Guitar Leads... Simple Question

p90fool

I make up my own from decent cable and Neutriks, but if you really want your leads to last forever just go wireless. 

My board-to-amp lead has a very easy life. 

Jonathangus

thegummy said:

revsorg said:

Isn't that a reason to buy a lead with both types of jack?

Aye so if I put the straight end in the pedal/amp, the other end will fit perfectly in to the front-facing output of the Precision but sits awkwardly in the unique Strat socket.

And if I put the right angled one in the pedal/amp then the other end will go perfectly in to the Strat but will stick right out the front of the Precision!

I'm aware it's very much of a First World problem by any standard but I suppose in the same way that I get a kick out of attention to detail on very nicely designed streamlined gear, it annoys me that this difference is a mild nuisance.

Can't see any downsides of all guitars and basses just having the jack where it is on the Les Paul.

ICBM

thegummy said:

Aye so if I put the straight end in the pedal/amp, the other end will fit perfectly in to the front-facing output of the Precision but sits awkwardly in the unique Strat socket.

And if I put the right angled one in the pedal/amp then the other end will go perfectly in to the Strat but will stick right out the front of the Precision!

Cables are not directional despite what some people will tell you, so just use it the other way round depending on which instrument you’re using.

Musicwolf

thegummy said:

.
Can't see any downsides of all guitars and basses just having the jack where it is on the Les Paul.

I'm guessing that Leo Fender saw a cost penalty in doing it that way

p90fool

Musicwolf said:

thegummy said:

.
Can't see any downsides of all guitars and basses just having the jack where it is on the Les Paul.

I'm guessing that Leo Fender saw a cost penalty in doing it that way

I doubt it, the Strat jackplate is not an off-the-shelf part, and it's a more complex rout and drilling than a Les Paul. 

Musicwolf

Yes, I couldn't see the benefit myself off the top of my head but I'm guessing that he was already pressing the Tele jackplates at the time.  Certainly everything else about the Strat suggests that it's been 'designed for manufacture' (bolt on neck, pickups and controls mounted on the scratchplate etc).

Of course the benefit of a Strat type jack is that it is easier to plug with the guitar on the strap.  I don't know, were angled jacks common in 1954?

zepp76

I've tried the Fender tweed cables but every single one failed on me. I now use Lava vintage tweed cables and they are fantastic. I've also got some white Ernie Ball Ultraflex cables to use with my Orange CR120 purely because they match the white of the amp face, how vain!!

stickyfiddle

jonnyburgo said:

I’ve got a coily bullet cable that I’ve used nearly every day for the last 10+ years. I haven’t treated it with kid gloves, it just gets chucked in the box I think it was about £25. I haven’t had to repair it yet. I’ve also got a tweedy Fender one that is going a bit dodgy. I’ve had that one about 8yrs.

Bullet cables are great. I've been using their solderless patch cables for getting on for a decade now and never had trouble, which is quite remarkable for solderless. They've never quite caught on among the instagram-pedalboard crowd though

ICBM

p90fool said:

Musicwolf said:

thegummy said:

.
Can't see any downsides of all guitars and basses just having the jack where it is on the Les Paul.

I'm guessing that Leo Fender saw a cost penalty in doing it that way

I doubt it, the Strat jackplate is not an off-the-shelf part, and it's a more complex rout and drilling than a Les Paul. 

No it’s not - it’s done from the front of the guitar so is part of the same tooling operation to rout the control cavity, even though it’s a separate hole. The Les Paul one is an extra tooling step so more expensive to implement. This is why all Fender guitars after the Tele and original P-Bass dropped the side-mounted jack, and why all Fender guitars after the Strat were designed with all the hardware fitted from the front, so there was no need to do a second tooling step on the other side of the body.

The cost of the plate itself is irrelevant really, in the number Fender were having made - but it was still cheaper to integrate the jack into the pickguard or a control plate as was done on all later designs, since that saved a labour step of wiring the jack separately. Leo was a master of combining cost-effective manufacturing and functional design in a way that looked like it was meant to be only the second of those .

thegummy

ICBM said:

thegummy said:

Aye so if I put the straight end in the pedal/amp, the other end will fit perfectly in to the front-facing output of the Precision but sits awkwardly in the unique Strat socket.

And if I put the right angled one in the pedal/amp then the other end will go perfectly in to the Strat but will stick right out the front of the Precision!

Cables are not directional despite what some people will tell you, so just use it the other way round depending on which instrument you’re using.

I do that, it's just the nuisance of having to do that rather than just unplugging one straight in to the other.

I wish they'd converted the Strat to the front jack on the pickguard when they decided that was the best. The Strat's the only instrument I've seen that isn't better using angled jacks.

I wonder why they didn't, maybe already had a load of the plates made?

EvanEvanNorth

I have been using the BOSS WL50 for the past month and havent looked back........so far.

ICBM

thegummy said:

I do that, it's just the nuisance of having to do that rather than just unplugging one straight in to the other.

Really?!!

So presumably you're using the same pedal/amp for bass as for guitar - or are you plugging straight into a recording interface?

thegummy said:

I wish they'd converted the Strat to the front jack on the pickguard when they decided that was the best. The Strat's the only instrument I've seen that isn't better using angled jacks.

I wonder why they didn't, maybe already had a load of the plates made?

Leo said that he never liked to change the designs after they were put into production since it made keeping spares more difficult.

As far as I can think of, the P-Bass is the only one that was given a significant redesign without a model name change - even the Musicmaster and Duo-Sonic were called "II" after the switch to the offset body.

thegummy

ICBM said:

thegummy said:

I do that, it's just the nuisance of having to do that rather than just unplugging one straight in to the other.

Really?!!

So presumably you're using the same pedal/amp for bass as for guitar - or are you plugging straight into a recording interface?

Aye it's an amp modelling pedal that has an SVT model and guitar amp models. (Atomic Amplifire)

ICBM said:

thegummy said:

I wish they'd converted the Strat to the front jack on the pickguard when they decided that was the best. The Strat's the only instrument I've seen that isn't better using angled jacks.

I wonder why they didn't, maybe already had a load of the plates made?

Leo said that he never liked to change the designs after they were put into production since it made keeping spares more difficult.

As far as I can think of, the P-Bass is the only one that was given a significant redesign without a model name change - even the Musicmaster and Duo-Sonic were called "II" after the switch to the offset body.

Makes it difficult to Google the old style one specifically, whether trying to find the original or parts in that style or clones.