Pedal cables with pancake ends?

hubobulous

So I'm moving from using a Rocktron Utopia with a couple of extra pedals to a complete pedalboard with valve amp. I'm not yet sure on the layout of my pedals, but there's a chance that it could be a squeeze, (depends on which pedalboard I buy), therefore it struck me that the jacks on cables can be a culprit of space occupation...!!

I'm not anal about this, and whilst a tidy pedalboard would be nice, it doesn't have to be a work of art. But the pancake ends could make sense, but I have no idea if there are good/bad ones, or if they're just not worth considering.

Anyone with experience in this sort of area, please chime in :-)

guitarfishbay

Doesn't Kabl stock or make these? @RobDavies

EricTheWeary

Forum wisdom says buy Kabl for pancakes, although I seem to remember some suggestion ( @ICBM ?) that pancakes are inherently less reliable?

Having just redone my tiny, tiny board after putting everything on realised I couldn't do it the way I wanted due to the jacks on the patch cables,so I ought to be considering pancakes as well. However, my first thought was to move from a flat board to a pedaltrain type one so excess cable and power cables would be out of the way which would be a space saver, less squishing on the cables ( technical term) and generally tidier.  I wouldn't go down the route of making custom patch cables as that doesn't seem the best idea if you move everything around every month.

JDE

How many do you need? I have some of the small Kabl patch cables with pancakes floating about. PM me your address and you can have them if you want.

hubobulous

Hey @JDE. I have no idea how many at the moment, but a free offer is most kind and accepted. PM on its way.

Lew

The Hicons that Rob uses are good.

hotpickups

I use pancakes and they have given me no trouble. Maybe to do with the amount of solder I used though. It was my first time at soldering

joeyowen

I can't remember what people say, does solder help or hinder tone.

Does it lessen or increase resistance?

Or does it depend who you ask?

Brad

I've used pancake ends with varying degrees of success. However I now use the Evidence Audio SIS ends. Granted, they are solderless but I've never had one go bad on me after about 2 years, sound integrity to my ears is as good as any soldered patch cables I've used and they are really easy to make. Plus they have a tiny footprint, great for saving space and keeping things neat and tidy. 

Pretty expensive though...

John_BlackWolf

I purchased a bulk of the Hicon ones from Thomann. Used with the very thick klotz ac110 I've found them totally reliable.

capo4th

Hicon from Kabl have given me no issues

shuikit

John_BlackWolf said:

I purchased a bulk of the Hicon ones from Thomann. Used with the very thick klotz ac110 I've found them totally reliable.

I also got a load of Hicon ones from Thomann and some Sommer cable, not had a problem with them either. 

ecc83

The only problem that I have had with pancakes is the tiny screws working loose (but then that happened with the early Cannon XLRs!) .

Locktite or nail varnish or better, some heatshrink which also give a degree of cable relief.

Resistance in signal cables, even several k Ohms, will make diddly diff' It COULD conceivably be a problem in a speaker circuit but hardly ever is. Anyone's jacks getting hot?

But yeah, give Rob a drink!

Dave.