Replacing the Jacks on Effects Pedals

I have been writing a series of short stories about jacks,
A Story about Something I Learned About Jacks Vol. 1
A Story about Something I Learned About Jacks Vol. 2
A Story about Something I Learned About Jacks Vol. 3
This time, I had a chance to exchange jacks in private, so here is my diary.

*Caution! The work described in this article is a modification. If you perform such work as described in this article, you may not be able to obtain a warranty or a repair from the manufacturer. Also, if you read this article and perform modifications yourself, please do so at your own risk.

Here is the finished product!
BAM!

This is the now vintage BOSS DC2 Dimension C.

Many of you may know that it was reissued or rather remade as DC-2w in the art WAZA CRAFT series a while ago.

BOSS / DC-2W Dimension C

No knobs, only switches! No need to worry about the details! I personally love simple effect pedals like this because I get lost when trying to figure out how to set up effect pedals with too many knobs.
This time, I found a defective output jack A. This model was sold from the mid to late 80's, so it is at least 30 years old. So, I decided to replace all the jacks.

The inside of the jack looks like this.

You have two jacks on the outside because you can stereo out.
BOSS effects pedals still use these box-type jacks in their current models and the jacks sold at parts stores can differ from those of the same manufacturer (or so it seems) in the way the legs come out and stuff like that, so you cannot get exactly the same jacks.

As a side note, when BOSS modified effects pedals first appeared on the market 10 years ago, it became popular to replace the jacks with Switchcraft jacks.

SWITCHCRAFT / 12B

At that time, there were many modifications for open-type jacks, but I personally do not like to install open-type jacks on BOSS pedals because of the high risk of the terminals being inadvertently connected to the case or board.

So I went to Akihabara to buy some parts.

• 1 Switchcraft box-type stereo jack, 2 mono
• 1 stereo jack and 2 mono jacks from (presumably) the same manufacturer as the original jacks

The cost of the parts alone is more than three times the price of the original jacks. The Switchcraft jacks are much more solid, as they have been used by BOSS for many years. To be honest, the hold feeling is not much different.
The original mounting holes for the Switchcraft jacks may be small, so I would like to try them on lightly and decide which one to use.

I'll get right to work.
First of all, I will replace the two output jacks.

When I try to remove them, I see...

The terminal for the sleeve is hooked to the mode switch part and cannot be removed!
I thought about removing the mode switch, but this type of BOSS effects pedal has a plate attached to the knob part, and if I tried to forcibly remove it, the plate would become warped, so I couldn’t unscrew the switch.

Since I was going to replace it anyway and not reuse it, I removed it by turning the jack with a whimper and with the intention of destroying the jack.

Then I found...

This stereo jack!!!!

I didn't buy two of these...

Well, every household has one or two stereo jacks, or so I thought, and searched the parts box and found a Switchcraft stereo jack I had hoarded. That was a close call!

So naturally, I decided to use the Switchcraft. I also confirmed that it would fit in the chassis without modifying the holes in the chassis. (I think the more recent ones require a wider hole to fit.)

First of all, I had to remove the wiring from the jack. However, this one is very good in terms of making sure to hit the contact points. Great job, BOSS!
Some people prefer to solder the jacks instead of wrapping the wires around the terminal holes for later replacement, so it depends on the manufacturer's way of thinking.

Also, if you look closely at the image above, you can see that the sleeve terminals are not wired.
This is because the ground is dropped to the chassis, so there is no need to wire it, and also because wiring it may cause a ground loop, a phenomenon that increases noise.
However, this method can result in the loss of sound or noise if the nut on the output jack is loosened. To prevent this, an internal tooth washer is installed in the jack.

Some effects pedals also have ground wiring in the sleeve. This is done on purpose to prevent sound from coming out even if the nut is loose, but it is also a matter of the manufacturer's thinking.

In this case, I followed the BOSS tradition and wired without a ground wire and wrapped the wires around the terminals.

There is nothing special to see here as I just connect the removed wires to each other!

Ta-da!

It’s now complete!

For some reason, the input jack did not have an internal tooth washer, so I put one in.
If you want to be more careful, take a note of what color wire was connected to where, or take a picture of it.

In addition, as you can see, the rubber on the battery box part of the BOSS also deteriorated, so I changed it.

This rubber is actually available for sale.

BOSS / 17041652

If you are a guitarist, you should buy a set.

If you read this article and you are interested in replacing jacks, I recommend trying to do it with cheaper ones.

So, this is my shared jack diary.