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Help me with George L's!!

#42
They are hard to make (physically hard) -- you really have to push the cables in hard. I have pretty strong hands, and if I make a few of them, it's hard on my hands. The wire/post inside the plug that you impale the cable onto is like a half-inch long. You need to push the wire in, until you feel it hit the back wall of the plug.

You have to use a new, sharp razor, and DO NOT distort the wire. If you need to press down hard with your blade (and you squeeze the wire out of perfectly round shape) you can have problems. A sawing motion is better than squeezing with your blade. Your cut should be perfect. Flat on the end, and a round shape.

You can test your (built) cables right away, by inserting them into your amp input (don't set it super loud) and handling the other end of the cable with your fingers. If it makes a noise, the cable is good. If not, trim the wire at one end and try again.

After you do it a few times, you can usually tell if you are making them correctly, or if you'll have a problem.

These are best used for established boards rather than setups that you are constantly changing around. Is your pedal setup practically written in stone, at this point? Is everything velcroed into place, or ready to be velcroed? Then George Ls are for you.

Only time I had a problem was buying used plugs (here) that had the finish worn off. I couldn't get those to work. Somebody on Talk Bass sold me some worn out George Ls :(
 
#43
Unrepresented said:
Did you do an autopsy of the cable afterwards? See if you're cutting through to the grounding layer with the cap?

I usually don't pull the cable far to the right, just kinda let the cutting edge of the cap do the work. It should all be easy, I know once I figured out the first one, the rest were a snap.
Click to expand...

Yeah, on the first one, that's what was happening. The second one, I made sure and pull the wire down further, 90 degrees to the plug shank, and let the screw cap do the work going into it.

Now at this point, I've only made two (3 inches long each, very short), and I'm considering boxing the whole thing up and selling here. I almost didn't open the package because I had heard of all the assembly issue that someone might have, and of failing during gigs and possibly failing after moving pedals around your board.
 
#44
K2000 said:
They are hard to make (physically hard) -- you really have to push the cables in hard. I have pretty strong hands, and if I make a few of them, it's hard on my hands. The wire/post inside the plug that you impale the cable onto is like a half-inch long. You need to push the wire in, until you feel it hit the back wall of the plug.

You have to use a new, sharp razor, and DO NOT distort the wire. If you need to press down hard with your blade (and you squeeze the wire out of perfectly round shape) you can have problems. A sawing motion is better than squeezing with your blade. Your cut should be perfect. Flat on the end, and a round shape.

You can test your (built) cables right away, by inserting them into your amp input (don't set it super loud) and handling the other end of the cable with your fingers. If it makes a noise, the cable is good. If not, trim the wire at one end and try again.

After you do it a few times, you can usually tell if you are making them correctly, or if you'll have a problem.

These are best used for established boards rather than setups that you are constantly changing around. Is your pedal setup practically written in stone, at this point? Is everything velcroed into place, or ready to be velcroed? Then George Ls are for you.

Only time I had a problem was buying used plugs (here) that had the finish worn off. I couldn't get those to work. Somebody on Talk Bass sold me some worn out George Ls :(
Click to expand...

Believe you me, I pushed it hard in there, and I felt it hit the back wall of the shank.

Good point about sawing instead of mashing to cut the wire. I thought that may be a problem, but I figured that any oblation that the wire suffered, would be concentric again after insertion into the shank tube, since it is maching perfectly round and there's only one way for the wire to get down there, and that's if it's round also.

As for my pedal board, I wanted to have it set in stone once these cables were made, but I guess it's not gonna work.

Good advice you have. Thanks.

I've got 9.5' of cable left (made only 2-3" cables) and all the plugs. Probably sell it all here.
 
#45
loopmantra said:
my point is,i had none problems with the george l's(so far),so
I am not so sure HOW on earth could you fail at assembling each and ev'ry one, 'cause it seems too easy,but ok.I understand the frustration.:D
Click to expand...

Yes, that's my very point too. It's so easy, how could I be getting NO sound from them? Now, I've only made two, but I don't want to go through the entire 10' of cable like this, like an earlier poster in this thread did.
 
#46
i have to say i've been using george L's for a little while now, prob 2 years, and had a few duds when wiring up my board initially.

i'm seriously considering going back to soldered cables, as i've had the L's crap out at practise a couple of times, and once at a gig. i play in 2 diff bands, and swap pedals out on my board twice a week - the george L's don't seem to like that!
 
#47
morrisonhendrix said:
Good point about sawing instead of mashing to cut the wire. I thought that may be a problem, but I figured that any oblation that the wire suffered, would be concentric again after insertion into the shank tube, since it is maching perfectly round and there's only one way for the wire to get down there, and that's if it's round also.
Click to expand...

Well, that would be incorrect. If you distort the wire by cutting, it's not going to be fixed when you impale it. You need to trim those ends and re-cut.

You have to do it "perfect".
 
#48
Well, watching the video, he's using a box knife, and HE'S PRESSING DOWN AND NOT SAWING. I dare say that his cut is not mashing the wire at all. I think it is mashing it slightly. I'll get a brand new Xacto blade (although the one I have isn't dull) or a new razor blade and try again on one of these that I messed up.

Any oblation that the wire experienced after I cut it wasn't much.
 
#49
I can only repeat that mashing the wire is one place where you can go wrong. That was my experience. (Also, you don't HAVE to saw, that was just my suggestion. I might saw through the outer coating, then press/saw forward just slightly with one motion.)

There are also times when it seems like you do everything right, and it still doesn't work, and you need to redo it. It is a little fussy.
 

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