From:
Flasherly@live.com
On Wed, 16 Dec 2020 15:58:34 -0800 (PST), Lord Valve
<
ghost.crapper@gmail.com> wrote:
Y'know - I'm not really sure why I bother with horse-shit like this,
but...
1) 440-series mil-spec plugs (from any source, not just Switchcraft) are NOT >designed to mate with the 11-series (or shitty Chinese equivalent) jacks >commonly used in guitars. Those are telecom plugs, designed for PBX >(telephone switchboard) units. They have a ball tip which doesn't mate properly
with a guitar jack, which is designed for the 280 (and similar) series plugs which
use diamond-shaped tips. If you eyeball the tip connection on a telecom plug >which is plugged into a jack made for audio, you will see that the contact >area is minimal, with plenty of slop due to the mechanical mismatch. Telecom >plugs are designed to mate with telecom JACKS, which are of open-framed >construction, allowing the addition of the multiple switching circuits which are
often required in switchboards. Like this one, for instance:
https://www.switchcraft.com/productsummary.aspx?Parent=81
I'd already found, downloaded the original Switchcraft blueprints. The Switchcraft can be considered as much an unintentional mismatch, close
but not precise. I'm not seeing, rather feeling, slop. Nope, none of
that. There's nonetheless pressure from the jack tip-mating to the
plug-pole's tip;- all else being pole barrel size which should also
be negligible if not expectedly a coincident viable electrical if not
wholly intolerable match. Leaving the point of the plug at odds from
a instrumental jack design superceding the circular tip of my 440
series.
2) Telecom plugs of this nature are made from unplated brass. Brass corrodes. >Again, not good for high-impedance audio use.
Yes, brass does corrode, like brass Roman coins dug out by farmers in
the Levant, still hammered it out in shops at the Covered Bazaar in
Istanbul. Some people like rubbing brass for a pot of genie -- me, I
like to clean mine with 000 steel wool: Just like brassware, mine turn
dark and nasty looking but will polish up nicely with minimum effort.
How much surface milling mismatch between the newer elliptical
designs, how much (faster) oxidation crud to brass, yes, there's that
too. But step back after a cleaning, however, and whoa to behold, all
gone -- nothing but a nice signal path regardless.
Dirty brass still isn't nickel-plating and happens a lot faster.
Basically it's a trade-off for thinking out loud when built for
communication inside a tank's headphone-routed wiring: built
Switchcraft tough for opening bottles of beer or a can of spam. Just
keep it reasonably clean.
3) Since those plugs are designed for use with telephone circuits, they don't need
to be shielded because the impedance is so low. (If you have a landline, pull >one of the jacks off the wall and check the incoming wires. See any shielding? >100+ years later, telephone lines still don't require shielding.) This is why >the handles on telecom plugs are made from fucking PLASTIC, which is an >insulator, but not a shield. NOT GOOD FOR FUCKING AUDIO, *ESPECIALLY* HIGH- >IMPEDANCE AUDIO, LIKE A GUITAR AMPLIFIER.
That's the point of these particular models. I didn't want the
Phenolic insulators, which is the material name Switchcraft is using
for plastic. My first encounter with a Switchcraft was a soldered
shield mating. Love at first sight for the plug but the shield
soldering needed improvement (Series 483 Switch?) from my perspective.
The 440 M642/4-1 MIL-SPEC I use I happened across, going either
(should be OEM) Red/Black "ThermoPlastic" from the design spec
sheet(s). Somehow, though, I've ended up with solid brass handles.
Either I already had old ones around, most happily to have swapped out
and dumped the most un-guitaristic plastic, or, as I'm inclined what
happened, is Joe Bloe's Ebay deal (listed for guitar plugs) tossed me
a couple extra brass handles to make him sound more guitaristic.
My Switchcraft schematics are less than helpful, as I can't match mine
to what they're listing for "Nickel-plated copper-alloy" handles. Mr.
Bloe possibly may have pulled these wonderful brass handles out his
rabbit hat, thus making my world perfect for what I really did
appreciate upon opening the barrels: Itsy-bitsy, delicate clockwork
screw "sleeve and tip terminal" connections. Well worth it, sitting
down under a magnifier loop and getting it right: been ten years
since I did mine. I'd need a refresh look inside, even if it does
behave like an Immortal, but I'd hazard there's not a spec of solder
inside neither plug.
I am continually amazed by the torrents of ignorance I find displayed on NGs >like this one, most of it presented from a supposedly "expert" perspective. Anyone
who is looking to learn ANYTHING about audio electronics would do a lot better >elsewhere, because the people who hang here can't tell shit from apple butter.
Lord Valve, Expert
(fuck you)
That good? Didn't amaze me near as much. I already knew I wanted
something better than usual cables, it had to be me, that is in
knowing as much that I could pull it off. And I did. So there.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)