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Tinning cable for Speakon Plugs

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Glaw343Glaw343 Frets: 10
in Making & Modding
Hi everyone, I recently had a few Speakon to Speakon PA cables fail on me, it was the same problem on all of them the copper in the cable had come away from the terminals, it looked like the outer strands of copper had snapped off and that had compromised the pressure fit of the terminal allowing the copper to slide out and break the circuit, anyway, I noticed that the copper was not tinned before being attached to the speakon plugs, should they be tinned? I would imagine that doing this would increase the strength of the outer strands which would stop this problem happening? if I were to tin them would I use normal 60/40 (like used for pickups etc in a guitar) or would I need something that could take more power (about 1000 to 1500 watts) thanks. I should add, I know not to solder the cable into the speakon plug, I am just talking about tinning the cable to be pressure fit into the speakon plug, cheers.

George :)
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Comments

  • ICBMICBM Frets: 72294
    Ideally you shouldn't tin screwed contacts because the tin will creep under load and loosen the screw. But I have come across this problem too... it's one thing I don't like about Speakons.

    If the cable is a bit thin, I prefer to strip double the length necessary and fold it back on itself so there's twice as much wire in the terminal, that seems to lock it more tightly.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein

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  • SporkySporky Frets: 28095
    I'd go with bootlace ferrules. 
    "[Sporky] brings a certain vibe and dignity to the forum."
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  • Glaw343Glaw343 Frets: 10
    Cheers for the reply, the cable is fairly thick (when twisted will just about fit the slots in the connector) would you say it would be a good idea in this case to screw the in and then solder the contacts? if so would I have problems with the amount of power and the type of solder I would use (mentioned above) cheers
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  • SporkySporky Frets: 28095
    As ICBM says you shouldn't solder compression connections .
    "[Sporky] brings a certain vibe and dignity to the forum."
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  • Glaw343Glaw343 Frets: 10
    I'll check out some bootlace ferrules are there any particularly good ones you would recommend?
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  • SporkySporky Frets: 28095
    Any that are the right size! And a proper crimp tool - they're not expensive. 
    "[Sporky] brings a certain vibe and dignity to the forum."
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  • Glaw343Glaw343 Frets: 10
    Great cheers, I'll check the out :)
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