School me on patch cables

pj310

Hello everyone. I wanted some advice on patch cables... I'm building a slightly more lengthy rig now and need something to connect all the bits and bobs together. What's the deal with cable quality? Is thinner or thicker better (in terms of wire and shielding)? Is lowest capacitance best? Which are good brands that won't leave me broke? 

What got me confused was that I had heard good things about Mogami patch cables but I then saw that they actually have a highish capacitance, which threw everything I thought I had read about out of the window. 

Wise me up! Cheers

viz

Get @robdavies at kabl to give you a quote. 

Sassafras

My understanding is that high capacitance cable is only an issue if your board is all true bypass. You can lose some of the high frequency signal.
If you've got a buffered pedal early on in the chain: problem solved.

Sporky

For patch leads capacitance isn't terribly important because the lengths are short. As Sassafras says it's also less of an issue with any buffers in the chain. Cable thickness isn't necessarily an indication of capacitance; the latter is about the distance between the core and the shield and the quality of the insulation between them, whereas the diameter of the cable is largely down to the thickness of the outer sheath.

I would suggest something flexible; when I made my own I used Sommer Spirit, which happens to also be low capacitance. That said I also think Viz is correct - Rob will do a lovely job at a sensible price. 

pj310

Thanks for the input guys, in terms of a buffered pedal do you recommend a dedicated buffer or just a boss pedal or ibanez pedal? Also does it make sense having a dedicated buffer if your board is not entirely true bypass? Because I find that Boss/Ibanez pedals on my board do dull my bypassed signal a tad. Thanks for the inputs!

Gassage

The d'Addario self assembly is amazingly good, as is the SIS System.

I've enough SIS and Monorail to build another rack and happy to chat to you about getting it over to you.

pj310

You have a pm mate

Laurie

EA SIS Is the best!!!!! But everyone knows that

Laurie

PM me, and I'll get you a much better deal Word. Quick *edit*. It just occurred to me that if I were to hook you up with EA SIS out of my own private stash of the stuff, then I'd be cutting in on the UK distributors - and that ain't cool. If for any reason the good man Gassage doesn't have enough of the stuff for your needs, go to Chris Ryan from @CustomPedalBoards. He's a great guy and would certainly hook you up. Cheers..

VertexEffects

pj310 said:

Hello everyone. I wanted some advice on patch cables... I'm building a slightly more lengthy rig now and need something to connect all the bits and bobs together. What's the deal with cable quality? Is thinner or thicker better (in terms of wire and shielding)? Is lowest capacitance best? Which are good brands that won't leave me broke? 

What got me confused was that I had heard good things about Mogami patch cables but I then saw that they actually have a highish capacitance, which threw everything I thought I had read about out of the window. 

Wise me up! Cheers

The capacitance number (in terms of pF per ft. or meter) doesn't always indicate how dark or bright the cable will sound, although it might give you an idea.  There are other factors like the insulators, stranded or solid-core, etc. that will also impact the sound, how the copper is plated...you get the idea

You basically have to assume that the cable you choose is a filter of sorts that will voice your sound a certain way just like a capacitor.

Also consider that each 1/4" plug that you use will have a capacitance as well, and often greater capacitance than the cable length alone.  Often a low capacitance cable is around 20pF per foot, and most connectors are around 10-15 pF per connector, meaning that if you have a 6" patch cable, you have more capacitance in the connectors than in the cable itself.

A lot of this is nullified if you're converting to low impedance by way of a buffer, but each part plays a role depending on how deep you want to get into it.

To my ear, after 100+ pedalboard builds, these are the patch cables I like to work with (in no particular order):

1) Belden 9778 (most neutral IMO, hard to prep for assembly, larger diameter, not that flexible for patch cables).

2) Gepco X-Band (also very neutral, easier to prep that Belden but not as easy as Mogami, not that flexible for patch cables)

3) Mogami 2319 (has a bit of a mid-range exaggeration but still pretty neutral overall, easy to assemble, very flexible)

4) Belden 8412 (has a bit more low-mid emphasis but still fairly neutral [this is what Pete Cornish uses], difficult to prep, not very flexible, very large diameter for patch cables).

If you want to make things easy on yourself and get a good sounding cable, I'd go Mogami 2319.  It assembles fast, easy to prep, very flexible, and with a buffered pedalboard, will have a negligible difference between the other cables.

If you don't mind putting in the time, I think the best sounding (to my ears) is the Belden 9778, but depending on the space you have to run cables and the time you have to assemble it might not be most practical.

For connectors, the Switchcraft/Lava pancake 1/4" connectors are low capacitance and easy for assembly, so I'd go that route as much as possible.  The other model Switchcraft connectors have very high capacitance (20 pF+ per connector), so I'd go with Amphenol if you require traditional R/A or Straight connectors.