Guitar Pedal jack (phone plug jack) question

[Excavatoree]

I had a DaveCAD drawing, but it was too large to post, and I think I can describe the problem without it.

I have a guitar input jack (to a distortion pedal, accepts a 1/4 inch "phone" plug - two conductors, tip and ring) that has three terminals.    It's not a switched jack, as the switched jacks I've seen on Digi-key and elsewhere switch the "tip."  This plug  has two terminals for the ring.   I can't tell if they are supposed to be connected all the time but aren't, or if they are supposed to connect when a plug is inserted, because they aren't connected then, either.

The circuit used them as a "tie point."  When I add a jumper, the pedal works.  Without that jumper, the power connections go nowhere and nothing happens.

Has anyone heard of such a connector?  my first thought was to simply add a jumper, but I want to make sure I'm not ignorant of some important reason to do things that way.   

[Refrigerator]

That's a feature that all "good" pedals have.
Basically it uses the ground on your audio cable to jumper across the right channel and negative of the battery to act as a switch.
If you're using a stereo cable it means that the battery negative is going to your right channel but not to the ground.
You can easily fix this issue by getting a mono audio cable, or a 1/4 female stereo to 1/4 male mono adaptor, or you could make the adaptor with a female jack, a bit of wire and a mono plug.

[Excavatoree]

That's a feature that all "good" pedals have.
Basically it uses the ground on your audio cable to jumper across the right channel and negative of the battery to act as a switch.
If you're using a stereo cable it means that the battery negative is going to your right channel but not to the ground.
You can easily fix this issue by getting a mono audio cable, or a 1/4 female stereo to 1/4 male mono adaptor, or you could make the adaptor with a female jack, a bit of wire and a mono plug.

I'm trying to understand, but this is a mono device - two conductors in and two out using a two conductor mono cable.   Are you saying a stereo jack was used and it is intended that the mono plug completes the battery connection?  That makes sense.     That's why I didn't see any connectors like it - I was looking for mono jacks.   Seems I should replace it with another stereo jack, as the existing one is NOT making the connection.   The internal contacts may be damaged or bent, or some other problem may exist.  I could jumper it, but then the pedal could be left "on."   (there is a separate switch, if that matters)

 Am I understanding you correctly?
 
Thanks for your help. 

[Refrigerator]

That's a feature that all "good" pedals have.
Basically it uses the ground on your audio cable to jumper across the right channel and negative of the battery to act as a switch.
If you're using a stereo cable it means that the battery negative is going to your right channel but not to the ground.
You can easily fix this issue by getting a mono audio cable, or a 1/4 female stereo to 1/4 male mono adaptor, or you could make the adaptor with a female jack, a bit of wire and a mono plug.

I'm trying to understand, but this is a mono device - two conductors in and two out using a two conductor mono cable.   Are you saying a stereo jack was used and it is intended that the mono plug completes the battery connection?  That makes sense.     That's why I didn't see any connectors like it - I was looking for mono jacks.   Seems I should replace it with another stereo jack, as the existing one is NOT making the connection.   The internal contacts may be damaged or bent, or some other problem may exist.  I could jumper it, but then the pedal could be left "on."   (there is a separate switch, if that matters)

 Am I understanding you correctly?
 
Thanks for your help.

Yeah, that's about right.
It uses a stereo jack and since guitar only needs mono plug it uses the unused right channel so that the plug shorts it to ground thus completing the circuit.

[Buriedcode]

This is so the pedal is powered when there's a plug in the input jack.  If the main footswitch was to power it up/down then there would be a delay in startup which isn't good for sudden changing of effects.  The side effect is that even when bypassed, if the cable is plugged into the pedal - it'll drain the battery.

Jacks are generally the first thing to go in guitar pedals, like most things, the mechanics/connectors go first as they are subject to the tresses of constant plugging/unplugging.  Bypassing is either done with a large switch (DPDT or 3PDT) or with JFET's (like in DOD/digitech/boss).  You can mod these to be momentary which is handy for sudden bursts of distortion or delays.

[Excavatoree]

Thanks for the info.  I haven't done anything with guitars and my limited audio experience was a long time ago.   I thought the mono pedals used mono jacks.  I'm glad I asked about it.    There's a working stereo jack there, now and it's working as designed.