Any tips on working with Belden 8412 (or similar)?

SquireJapan

So I bought a bit of Belden 8412 2 core shielded cable to make up some patch leads and instrument leads (it's what Pete Cornish uses apparently). It's serious stuff - def high quality and robust (my main criteria).

I'm messing around with it, but it's not the easiest thing to strip - any tips? I've had a search around but can't find anything that helpful.

Thanks!

ecc83

http://www.belden.com/techdatas/english/8412.pdf

Excellent cable for its purpose but I cannot see anything startlingly wonderful about it for general audio use?

Core to shield capacitance is a fairly common 180puf/mtr. It has a nominal OD of 6.6mm so it is going to be rugged but also I suspect a bit stiff and "clunky".

For good working you will need a spike, a big needle or grind down a terminal driver. Then unpick the shield and twist it tightly. If there is a lot of it and it is bulky there is no harm in "thinning it out".

Once teased out MAKE SURE you have no stary strands and then tin the whole thing to keep it out of the *&^%in' way. I would heat shrink an overall sleeve of about 15mm in length to tidy it all up.

I would not pay a premium for this cable, I bet there are plenty as good and cheaper.

I have some patch leads in Belden V 9534 foil shielded 2 pr. Excellent stuff but I didn't BUY it!

Dave.

SquireJapan

Thanks - yeah, I don't think it's anything special in terms sound quality, but does seem like it's made well and could have the $@#/! beaten out of it and still perform as it should (I'm really not a fan of solderless because of the fact it doesn't like to be moved - at all).

I think the main thing that irks me is that it seems a massive faff just to strip and clear all the stringy/twine stuff out of the way. Seems to involve a lot of precise Stanley knife action.

I'm going to have ended up making about 25 patch leads by the end of it. So after 50 or so connections I'll probably have found a few tricks here and there

Another thing while I think on - it seems that most cables like this (i.e. shielded 2 core) seem to only ground the "amp" end of the shield. I get what they're going for, and I'll probably do the same myself, but I'm not sure it it will may any difference at all...

Any thoughts?

randomhandclaps

I have a ton of Belden 8412.  I was given a reel of it about 10 years ago and kept it for either my own personal projects of for friends and bandmates and funnily enough am just coming to end of the reel.  It's is fairly hardcore and stripping it is a major arse pain and hard going on the hands. 

For long runs on tough tours it is pretty hard to beat.  A couple of time my whole pedal board has used it but I don't particularly like if for that purpose because it's chunky and don't want to flex too easily it tight spaces but it is very good none-the-less.  With a simple 'U' patch lead you want to make sure that both pedals are anchored well as it puts pressure on the mounting.

As far as stripping goes, despite using it for years I am yet to find a particularly easy way of doing it.  What I do is slice through to the woven layer - you can be pretty firm as it doesn't let much through.  Once you've removed the rubber and foil I unpick the woven layers down to the cut,  twist all the strand together and then cut them off as low as I can get down.  From then on it's just normal cable.

SquireJapan

Thanks for that - at least I know I'm not missing a trick

I'll see if I do find any better way of doing it - what you've said seems to line up with my brief experience with the stuff. I'm going for the "bomb proof" approach. I even bought some Techflex to go with it - not that it needs it really, just that I like the look of something in orange.

randomhandclaps

On your board in something is a tight squeeze I have used cable tie across the 'U' shape to take a bit of the strain. 

One thing to definitely remember though is to think about where the patch leads is going and what angle it needs to be and get the jack lined up before soldering as it's a bugger to twist and is so tough it end up weakening the jacks long before it would give out.

SquireJapan

Yeah that's a good point - I'm using switchcraft 226 lacks, so I'm playing with using clear heatshrink to give it some strain relief.

I've already made a lead that although looked beautiful, wanted to bend the wrong way around, so I had to re solder it (and now it isn't as neat).

Good job I'm not in a rush