Thinking of Making My Own Patch Cables

andyp

Hi folks.

This has been on my mind recently then I saw the thread on the solderless ones and it reminded me to investigate this.

In a nutshell... How difficult is it to solder my own patch cables?

I reckon I could save a fair bit of room and tidy my cables up a lot if I was to be able to make my own custom lengths. At the moment I am using a combination of Planet Waves right-angled 6" cables and some pancake ones (can't remember the make, but they seem fine) and while the PW ones are pretty solid, they take up a lot of room and the pancake ones are a bit too short if I'm doing anything other than having two pedals with side-mounted sockets right next to each other. The various power and jack locations are a bit of a faff, but I am sure I can improve all this by using the right lengths in the right places.

I understand the basics of soldering, but other than say attaching a component to a board I've not really done much soldering... and thinking about it... that would've been in school. Is there much I can get wrong with patch cables? I've not seen inside one to see what they look like, but it seems like something that's pretty easy to do? I think what I want to do to save the most space is have custom cable lengths with pancake ends... but that sounds difficult or likely to fail... or both.

Is there a decent cable kit or place to source the parts that people would recommend? I'm not making a gig board here... just 8 or so pedals I use at home that seem to take up way more room than they should and it just looks pretty messy due to being constrained by the length of cables I have. I wondered if this would be a worthwhile wee experiment but I don't want to spend loads in case I make a mess of it, it's kind of a dual-purpose learning and tidying exercise.

Any advice would be great. Even if that's "forget it".

Andy

m_c

I can solder, but I hate making cables. Looks simple, but is time consuming and a PITA to get looking good unless you're doing them regularly.

If you really want to do it, buy decent quality stuff (VanDamme cable, neutrik plugs), and practise.

Failing that, it often only costs marginally more per cable to pay someone like @designacable to do it all for you, and save you the stress!

octatonic

I make my own cables.
It isn't hard if you are methodical and you will save thousands over your guitar playing life.

ICBM

There is a fairly steep learning curve, but once you've got it right it's easy. The biggest problem - especially with pancake plugs - is getting enough heat in quickly enough to the ground connection to avoid a dry joint, but without melting the cable and shorting it. It's a fine line sometimes... but once you find it, no problem.

andyp

Hmmmm. Two pretty different replies there.

What stuff do you use @octatonic ?

andyp

ICBM said:

There is a fairly steep learning curve, but once you've got it right it's easy. The biggest problem - especially with pancake plugs - is getting enough heat in quickly enough to the ground connection to avoid a dry joint, but without melting the cable and shorting it. It's a fine line sometimes... but once you find it, no problem.

My old man is a fairly decent solderer, I'll see if he fancies teaching me. But I don't think he's ever made his own cables before. Despite building his own amps and pedals...

I do really like being able to do this so that I can have things right, and it's probably a useful skill to learn.

robinbowes

ICBM has it about right. It's not what I'd call difficult, but it takes a while to learn the knack and be consistent.

I make cables quite a lot, and I stick to solderless for my pedal boards. Good quality flat or pancake plugs are fairly pricey and can be tricky to solder.

R.

octatonic

andyp said:

Hmmmm. Two pretty different replies there.

What stuff do you use @octatonic ?

Mogami or canare cable with switchcraft plugs.
I don't bother with neutrik outside of the studio.

andyp

I've had a quick look there... and this looks like it could be expensive. Certainly more expensive than I thought it would be. Maybe phase one of this exercise is just to re-organise what I have and use a bundle of cable ties.

andyp

Thanks @octatonic ;

soma1975

Those nice new Squareplug SP400s looks very well designed to make soldering as easy as possible. 

robinbowes

soma1975 said:

Those nice new Squareplug SP400s looks very well designed to make soldering as easy as possible. 

Yeah, I was considering giving some of those a go, but I don't really need them for my own use.

Maybe one day...

R.

andyp

Hmmm.

I think my new plan is this...

1. Rebuild / Reorganise what I have.
2. Tie all the cables neatly.
3. Work out if one or two custom cables would noticeably improve things.
4. Order those / Stay as I am.

I did see the solderless kits but they have large plugs. There's solderless power cabling kits now too, I hadn't seen those. But I don't need all that stuff. It's cost that's made me think this is the better option. If it was cheaper to make my own I'd be quite happy doing that and learning.

english_bob

andyp said:

I've had a quick look there... and this looks like it could be expensive. Certainly more expensive than I thought it would be. Maybe phase one of this exercise is just to re-organise what I have and use a bundle of cable ties.

It certainly will be expensive if you use Switchcraft and Mogami stuff- that's proper "Rolls Royce of patch cables" stuff though.

For "pancake" jacks the Hicon ones are good, and considerably less money than the equivalent Switchcrafts.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hicon-Pancake-Jack-1-4-Inch-Flat-Angled-Plug-Gold-Tip-HI-J63MA05-Patch-Lead/172173063437?hash=item281650750d:g:kiwAAOSwvg9Xe4u4:rk:8:pf:0

Don't get the really cheap "free postage from China" pancake jacks. They're shit.


For cable, you can get Van Damme stuff for a little over £1/m on eBay. You probably only need two or three metres.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Van-Damme-PRO-Grade-XKE-Instrument-Cable-Best-Guitar-HiFi-Bass-Cord-Wire-Bulk/151043984437?hash=item232aec4c35:m:mJ0Z_iee5pCgzy-N9snPuUg:rk:3:pf:0


Here's the inside of a Switchcraft "pancake" plug:

https://hfc-fs.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/switchcraft-jp-6492-open-view-800.jpg


The signal wire goes to the solder tag in the middle. The earth goes to the plug casing, anywhere you like. If your dad has made his own amps and pedals it should be no bother to make cables.

EDIT- just noticed this is a TRS plug (stereo), so should have two contacts in the centre- every mono pancake plug I've seen looks pretty much like this with a single solder tag in the centre. I think the mono Switchcraft ones have you solder the cable in to the hole in the middle.



My advice, from many years of trial-and-error patch cable making:

1. Gear. You need:
- solder, obviously
- a soldering iron
- a solder sucker or some way of getting solder off
- wire cutters
- something to hold things still. I've used a pair of needle-nose pliers with an elastic band wrapped around the handle.
- something to cut sleeving- a regular craft knife will do.
- a selection of small screwdrivers for screwdrivering and general poking duties
- a heatproof or generally ruin-able surface your significant other, mum or whoever won't go apeshit if it gets burns on it.

2. Technique. Things have gone better for me when I've:
- cut wires to the right lengths. You can sight this when you have the wire and the plugs in front of you.
- not left lots of bare wire. Follows on from the first point- bare wire conducts electricity, and can come in to contact with the plug casing or the earth wire and cause noise or shorts
- not left stray strands of wire- keep all the strands of the signal and earth wire together.
- cut back the black coating over the signal wire. There's usually a double layer of stuff between the earth and the signal wires- the outer black layer is conductive and can cause shorts. Thanks to @ICBM for this one. 
- tinned the cable ends. They stick much quicker and more easily to the contacts this way, and it helps prevent stray wires.

There's probably all sorts of other things you'll pick up along the way.

andyp

That is a massively helpful post Bob! Thanks for taking the time to explain all that. Definitely food for thought there and even seeing the innards of that pancake plug is really useful.

If I could award more than one wisdom, I would. Cheers!

english_bob

andyp said:

That is a massively helpful post Bob! Thanks for taking the time to explain all that. Definitely food for thought there and even seeing the innards of that pancake plug is really useful.

If I could award more than one wisdom, I would. Cheers!

No worries mate. I'm not remotely in the same league as some of the people here in terms of electronics, but simple stuff like making cables always seemed to me like an area that guitarists were pissing money up the wall on something it's really not difficult to do at your kitchen table. If I can do it, it can't be that hard  

Knowing how to solder will probably save you a small fortune in simple repairs to jack sockets and pots too.

Roland

Soldering is a life skill. All guitarists should be able to do it. Even if you don’t make your own cables you can save money by being able to fix them. You can also make patch cables of exactly the right length.

Pancakes plugs. I prefer normal right angled jack plugs. They’re more reliable. I also like a bit more space between Boss sized pedals so that I don’t hit two at once.

Octafish

I usually put together my own patch cables. It can be tedious at times, but I like as being able to make bespoke cables as and when required. I use Van Damme cable and I've used these with good results - budget Neutrik...

https://www.rapidonline.com/Catalogue/Product/20-2184

Also these seem ok....

https://www.bitsbox.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=225_226_294&products_id=1564

Octafish

ICBM said:

There is a fairly steep learning curve, but once you've got it right it's easy. The biggest problem - especially with pancake plugs - is getting enough heat in quickly enough to the ground connection to avoid a dry joint, but without melting the cable and shorting it. It's a fine line sometimes... but once you find it, no problem.

Getting heat into pancake jacks can be tiresome, but he biggest pain for me is stripping the outer sleeve of the cable without cutting through loads of strands of the ground wire. I have wire strippers that are fine for the inner cable. Any tips, am I missing something or is it just a case of cutting carefully with a craft/stanley knife?

robinbowes

Octafish said:
...but he biggest pain for me is stripping the outer sleeve of the cable without cutting through loads of strands of the ground wire. I have wire strippers that are fine for the inner cable. Any tips, am I missing something or is it just a case of cutting carefully with a craft/stanley knife?

I use one of these:



Just make sure you use the appropriate part for your cable, ie. don't go too deep, and it works fine.

R.

Octafish

robinbowes said:

Octafish said:
...but he biggest pain for me is stripping the outer sleeve of the cable without cutting through loads of strands of the ground wire. I have wire strippers that are fine for the inner cable. Any tips, am I missing something or is it just a case of cutting carefully with a craft/stanley knife?

I use one of these:



Just make sure you use the appropriate part for your cable, ie. don't go too deep, and it works fine.

R.

Cheers, not seen one of those before. Where do you get it from?