1/4” jack.  The “L” in the part name stands for long bushing (3/8”) which will hopefully be a bit longer than the Epi jack.  I’ll also put in a lock washer.

I’ll post the results, and a how-to here later.