PLAN B analog blog

Guys -

We're not buying old jacks.  We go through so many of these friggin'
things in a week it would be impossible.

We order the same ones A. Sys gets, but there is a slight issue here.
 They don't sell to distribution.  Only Cliff USA has them and their
UK office will not deal with us - we HAVE to go through CLiff USA. 
Six months ago they decided to stop stocking these at their US office
- they would only have them for special order situaitons with VERY
long leads times. I had to beg with the owner in Britain to keep a
stock to basically keep us shipping.  He agreed and now they do in
fact keep a small inventory, which we go though all the time.  Just
order 450 of them a week ago, less than a quarter remain.

As far as the problem, this is what I've been told.  They make these
in two factories - UK andf China.  They said the UK ones are fine, but
sometmes the ones made in China have problems with spring retention. 
Of course we refuse Chiese jacks (it's stamped on them).  BUt, we
still do get form time to time bad ones.  I've mailed them samples, 
don't hear back.  

If any of you wish to take this to Cliff - I would surely appreciate
the help here.  Wite them - call them  - tell them the problems you're
having.  If they say the problem's been fixed, tell them that they are
then still shipping product which has the problem...,because we do get
these form time to time. There were approximately 14 in our last lot
of 400 which I felt were unacceptable.  Doesn't sound like a
lot...until the one bad one we ship happens to be in a module you
happen to buy, right?

right.


In any event, there is a way to make this problem better without
replacement which should be tried.

there are two retianing bands on a CLiff Jack.  One ii closer tothe
back of the face plate, one is behind the first.  The first retaining
spring is the ring of the jack.  You needn't worry about this one it's
the one further away that makes contact to the tip.  Insert a patch
cord all the way in and using a small strsight blade screw driver,
push down gently on the second retaining clip to increase it's
tension.  Do this a few times, you'll get it working again.

In the meantime,I am passing your letters here onto Cliff.






> >
> > i think there was a bad batch of sockets.  my M13 arrived with both 
> CV 
> > inputs pretty much kaput - one would cut out when touched, the other 
> > only worked when reamed on.  the kind gents @ analoguehaven sent me 
> > some replacements, as it was an easy fix to replace them
> >
> 
> So did you actually fix the sockets yourself or did they send a 
> whole 'nother module? Is it possible that Plan B is using the "old" 
> style jacks gave similar problems when Doepfer was using them? 
> Analogue Haven would be supplying Cliff part #CL13841 as replacement 
> jacks, which is the right part number. Is Plan B using the regular 
> CL1384 part? That could be causing all the jack "failures" because of 
> poor compatibility with certain patch cables.
>