Patch cables.. advice?

skunkwerx

Righto, in the market for a whole new wiring of the pedalboard. 

I'm not averse to spending a bit on patch cables, as I aim to order my board differently/neater and will need some made up to specific lengths. 

I'm looking on designacable and there are only a couple patch cables I can see so far. Either pancake jacks or neutrik with either sommer or van damme cable.

I currently use fender custom shop tweed patch cables, and soundwise they are fine, pickup no noise etc, but they are thick as hell and don't bend well or allow for tight turns. 

So I'll need something more bendy, thinner perhaps, but is that more likely to pick up unwanted noise in the system? 

I'm interested in the Van Damme XKE cable. I presume its the exact same cable thickness etc that is used for both patch leads and guitar leads? 

As I see you can specify whatever length, and this cable comes up under both instrument leads and patch cable sections on the site, it made me wonder.

These are the options I can see under patch cables: 

In the description of this one It says the cable is flexible and can be bent at 90 degree angles.. it doesnt state that in the others below it.. so Is it the same van damme cable ya think? 



Or 



Or either of these 2. 



This one is the cable that comes under both patch and guitar leads. 
So it would be ideal as I could order a bunch of them in varying lengths + use one as my guitar leads from Guitar to pedal board and from pedalboard to amp. 

Or do the actual guitar leads need to be thicker? Me no no. 



Im leaning toward the neutrik jacks, as I'm not sure the pancake ones will fit next to each other in certain pedals (looper). I'll have to ask em to make me up some with right angle to right angle though, as they arent shown..


any thoughts welcome!

crunchman

I bought pancake jacks and made my own last time I needed some.

The pancake jacks definitely save space if you have pedals with side mounted in and out.  If they are top mounted (e.g. Thorpy, Strymon) then it doesn't matter so much.

Corvus

I went EBS Flats, they saved a ton of space with the jacks being flat and narrow. Probably not the best strain relief in the world but mine've survived a few total rejigs so far. Also Warwick do very similar ones for a bit less money, got some of those too because couldn't get that size in the EBS.

ESBlonde

The quality cable like Van Damme is made thick to withstand the rigours of stage life being trodden on and twisted about. This attribute is not so desirable for a 'fixed installation' like a pedal board unless you swap pedals about on a weekly basis. When the pro's make racks for studios or sound reinforcement they use reels of thinner insulated cable because the copper and screening are what matters not the physical durability. But most people know that proper brands matter ;-) and buy that anyway, so the mass makers give them what they want. Buying a huge reel of cable just to make a few patch leads is not financially viable for us hobby makers and the strain relief/cable grip on jack plugs can struggle with some thin cable too.

skunkwerx

Cheers for the input guys!

skunkwerx

I did see those Ebs cables, but I saw a review where a guy tested a bunch of cables, and they looked like winners until they scored among the worst for being noisy.. So I've been a bit reluctant to buy so far.

TateFX

Van Damme is great, might be worth talking to Chris https://www.practicalpatch.co.uk Hes made me some guitar leads and speaker cables up recently because i just don't have the time. Very good service worth a look at least. 

boogieman

I made my own from Sommer Spirit cable and a mix of HiCon pancake and Neutrik angled jacks. It's very simple if you can solder to a reasonable standard. No noise at all and the cable is very flexible. You have to watch out with pancake jacks that there's enough space if the pedal sockets are close together, those square ones are a good solution. 

Keefy

I re-did my 'board with Warwick Rockboard patch cables. I worked out what I would need in each length, then ordered 1 or 2 extra of each. I have had no problems with them, unlike the solderless jobs they replaced. IIRC the best deals on these were to be had from Gear4Music.

WiresDreamDisasters

I like the look of the EBS ones. I've got a few Warwick flat midi cables, those are very good. So I think I'd take a chance on the patch cables too.

Keefy

WiresDreamDisasters said:

I like the look of the EBS ones. I've got a few Warwick flat midi cables, those are very good. So I think I'd take a chance on the patch cables too.

I don't know whether there is much difference between the EBS and the Warwick cables - they both have flat angled jacks. Warwick do a a more metall-y/gold-plated version too.

Thinking about it, I couldn't get the Warwick jacks to go into the input socket of my Subdecay pedal so I had to use a home-made cable with full-size angled jacks.

Gulliver

No one's mentioned it yet - but I'm a big fan of the Evidence SIS system. Not cheap, but if you're not constantly redesigning your board they're hard-wearing cables.  (i've had 1 go a bit dodge in the last 3 years, and I think that's probably from misuse by me and a drunk guy dropping shit on my board, rather than a defect or flaw.

Corvus

I don't get any noise from the EBS, although don't think I've ever had noisy patch cables come to that. Power supply made a far bigger difference even between properly isolated ones.

Arjailer

No noise from EBS flat cables here. Had them on the board about a year now, and they've been great.

If I remember right, the test where they were noisy was when they we're being physically moved/hit ... which doesn't  happen on a pedalboard - not on my pedalboard anyway.

boogieman

Corvus said:

I don't get any noise from the EBS, although don't think I've ever had noisy patch cables come to that. Power supply made a far bigger difference even between properly isolated ones.

This is a good point... keep the patch leads and the power physically apart and you should get less hum. Also try moving the pedals around on the board if you do get noise to see if it makes any difference, they could be picking up noise from the power supply. 

NelsonP

Keefy said:

I re-did my 'board with Warwick Rockboard patch cables. I worked out what I would need in each length, then ordered 1 or 2 extra of each. I have had no problems with them, unlike the solderless jobs they replaced. IIRC the best deals on these were to be had from Gear4Music.

+1 for the Rockboard cables

guitarblaster

I use the ebs gold premiums and I love them! They’re so small and look cool. I have no noise at all with a coiks dc5 under the board. 

prowla

If it's a permanent setup (like a Pedaltrain with all the pedals velcro'd on) then I like EBS flats; they save plenty of space.

I don't think there's any point in going for the blinged-up (premium) version and prefer the dull black between the pedals TBH.

I would be disinclined to use them for something which was being regularly moved, unplugged & plugged, etc., as they've not got a lot to grab hold of and don't have (bulky) ruggedised cables.

english_bob

crunchman said:

I bought pancake jacks and made my own last time I needed some.

The pancake jacks definitely save space if you have pedals with side mounted in and out.  If they are top mounted (e.g. Thorpy, Strymon) then it doesn't matter so much.

The only drawback with those is that they're often too wide for adjacent sockets, like if you're running in stereo or with top mounted jacks close together. I've used pancakes for ages but had to buy a load of straight jacks to re-terminate a bunch of leads when I moved to an ES-5.

Those square pancake jacks would probably work in most of those circumstances but they're expensive and harder to find.

skunkwerx

Well I've ordered 5 ebs flats, one 58cm the rest 28.. should at least get the board wired in a new config. 

Will see what happens. £60 odd they cost with delivs