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Cable Noise

S

spyingcracker

May 27, 2004
104
3
#1
I was just plugging my bass into the amp when I realized that the cable is picking up noise. Not like it's not insulated, but if I move the cable around, the sound of the cable comes through the amp.

What causes this, and do I have to get a new cable to remedy the problem?
 
#7
Peter McFerrin said:
Even expensive cables have a problem whereby repeated strain causes a breakdown of the insulation. There's really nothing you can do about it except buy a new cable.

This is why a lot of guys make their own cables, by the way. You go through a lot if you gig even a little bit.
Click to expand...

Is the quality of homemade cables comparable to storebought? What about the ease of obtaining the parts/assembly/price?
 
#11
Wow, you don't know how to solder?

Well, hes a quick tutorial: Plug in the soldering iron (under 15 bucks), let it heat up, and then put the solder on where you want it soldered to, and then just put the inron on both surfaces - and viola!, its done.

Er, it takes a little bit of time to get used to, or at least not burning yourself or using an excessivly high amount. Started soldering in say, 7th grade I think.
 
#12
Eric Cameron said:
This is why, if you can, change all your jacks over to XLR. The amount of cable noise problems you have will drop like, well, something that drops really really fast. Yes, it's expensive, but it allows you to run longer cables, and use much heavier-duty cables.

Rock on
Eric
Click to expand...


Hey Eric, is it safe to use XLR as their own extension cords? I was just wondering if it was safe since I've been using the technique more and more.


[/hijack]
 
#13
Minger said:
Wow, you don't know how to solder?

Well, hes a quick tutorial: Plug in the soldering iron (under 15 bucks), let it heat up, and then put the solder on where you want it soldered to, and then just put the inron on both surfaces - and viola!, its done.

Er, it takes a little bit of time to get used to, or at least not burning yourself or using an excessivly high amount. Started soldering in say, 7th grade I think.
Click to expand...
Actually, you want to heat the surfaces of what you want soldered, and melt the solder using the heated piece, not the iron.
 
#14
The Golden Boy said:
Actually, you want to heat the surfaces of what you want soldered, and melt the solder using the heated piece, not the iron.
Click to expand...
Indeed. And soldering is an art, with a relatively steep, though brief, learning curve. Not knowing how to solder isn't at all unusual, but all it takes is a word of proper instruction and a bit of practice to get the hang of it. Not putting the iron to the solder is an important bit of such information...
 
#15
I make all my cables and even some effects. It's cool to be able to pick the right jack for each cable and each bass. :) And what's more, some very-very old (probably older than me) cable from my basement proved to be much more rugged and noise free than any reasonable solution from local music shop. Not as nice though.
 
#18
Eric Cameron said:
This is why, if you can, change all your jacks over to XLR. The amount of cable noise problems you have will drop like, well, something that drops really really fast. Yes, it's expensive, but it allows you to run longer cables, and use much heavier-duty cables.
Click to expand...

:confused:

Would you care to explain this? I cannot see how this would help. A bass is an unbalanced signal. Unless you add a transformer to make the output of your bass balanced you gain nothing cause you still have an unbalanced signal. The only noise rejection benifit of an XLR(and really it is just a balanced line, you could use a balanced 1/4") is that the signal is balanced and therefor cancels the noise that is common on both sides of the signal.

How is it going to let you run heavier duty cables? Most XLRs are a shielded twisted pair vs the single shielded conductor of a standard instrument cable, thus a cable of the same gage would be larger and give you no advantage. In any normal length of cable (I'll be extreme here and say 50', but this likely holds true for more) you will notice no change by increasing the gage of the wire. Copper is copper, not matter what monster cables or any of the audiofools with $500 speaker cables tell you.
 
#19
Skorzen said:
How is it going to let you run heavier duty cables? Most XLRs are a shielded twisted pair vs the single shielded conductor of a standard instrument cable, thus a cable of the same gage would be larger and give you no advantage.
Click to expand...
Might he be referring to low impedance electronics? IIRC the original LP Recording and LP Recording bass had the low impedance pickups- supposedly allowing for longer cable runs...
Minger said:
Oh. Well, it worked with the stuff in school I guess...but thanks for the tip.
Click to expand...
Just melting solder onto the metal is a 'cold solder joint' waiting to happen, especially if you're going to be using it on something like an instrument cable. Hope that saves you a bit of heartache!:)
 

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