F*** patch cable!

samzadgan

I'm over my lava cables...I'm over making cables...and the fact that they can go wrong. Admittedly it's been like 3 years...but in the last few months they have been playing up. Constant crackling sounds, volume drops. 

On the the weekend I bought some pre-made MXR pancake cables and I scraped together a bunch of old cheap cables...the ones that are multi coloured and come in packs of 6. suddenly there's no noise.

im at a point where I just want to pack it in with the lava cables, but it poses a problem. The pre-made ones are either pancake or massive angled enclosure. My pedals are 99% top mount jacks and power. Neither of those pre-made designs is going fit easily or at all in some cases.

so what do i do??? 

ThorpyFX

samzadgan said:

I'm over my lava cables...I'm over making cables...and the fact that they can go wrong. Admittedly it's been like 3 years...but in the last few months they have been playing up. Constant crackling sounds, volume drops. 

On the the weekend I bought some pre-made MXR pancake cables and I scraped together a bunch of old cheap cables...the ones that are multi coloured and come in packs of 6. suddenly there's no noise.

im at a point where I just want to pack it in with the lava cables, but it poses a problem. The pre-made ones are either pancake or massive angled enclosure. My pedals are 99% top mount jacks and power. Neither of those pre-made designs is going fit easily or at all in some cases.

so what do i do??? 

evidence audio monorail. this is hands down the best patch kit available. albeit, it is priced accordingly.

ICBM

You can get the cheap coloured cables with smaller plugs. Like these...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anti-noise-Guitar-Effect-Connection-6-35mm/dp/B00QRJHVPA/ref=sr_1_220?ie=UTF8&qid=1488835811&sr=8-220&keywords=guitar+patch+cable

Or these…

https://www.amazon.co.uk/EBS-Cables-PCF-10-Patch-Cable/dp/B00I4IKVTU/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1488835569&sr=8-18&keywords=guitar+patch+cable

dindude

Ha, I'm going through exactly the same phase - I've had them all Lava, George L, Evidence Audio, Free the Tone - but I really want to move over to soldered plugs, my boards static enough (well the new one will be, of course!).
Evidence and FTT were the best of the Solderless, but the nature of the beast is that they will only take a certain amount of plugging and unplugging and the nagging feeling that thy just aren't quite right messes with my board OCD.

So I'm with you man, just don't know the solution (although pancakes would probably work in my case).

dindude

ICBM said:

You can get the cheap coloured cables with smaller plugs. Like these...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anti-noise-Guitar-Effect-Connection-6-35mm/dp/B00QRJHVPA/ref=sr_1_220?ie=UTF8&qid=1488835811&sr=8-220&keywords=guitar+patch+cable

Or these…

https://www.amazon.co.uk/EBS-Cables-PCF-10-Patch-Cable/dp/B00I4IKVTU/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1488835569&sr=8-18&keywords=guitar+patch+cable

How good (or bad) are these in the grand scheme of things?

samzadgan

@dindude exactly...i had a bunch of EA solderless too...and they were great...but like you say, all of these can only take a certain amount of plugging and unplugging.

As far as the cheap plugs that @ICBM mentioned, i put about 3-4 of those on my board now...i haven't played in the studio with the amp flat out, but at reasonable volumes at home, i have heard nothing bad, in fact less noise than my faulty lava's. I guess for the price, you may as well get a few packs and try it...if its noisy, then you put it away and save them for a rainy day...otherwise...you save a tonne of money!

ICBM

dindude said:

How good (or bad) are these in the grand scheme of things?

I've used the cheap coloured ones for years and years, and never had more than one or two fail, as far as I can remember. I can't say much about the tone since I've always mostly used buffered pedals (now exclusively!) so I don't get any problems, but when I've tried them with true bypass pedals they seem fine too. There's actually no reason for them not to be - the cable is standard shielded so it will be about the same capacitance as any, and if anything plastic plugs have lower capacitance than metal ones. (Neutrik NP2s are particularly bad, in fact.)

I haven't tried the EBS ones, but I've heard people recommend them for very tight board spacing.

samzadgan

ICBM said:

dindude said:

How good (or bad) are these in the grand scheme of things?

I've used the cheap coloured ones for years and years, and never had more than one or two fail, as far as I can remember. I can't say much about the tone since I've always mostly used buffered pedals (now exclusively!) so I don't get any problems, but when I've tried them with true bypass pedals they seem fine too. There's actually no reason for them not to be - the cable is standard shielded so it will be about the same capacitance as any, and if anything plastic plugs have lower capacitance than metal ones. (Neutrik NP2s are particularly bad, in fact.)

I haven't tried the EBS ones, but I've heard people recommend them for very tight board spacing.

Is the buffering that the only issue with the cheap cable? In that scenario i have my whole pedalboard in a empress buffer which should take care of that.

i thought the actual cable was made of inferior quality stuff*


* technical term

UnclePsychosis

I use the el cheapo coloured ones too (albeit I buy packs of black ones). Never had a memorable problem with them. The obvious downside is that they don't come in custom lengths - when you make your own obviously you can get them absolutely perfect. 

I've long thought that the money some people seem to spend on patch cables is absolutely nuts. 

ICBM

samzadgan said:

Is the buffering that the only issue with the cheap cable? In that scenario i have my whole pedalboard in a empress buffer which should take care of that.

i thought the actual cable was made of inferior quality stuff*

* technical term

It doesn't seem to be. I've cut a few down to make special short cables and the internal construction is the same as more or less any standard guitar cable. Some of them even have the semi-conducting shield layer like Klotz cable etc.

They're possibly not that robust if you're using them between loose pedals, since they're not like the heavier-duty guitar cables you can get, but on a pedalboard it doesn't matter.

MattBanshee

I very much like the Klotz cables that PMT sell. 6.50 a pair, and they do straight or angled jacks.

ecc83

http://www.maplin.co.uk/search?text=patch+cables+1/4+inch+jack&x=17&y=17

I have used the TRS version of the above without problems (mods. why can't I "write" THEN paste a link? )

In theory a CHEAP patch cable should give LESS HF loss because they skimp on the shielding? Might hum a bit more tho!

Dave.

saint_ivey

I've had Evidence Audio Monorail on all my boards for 2-3 years now. Never had a failed cable... ever.

They're really easy to make up and there's a reason that The GigRig and Custom Pedalboards UK use them as their number one choice when making up boards for the pros.

I've cut & re-cut them for different sizes, plugged in and out countless times and bent and twisted them without a fail, crackle or pop.

paganskins

I haven't tried the EBS ones, but I've heard people recommend them for very tight board spacing.

I use them and really like them, aside from the very low profile plugs the tape like profile to the cable stops them twisting and they're very pliable for running round corners etc.

Dopesick

I might have to check out the Rockboard patch cables cos they seem to be the only brand who do them 5cm long:

https://www.thomann.de/gb/rockboard_flat_patch_cable_black_5_cm.htm

ZenOvertone

I moved to soldered Monorail cable ages ago, into Hicon pancake jacks (from Thomann) protected with shrinkwrap, no more problems at all with intermittent connections...tbh not much difference at all to the Van Damme stuff I had before (again soildered into Hicon pancake jacks).  George L was fine at home but I'd often have an issue at a gig with a right angle connector.

cbellanga

Fx8 or Helix

Danny1969

This has come up loads of times but it's worth repeating. When I was running the studio I was using the moulded multicoloured ones for patching headphone sends .... they got plugged into different holes every day for years and not one ever went wrong. I'm not against making stuff, I wired all 142 connectors in that patch bay myself but some things just aren't worth it ... 

JezWynd

dindude said:

ICBM said:

You can get the cheap coloured cables with smaller plugs. Like these...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anti-noise-Guitar-Effect-Connection-6-35mm/dp/B00QRJHVPA/ref=sr_1_220?ie=UTF8&qid=1488835811&sr=8-220&keywords=guitar+patch+cable

Or these…

https://www.amazon.co.uk/EBS-Cables-PCF-10-Patch-Cable/dp/B00I4IKVTU/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1488835569&sr=8-18&keywords=guitar+patch+cable

How good (or bad) are these in the grand scheme of things?

The multi coloured ones are fine. I don't gig but I do spend a lot of time plugging and unplugging pedals and I've not had one fail.

The EBS ones; I got 6 for an old Boss pedal board, one went faulty after a month or two.

viz

Andi made me 8 patch cables in 2002 and I've used them ever since, none of them has let me down despite umpteen board changes. That guy doesn't scrimp on solder. Plus I got 2 more from Rob Davies, same story but more recently. If you can afford it, go hand-made by an expert. 

hotpickups

Lava, Evidence, George L's aren't they all much of the same thing. How different can they be?  I know one thing though, my hands were ripped up trying to assemble the original ELC lava plugs. Tightrope ones were much easier. Can't see why Evidence should be so much dearer?

End of the day I've had no trouble with my lava assemblies but then I don't keep moving pedals around. Once their positioned they're positioned for some time