What type of patch cables is everyone using for their pedals?

[Old Garage-Bander]

Dude, they are like a weeks wages for enough to do my pedal board. Note less gratuitous misuse of "like" and repent.

They are quite like the ones I make out of guitar cable and jacks for 4 dollars each.

First off, don't waste your money on Gold connectors unless you just like them for the color.
I once went into the local branch of a large electronics retail chain, I needed a video adapter.
The store sold them in Nickle plate and Gold plate. The Gold cost about 30-40 percent more and was all they had on the wall. I asked if he had any more of the Nickle ones.
The guy proceeded to explain to me how gold was a much better conductor of electricity and that I would experience significant signal loss using Nickle.
I then told him that I have worked as a radio/tv broadcast technician most of my adult life and that no one uses Gold connectors at those places.
He then said, "but they look better than the Nickle ones", to which I agreed and bought the thing anyway.
The need of the connector outweighed the need of the plating, or more to the point, my cheapskatedness.

Check Markertek or Full Compas for connectors and bulk cable. One of those places sells cable by the foot.
Likewise, don't get too caught up in cable low capacitance. You are making one foot jumpers. Capacitance will become an issue if you have a whole bunch of pedals ahead of you amp input. And really not nearly as much of an issue going through the effects loop.

 

[Wfrance3]

I got me some Mogami wire, and some switchcraft pancake jacks from the bay. Any time I need a cable, custom length in like 20 minutes (yea I solder slow..). I have a few "store bought" cables left here and there, the GC ones with the blue end sleeves. That's because they give you a free one if they ever fail.

 

[Brian D]

I did use Evidence Audio SIS but they weren't low profile enough for me. Great system but I have a nano board with a lot on it. I switched over to the EBS flat cables earlier in the week. They're a lot more compact.

 

[Blaargh]

Warwick Rock Board flat patch cables- They're pretty sturdy and they're the cheapest low-profile patch cables I've ever found (I'm too lazy to get ones I solder myself)

 

[moishelichtfuss]

Also using the EBS flat cables. I like em.

 

[smeet]

EBS.

 

[Frank_Raider]

EBS. Three years and counting.

 

[JimmyM]

Ya, I've been using EBS's for over 2 years now and haven't had a single failure. More expensive than the multicolored ones Ebay sells for cheap, but still very reasonable.

 

[dannybuoy]

I've posted this in other threads and had plenty of people coming back to say they've not noticed any noise, but nobody seems to have repeated my little experiment.

I put an EBS or Warwick flat cable into a true bypass looper and played in a room with a dimmer switch turned on. Flicking the loop on and off resulted in a ton of noise being added when the presumably poorly shielded cable picked up nearby electrical interference. Repeating with other cables that had metal jack plugs did not produce the same effect.

I was doing a lot of headphone practice at night and found these cables were the primary source of all my noise problems.

 

[Mr. voodoobass]

Ebs flat cables, havn't noticed any problems with mine. But could also mean my whole setup is crap anyway, so don't take my word for it.

 

[JimmyM]

I've posted this in other threads and had plenty of people coming back to say they've not noticed any noise, but nobody seems to have repeated my little experiment.

I put an EBS or Warwick flat cable into a true bypass looper and played in a room with a dimmer switch turned on. Flicking the loop on and off resulted in a ton of noise being added when the presumably poorly shielded cable picked up nearby electrical interference. Repeating with other cables that had metal jack plugs did not produce the same effect.

I was doing a lot of headphone practice at night and found these cables were the primary source of all my noise problems.

I'm not looking to create situations where I can't use them

 

[ukedealer]

I got a bunch of George L's in with a deal when I brought my MP201 and MF102
So yeh, I use George L's

 

[smeet]

I've posted this in other threads and had plenty of people coming back to say they've not noticed any noise, but nobody seems to have repeated my little experiment.

I put an EBS or Warwick flat cable into a true bypass looper and played in a room with a dimmer switch turned on. Flicking the loop on and off resulted in a ton of noise being added when the presumably poorly shielded cable picked up nearby electrical interference. Repeating with other cables that had metal jack plugs did not produce the same effect.

I was doing a lot of headphone practice at night and found these cables were the primary source of all my noise problems.

For a couple of years I did a bunch of gigs with a Pink Floyd tribute. I had about 12 good quality effects chained - distortions, phaser, delay, tremolo, octaver, filter, and so on. It was all hooked together with EBS flat cables. I never once noticed noise or signal degradation problems.

Not a formal experiment, but anecdotal evidence fwiw.

 

[vivaknoxvegas]

EBS from bassstringsonline

 

[Doner Designs]

more recently from Pro Cables N Sound (www.procablesnsound.com)

I have a series Y speakon cable on order from them (so I can use a pair of 6 ohm cabs together).

 

[Doner Designs]

I have a bunch of Mogami cables and don't want to think about how much they cost, especially now that I'm not using many pedals.

 

[kcole4001]

The price of 'decent' patch cables is often pretty ******** here in Canada (think $27 for one 6" cable!).

I need some more since I had two go bad over the years and now had to remove my chorus to use my new Proton for my New Year's
gig.
The (fairly) local store has a Planet Waves solderless pedal board cable kit on clearance for $99, or I could pick up some cheapy multi packs for $24 each.

Anyone use the Planet Waves kit?

 

[smeet]

The price of 'decent' patch cables is often pretty ******** here in Canada (think $27 for one 6" cable!).

I need some more since I had two go bad over the years and now had to remove my chorus to use my new Proton for my New Year's
gig.
The (fairly) local store has a Planet Waves solderless pedal board cable kit on clearance for $99, or I could pick up some cheapy multi packs for $24 each.

Anyone use the Planet Waves kit?

I tried the planet waves kit. Hated it, returned it the same day, and much happier with the EBS cables. Solderless kits sound good in theory but reliability is imo suspect.

EBS flat cables are super flexible and the design lets you save space by getting your pedals closer together.

 

[kcole4001]

Thanks.
I suspected that, unfortunately my locals don't carry EBS.
It's the cheapy route for me, then.

I had been using the ones that came with my Boss board, and as I said, they have actually lasted quite a while.
About 10 years, not bad considering only two have failed, and those were ones I used to connect my volume pedal to the board, so they saw the most movement.

 

[JimmyM]

Nothing wrong with those cheapy cables. I used them for years before the EBS. I darn sure ain't spending $25 for a 6 inch cable, I'll tell you that!