Pro tip: Make your own instrument and patch cables (because reasons)
/Achtung! She-shredders, non-binary face melters, tonedaddies, plunkers, plinkers, weekend-winery-warriors - guitarists all - if you take your sound seriously and are willing to do some minor wire stripping and soldering – I highly recommend making your own cables. For your consideration:
1. Better sound – depending on your current setup, higher-quality cable (including build quality of the components and the final assembly) can clean up muddiness, noise and other artifacts that color your sound. In addition, using lower capacitance cable for your lead cable or any cable prior to your signal going through a buffered pedal (usually a Fuzz) - will brighten up your sound by letting more treble pass through.
2. Lower cost – in general, bulk cable and audio connectors cost less than a finished product with the same component and build quality. I support independent makers when I can; however, if like me, you are on a tight budget, a DIY option is a great alternative.
3. Customization – you can build to any length and form factor you require. This is key when you go to populate your pedal board. For ease of use and general neatness, I prefer to not have any excess cabling getting in the way. In addition, for the unbuffered sections of your signal chain, to keep the overall capacitance low, you want to use the least amount of cable – and an excess meter of cable can add unwanted capacitance.
4. Quality components – this goes hand in hand with customization. High-end cable companies will use fantastic hardware on their cables (G&H plugs, Neutrik silent plugs, etc.), premium low-capacitance cable, and list the specifications at the forefront – and as such, I tend not to worry about their products. Quality matters when you are using cables with no-name components, no specs or capacitance rating, and other questionable features.
A primer on cable capacitance.
You can think of instrument cable as a filter capacitor. In this role the cable (capacitor) determines which frequencies pass from the instrument to the amplifier. Lower capacitance allows for the passage of higher frequencies – can you say High-Pass Filter (HPF)?
When considering which cable to use for your lead and pre-buffer patch cables, you must account for overall capacitance– where overall capacitance is a function of the capacitance of the conductor(s) per unit of length. For example, if you have 3 meters of our CA-0446 instrument cable with a capacitance of 66pF/m, your overall capacitance will be 198pF.
Let’s say you have a 5-meter lead cable of Brand-X with a capacitance of 132pF/m, thus a total capacitance of 660pF. You are looking to replace it with a lower capacitance cable to brighten up your sound. If you opt for a 10-meter length of CA-0446 at 66pF/m, it would have the same overall capacitance as your original cable (66pF/m x 10m = 660pF). As a result, your sound would remain pretty much the same. In this case, the best option to prevent high-end loss would be to match the length of the original lead cable, and your overall capacitance would be cut in half to a miniscule 330pF/m.
As such, when it came time to replace my own cabling and by extension add harmonically rich treble frequencies to my sound: 1. I used low capacitance cable throughout my chain and 2: I kept my pre-buffered cabling as short as possible.
My list of ingredients for great lead and patch cables – all at URS Electronics:
Cable materials
BTPA CA-0446 Ultra-low capacitance instrument cable
BTPA CA-0678 Ultra-low capacitance patch cable
Neutrik NP2X and NP2RX ¼” TS plugs
Square Plug SP400 low profile right-angle ¼” TS plugs
Square Plug SP4S low profile ¼” TS plugs
Tools and additional materials
Weller WE51 Soldering Station (WE1010 has replaced the WE51 station)
Kester 60/40 Pocket-Pak Leaded Solder
Tempo PA1123 Wire Strippers – 10 AWG size is perfect for stripping the CA-0678
Proskit 900-100 Soldering Aid Set – these are great for unbraiding the copper shield
Proskit Helping Hands with magnifying glass
Digital Multimeter
Soldering Mat
Solder wick
Some tips for the process
Use a guitar pedal’s ¼” jack to securely hold the plug while soldering
SP400 plugs w/ CA-0678 cable – remove ½” length of the wire jacket to expose the braided copper
SP4S plugs w/ CA-0678 cable – strip ¼” or less of the cable jacket, there is not lot of room in the plug, plus the screw downs grip the outer jacket
Pre-tin all conductors (wire and plugs) but do not overdo it.
After twisting the copper conductor into a ground lead, remove a small section of the (black) conductive film from the center dielectric. If you do not, you may get unwanted noise in the final product.
After soldering your conductors onto the SP400 ¼” plugs, do not replace the plug’s rear housings until you have tested your connection with the continuity setting on your multimeter.
Make sure to thread the rear portion of the SPS4 down the cable before soldering or you will be sorry.
Parting thoughts
When I started playing I never thought about the quality of cable – and for the most part it sounded fine. However, higher quality cable changed my sonic world for the better and I do not see myself going back to the “before-fore times”. I hope you will take the plunge in DIY cable-world because I am certain it will make a measurable and positive difference in your sonic palette.
If you have the funds I recommend supporting any of these top notch small cable OEMs: Caulfield Cables, Divine Noise, End-to-End Audio, Revelation Cable Co..
