Okay, first off, im not new to guitar, but i AM new to technical problems concerning my guitar... so bear with me...

I've had a few problems with my guitar, its an Epiphone Les Paul Custom Black Beauty.. first, when the guitar was plugged into mu amp it just didn't make a noise at all, i could fix it by moving the jack around inside the guitar (this was a while ago.. i now know this is not the best idea) but then eventually it just stopped working altogether, i used my amp with another jack wire and guitar, so i know that neither of those are the problem. After that one of the knobs came loose, so i stopped bothering and put that particular guitar down for a few months, planning on taking it to a repair shop some time.

Just know i have decided to try and fix it myself, i was able to fix the loose without any problems, i was surprised to find that only took 5 seconds, but the input jack is starting to annoy me... i'm not all too familiar on how the inside of a guitar works, but i have done some research and i know how the white and black wires are supposed to connect to the ground and hot tab, but thats all i know...

As far as i'm concerned, it looks like the white wire is connected to its respective tab and the little twist of metal wires (i assumed was the black wire) is also connected... so can anybody help me out here? I have no access to a soldering gun at the moment, but if im lucky i wont need one.

Thanks in advance for any help If you need more information let me know.

Keep in mind, im very knew to all this, any really complicated technical talk will probably go right over my head...

the cords that go from guitar to amp are notorius for just going bad. have you tried monster cables. they were the best when i was younger they would last for at least 5 years. i know you can get stuff really cheap on guitar friend magazine, but for fixing the electronics on the guitar cant say i know much there. try with a music store sometimes they are pretty cool with showing you how to fix em.
or hang out at some places where local bands play at they dont mind helping much either.