Anyone making their own guitar cables??

[iknowjohnny]

I always made my own with belden 8410 and switchcraft ends. Never thought switchcraft was quite as good as the hype, but they're ok. The belden however was great. i made cables with that stuff that lasted decades with an occasional plug change due to the swiitchcrafts breaking now and then. Now i can't find belden anymore locally. The mogami and canari and all that are all plastic and not particularly strong and i haven't had the same luck with it. I suppose i should see if i can get some 8410 online and make some new ones. Most of my old belden cables are finally gone one way or another, lost or just finally gave up the ghost after decades of use.

[rp]

I don't usually mark which end of the cord has the shield.

Honestly, this would get silly, I would just stick with good coax for guitar, and never worry about which end is which. Leave that consideration for permanent installs. My experience is not to overwork the rock & roll thing - keeping it simple makes things reliable and better soundng. Was it Ken Fisher that thought vacuum cleaner cord, used vacuum clear cord at that, made the best speaker cab cable! I actually went out on the street years ago looking for an old vac in trash. Cant find that cable any more, must go look for an other.

Do you use the little tip cup things? I've seen them used in Speakon connections, but I don't what to call them so I can order them.

Not sure what you mean, so maybe not. Most of my stuff is permanent not sound reinforcement - home theaters and distributed audio if residential, otherwise museums, stores, and the like. My world is all Cat5 and baluns now, will be optical soon.

[jaysg]

Not sure what you mean, so maybe not.

There are three of them in the upper pic in Canare_SLR.jpg

[Dr-Joned]

I was in the pro sound /installed field for 20+ years and played in bands for years. I have truely learned to hate Switchcraft XLR connectors. When I was introduced to the Neutrik NC3MX type connectors, I never turned back. I like the Switchcraft phone connectors and use heatshrink with them. As far as cable goes, I liked Proco Quad cable, 223?, and made hundreds of noise & kink-free cables. Some of their cable I didn't care for, as well as some of the canare, etc.
An old singer of ours used to really put me to work. He loved to "windmill" his mic like Roger Daltrey. I finally learned a how to make the mic cables "fool-proof". I used a heavier Belden mic cable, of which I can not remember the number.
As far as the guitar cords, I preferred the Proco with Neutrik. It's amazing how many I made, and they all seemed to disapear! There is a significance to using the quad type cables, as if they are wired correctly, there will be a lower capacitance. Is lower capacitance a good thing? Some will say yes, some will say no. I mean that it is really a personal thing, and taste preference. Jimi Hendrix used some of the microphonic, high capacitance cable he could find, LONG curly cords!

[Phil_S]

Phil - If you are experiencing RF in your cable. Meter the cable, continuty and ohms. Shield to shield, shield to tip, and make sure to wiggle it and weed out the possiblilty of an intermittant contact or crimp in the cable. as well as a solid ground it should meter 0.00 or 0.01ohms on the ground and less then 0.03 on the tip to tip, probably closer to 0.01. It's possible for the cable to have a lifted ground and still work causing it to pickup RF.

This is a 10' cable. I'm getting .0003 on the tips and .0005 on the sleeves on my old Fluke 8600A bench meter in manual 2 ohm mode and .31 and .47 with the low range light on in auto mode -- I am unsure of accuracy at this range. I have never understood how to read this meter for auto low range. I'm getting 0 on both the tips and sleeves with my cheap Tenma. The best meter I had was a Triplett 9045, but the Ohms are no longer working on it.

I don't gig, so a break in the cable isn't likely. You think maybe a bad solder? I just assumed it had the perfect configuration for a radio and it was my bad luck that it's not a station I like.

[selloutrr]

I do AV work and this comes up often...

Do you use the little tip cup things? I've seen them used in Speakon connections, but I don't what to call them so I can order them.

They are included in the Neutrik NL4 / NL8 twist lock style connector. They are not used in soldering. If you contact Neutrik they will send them to you.

you tin the wire slip it in the metal cup that is fitted into the connector's socket and tighten with an allen or star key ... the connector is held together with a twist together system. the pressure fitting acts as a stop so the wire doesn't pull out.

PHIL - it sounds like the cable is correct but if it's broadcasting and it's isolated to the cable, something is a miss.

[rp]

They are included in the Neutrik NL4 / NL8 twist lock style connector. They are not used in soldering. If you contact Neutrik they will send them to you. you tin the wire slip it in the metal cup that is fitted into the connector's socket and tighten with an allen or star key ... the connector is held together with a twist together system. the pressure fitting acts as a stop so the wire doesn't pull out.

New to me, I've never seen them. I'm always given solder on stuff, even if the connections are up in a dropped ceiling, and a dozen other horrible places to try and solder. Think of the worst possible place to solder and I've been there - even in the bilge of a yatch.

[Richie]

Was it Ken Fisher that thought vacuum cleaner cord, used vacuum clear cord at that, made the best speaker cab cable!

Thats funny, i had been useing them too for years,and then i read that Ken used them too. I have lots of them saved in a chest,with a bunch of other old gear.
What i liked about the vacuum cord was,they have a ribbed feel to them,and even in a dark club gig, you can tell which is a speaker cable by the feel of it.

I also made my own guitar cables. I still have the old belden cable i used for over 30yrs. And some of those old curley cords from the late 60s. They are in a chest too, i don't use them,but i still have some.

[daydreamer]

Jimi Hendrix used some of the microphonic, high capacitance cable he could find, LONG curly cords!

high capacitance; that would roll off mids/bass, right?

[selloutrr]

Santana does a similar trick. His cords are over 50ft, giving some what of a phase and tone shift. PRS later added a mod to some of the guitars to simulate this via toggle switch.

[vibratoking]

IMO, Santana completely tweaks his setup for single note playing and sacrifices his rhythm sound. I don't hear much high end at all. I like some things about it, but it is pretty one dimensional. It's hard to imagine that high capacitance cable can make much of a difference. What do you mean by phase shift? Do you mean group delay?

BTW, Guitar Player did a recent interview with Carlos and he mentioned the 'Bluetone' amplifier. I would guess that Brandon is lamenting that spelling error. Carlos says he uses three different amplifiers simultaneously - one each for highs, mids, and lows. I think it was Mesa for highs, Dumble for mids and 'Bluetone' for lows.

[Structo]

Jimi Hendrix used some of the microphonic, high capacitance cable he could find, LONG curly cords!

high capacitance; that would roll off mids/bass, right?

The higher the capacitance of the cable the more high frequencies are attenuated or shunted.

Think of a cable as a long capacitor.
It acts as a low pass filter.

The definition of a capacitor is two conductors separated by an insulator or dielectric.

The higher the pf/ ft (picofarads per foot) the more it will kill the highs.

This can be a good thing with a very bright, hard to tame amp.

Glen Kykendall uses 20 ft guitar cables to tame his Express amps.

If your rig leans towards being too dark, then a low pf/ ft cable should help brighten it a bit, add clarity and definition to the tone.

[Colossal]

Glen Kykendall uses 20 ft guitar cables to tame his Express amps.

Glen has reported using two 18' Mogami cables in series to roll off highs. The Rig Rundown on Premier Guitar of Warren Haynes' rig mentions that he does something similar.

http://www.premierguitar.com/Video/2010 ... aynes.aspx

[Structo]

Thanks for the correction Colossal, I was wondering if I had the right number.

[Colossal]

Thanks for the correction Colossal, I was wondering if I had the right number.

Hey Tom, I wasn't trying to correct you or anything. 18, 20 meh...not much difference there. I just remembered the post where Glen mentioned that specifically and I did so because I've been in the market for some cables myself recently so this thread is very timely. I'd like to either make them or just buy a couple of Mogamis If they are good enough for Glen, they're more than good enough for me.

Thanks,
Dave