Report Review for product Jack Plate - Plug and Play, Mono / Stereo

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I had installed one of these a couple of years ago to use a 4x12 Marshall cabinet with an Axe-Fx II and a Duncan PowerStage 700, so I wanted the cabinet to be wired in stereo. The 2 stereo 8 ohm inputs have worked great so far. This past week, I was testing out some new pedals with an old Marshall head into the 16 ohm input. At first I thought something was wrong with the head, but after troubleshooting cables and everything else, I realized the 16 ohm input was dead. I'm pretty good with electronics, so I looked at the schematic and the Plug and Play uses stereo jacks with the equivalent of DPST switches in them to reroute the signal depending on which jacks are being used. I used an ohmmeter to confirm my suspicions about the 16 ohm jack being dead. I pulled the plate off the cabinet and manipulated the metal "switch" prongs inside the jacks with a very small screwdriver. Note: the problem was actually with one of the other jacks where the switching occurs, not the 16 ohm jack. I sprayed some DeOxit into the back of the jacks, so between moving the prong with a small screwdriver and spraying it out, I got it to work again. Hopefully this helps someone Googling this. You can always try repeatedly plugging and unplugging the jacks several times to get it to reset (didn't work for me). I think by leaving my rig setup with the 2 - 8 ohm inputs always plugged in has fatigued the metal switch prong inside the plugs, so maybe leaving these jacks plugged in while not in use is not a good idea? The big take away: should we really trust our precious amp heads to some tiny metal prong switch inside a jack that can easily fail?

Tom Gorycki - August 6th, 2022