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Frustrated with Lava DIY kit - Alternatives needed!

Fab Savage

Fab Savage

Oct 27, 2009
199
11
Perth, Australia
#1
Hi guys

After another gig last night where I suffered my signal intermittently cutting out and I spent half the time hovering over my pedal board adjusting cables I have decided I need to re think the routing on my board.

I run about 9 pedals (in loops) using exclusively lava pedalboard DIY cable/plugs. I am finding that these are really unreliable. I have re 'made' the cables several times over following the instructions on the Lava site and you tube videos, and still find that they don't handle being moved around/gigged very well. I willl admit that they aren't cable tied, which I am may help, but when I had a simpler set up with pre-made cables, I never had these signal problems, and so I am open to alternative solutions at this stage as I think I am done with these cables.

For those running medium/larger boards, what are you guys using and have you needed to overcome these problems before?

Thanks very much
 
#2
For what it's worth, I use the Lava's and haven't had an issue on them on my board with 8/9 pedals on it. It took me a little while to get the hang of making them correctly, and I leave a little bit of extra cable sticking thru the sheeth than the instructions show. Never once had them crap out on me, they've been more reliable than planet wave patches i used before them.
 
#5
Yeah, I had similar horrors with George Ls. More than half of the cables I made either stopped working or are intermittent. I ended up replacing them with my own homemade cables. As someone already asked, if you are at all decent with a soldering iron, you can make vastly superior cables, for less money than any of the solderless kits.
 
#6
Solderless cables, in my opinion, are just as relianle as soldered cables - but only if you take equal care in assembling them!!!! I've been using George L's on my boards for over 10 years with zero failures. And I'm talking hard touring treatment!

I find that I probably spend equal time carefully assembling a solderless cable as I do a soldered one.

I do not recommend solderless for guitar to board, or board to amp runs though. Too much abuse in those runs!
 
#7
Pollinator95 said:
Can you solder?[/QUOTE

I can...not amazingly proficient but maybe 6/10 in terms of skill level

bigchiefbc said:
Yeah, I had similar horrors with George Ls. More than half of the cables I made either stopped working or are intermittent. I ended up replacing them with my own homemade cables. As someone already asked, if you are at all decent with a soldering iron, you can make vastly superior cables, for less money than any of the solderless kits.
Click to expand...

I do like the idea of custiom length cable with a larger pedal board. Especially if effects get rearranged every so often and different length patches are needed. Having an option which is cheaper is also a binus as the LAVA kit can be expensive if you need lots of plugs/ and cable!

scotch said:
Solderless cables, in my opinion, are just as relianle as soldered cables - but only if you take equal care in assembling them!!!! I've been using George L's on my boards for over 10 years with zero failures. And I'm talking hard touring treatment!

I find that I probably spend equal time carefully assembling a solderless cable as I do a soldered one.

I do not recommend solderless for guitar to board, or board to amp runs though. Too much abuse in those runs!
Click to expand...

After the first couple of times that the Lava cables cut out out me I re did all of the plugs very carefully and spent 10 -15 minutes on each one. They did last longer but after 6 gigs or so I have the same problem again.


I wonder if the Lava cables can be soldered? Might save me spending more money on a whole new set of plugs etc?
Click to expand...
 
#8
I've been using George L's for several years and had only one failure. That only came when I was playing with my effects order at home and did a lot of plugging in and out...excitement overcame proper care I guess and I probably just yanked the cord wrong. No complaints
 
#17
Kobaia said:
Bullet Cables have a stronger connection, and have 3 times are many copper wires in the cable.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that they also look a little easier to assemble!

NeroJazz said:
IME Lava's hold up just fine, the trick is not to put any strain on the cables.

I've only had Lava's crap out on me when put under too much pressure, but that's easily resolved when making the cables in custom lengths.
Click to expand...

Easier said than done - I always make the cables longer than need but I think any movement of the cable eventually ends up unscrewing the plug and loosening the cable. I do move my board around a lot to be fair though.

aens_wife said:
Bullet Cable is the way to go. Really great company and fantastic product. I don't think Aen or I have ever had an issue with them.
Click to expand...

Sounding promising!

JimmyM said:
I just buy those 10 for $10 cables with the molded plugs on Ebay. Lost one so far in 3 years.
Click to expand...

Ahh but Jimmy everyone that has superfluous cash problems knows that the more expensive the cable, the better your tone :p You're probably right its just with a large pedal board I need to be able to have patch cables at varying custom lengths.


So I guess my next question would be has anyone used the Bullet SLUG connectors with a fairly large TBP looper (e.g Cusack pedal board tamer)? Do the plugs fit next to each other OK?

Thanks all for your input
 
#18
I've only seen one Lava assembly video and I can't see the parts very clearly, but it seems like all the strain is on the... screw? The spiral bit that connects the plug to the cable, anyway. Methinks if you tried to add some strain relief like traditional cables have, they would be more reliable.
 

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