Just to finish out;
The guys checked out the Darling electronics and found nothing out of order... so that left us with the unlikely situation of a failed jack, more likely a poor crimp in the modular connector from the jack. Mica sent a new one back with the set just in case, and I finally had some time yesterday to get into it. My shop is such a mess that this one was fixed using a combination of the kitchen table and the couch, and a buncha' trips to the shop and my tractor shed twice looking for stuff. Why? Well...
I had to do some testing before putting all this mess of wiring back in. These jacks must be the first thing they install because it would be impossible to replace one without removing the electronics first. I had the advantage of having mine still mounted on my little wood board... the pickups are still in the guitar, so all I had to do was connect a battery to the clip, and connect the jack to power. I tried the tested electronics first with the old jack still in the guitar. It worked sporadically if at all, just as before. I disconnected it and connected the new jack just laying loose... with a [snap] of a guitar cable, the problem was solved. I tried everything to make it fail. I switched back to the old one; same fault. Switched back to the new one, fixed again. So now that I'm confident this is the issue... how do I get the suck-egg thing out of there?
These sidejacks are not just any sidejacks. Like everything else Alembic does, they are overbuilt to the extreme. Like, for a million insertions, Mica said. They are mounted with a rather stout wood screw from the inside of the control cavity, up under the outer edge. You really need a small right-angle screwdriver to get at it properly. I have one. I actually have a set of three, somewhere. I can't remember offhand what I used it for last, but it wasn't this... I'm guessing something work-related. I looked in every drawer in the shop that made sense, then trudged out to the shed and went through a couple toolboxes in there. Once the thought occurred to me it was entirely possible that I'd taken that set to work with me and left them, I gave up the search and improvised this substitute, made from a tiny 1/4" ratchet wrench, an extension, and a hex-drive Phillips bit. That was all it took to start it loosening. The old jack slipped out easily. I put the new one in its place, one dab of glue in the screw hole, and snugged it back down using the same tool. After that, it was the delicate nerve-wracking matter of reinstalling electronics, followed by the collet knobs. Here's the hack for spacing those too, if you need one; cut a slot in a business card and slip it around the mounting nut. Slip the knob in place and snug it. I like to orient all 4 of mine alike.
Soooo... that's the long way around changing out a sidejack, if you ever have to. You probably won't. Check the plug... that's probably what it is anyway.
Thanks Again to Mica and the Alembic Shop for the help and advice. 😊
