Stereo Patch cable.

frankus

So I bought some patch cable from the evil bay ... but it's stereo.. common sense tells me there won't be a massive issue if I wire both inner cores together and pretend it's mono... but might there be problems?

It'll be used for 4"-6" cables; Any help appreciated, ta

johnnyurq

@frankus

No issues at all with tying the two conductors together and soldering it to hot and shield to ground/earth as in a mono cable.

In fact you are effectively doubling the copper that the signal uses which is better in theory, if not in fact.

frankus

ta

Sporky

It'll be fine. Typically the pair stuff isn't as good capacitance wise, but over the lengths involved I doubt that's even audible.

randomhandclaps

There's generally no problem using them 'as is'.  Some pedals however (the Boss RE-20 for one which I remember) won't switch on with a balanced cable in the input so tying them may make life simpler.

Sporky

The pedal power thing only applies if you're using TRS jacks - if you're using mono jacks then the cable between doesn't much matter in that respect.

frankus

Sporky said:

It'll be fine. Typically the pair stuff isn't as good capacitance wise, but over the lengths involved I doubt that's even audible.

Yeah I read that on the site after buying "relatively low capacitance" it didn't reassure me.

Given this is for a pedal board and cost £6 (sick squid ;^) I'm going to take the hit and get some Sommer Spirit from Thomman.

So what is XKE good for then?

Sporky

Microphones? I'd bet it's fine for guitar patch leads. Certainly if there's a buffered pedal anywhere.

frankus

Well rather than suffer the anxiety of "what if the 6 patch cables with hicon connectors suck my lovely tonezors" I'll get sommer spirit cable... and to avoid the shame of "I wasted £6 on the wrong cabling" ... I'll make this:

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/burnt-fingers-diy-effects/279401-phantom-powered-fet-preamp-cable-output-buffer.html

sound like a plan?

Sporky

A very fine one.

frankus

Got talking to my mate who's a Sound Engineer at London Guildhall on the bus home and he said pretty much what Sporky originally said - so I made up the cables to 3" long last night - photos to follow.

Sporky

But when I say it it's just ashes in your ears? Now I weep. :-<

frankus

Not you too ... pa my wife says exactly the same thing!! "If the Karate instructor says it I'll listen but not her no ...... then there's that time you .... and did I ..... did I .... and will you .... "

To be fair - when the smartest audio engineers I know give me advice it's enough to overcome the irrational anxiety created by reading the gear page - if it were simply an intellectual problem of course I'd have acted after your advice alone ... but this was reassurance and I just happened to need two sane voices and you were sane voice #1...

I also figured a 3 meter buffered cable was a bit nutter-butters.

Sporky

If you've got any left over then a buffered cable isn't a completely insane thing to have. Think of it as (a) an opportunity to build something and (b) a potentially useful get-out-of-jail thing for some point in the future.

frankus

I've got around 2.5 meters left okay I may well give this a go

Sporky

I'd be interested to hear just how buildable the in-cable preamp is.

frankus

I'll prioritise it below making the Orange Squeezer, John Hollis Zombie Chorus and Tremulus Lune but above upcycling the ME50.