Patch Cable Help

[Frets]

Okay so I live in a small area with not many options for store that carry supplies and Im wanting to make a small patch cable for my JCM900 MKIII amp( the loop effect). So I travel to my local Lowes/Home Depot expecting to find some type of wire that would have some shielding in it. I couldnt get any help in Home Depot. Travel to Lowe's and find one guy waiting for 20 mins and says to me to try over home depot. I had to laugh cause I just came from there and told him it was the same thing over there. Plus the guy was on lunch and no one knew when he was coming off lunch. He stormed out of Lowes. I found a worker one that didnt know much about wire but at least I was able to get him to operate the spool rotator. To my suprise they have 0 wire that is shielded with just 2 wires. They use to carry a gray covered wire that had one insulated wire and a ground which worked. But now nothing.

 

My question would a piece of RG6 wire work? I know its a solid copper wire but its shielded and does have a ground wire. Im pretty much stuck and this was the only other wire I thought may work.

 

Any thoughts or advice on this?

[WRGKMC]

It works but very poorly. TV cable is 75 ohms and designed to carry frequencies up in the Mega and Giga hertz ranges, not in the 20 to 20K Hz ranges. Second the cable uses aluminum and steel braded shielding. Neither of these can be soldered without a cold solder joint. Cable TV uses crimp connectors only. You cannot solder steel or aluminum, they can only be welded.

 

Best suggestion I have is go to Wal-Mart or target. They should have stereo RCA connectors for connecting Hi Fi gear up. You could cut one of those up if you want. I do suggest you just buying them however. Its cheaper then buying the 1/4" ends and wire and you'll have a much more reliable patch cable. You can buy the molded type for connecting pedals for about a buck a piece. Even if they go bad, a bag of 10 may last you many years. Two decent 1/4" jacks cost at least $10 and you still have to solder it skillfully.

 

Back in the day you could make your own cables and save money making your own but with the low cost of imports now, it cost less just to buy what you need and be done with it.

 

A single cable with quality connectors is less then $5 http://www.ebay.com/itm/12-Guitar-Pa...-/330553522331 Those Switchcraft connectors are close to $4 each and you still have to have the cable. http://www.parts-express.com/switchc...ickel--093-128

 

For the cheap ones you can get 10 for $1.40 apiece and even less if you dig around. http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-PACK-1-ri...-/301542502942

 

These are $1.15 each http://www.ebay.com/itm/6-Guitar-Ped...-/141362317094

 

Of course if you want better you can pay more. Don't bother with the cable TV stuff. Its non audio and even though you can get a signal to pass it does weird things to the signal. It doesn't block hum very well either. Aluminum shielding is non Ferris and doesn't collect the magnetic waves the same as copper iron or nickel. It has a skin effect. Low frequency waves like AC hum can pass right through it and higher waves ride on the surface of the metal. This is good for data cables because hum is well below its range and the surface effect keep the data inside the cable and prevents it from leaking out, much like a hose and high frequency static or magnetic waves cant get into the cable.

 

In audio you want metal like copper that have a high permeability to low frequency magnetic waves. 70% shielding is you budget stuff. It shouldn't allow much hum in on shorty cable runs. 90% shielding is preferred cause it will prevent just about all hum. This is important especially when you use high gain boxes that will amplify any noise in the guitar chain many times.

[Frets]

Much thanks. No wonder why I couldnt solder the ground wire to the sleeve. lol! It drove me nuts and I figured something had to be wrong since the solder was just melting past the wire and onto the sleeve.

Tried it for a "what the heck Im bored" moment. Found your post today and it all fit together. Again thank you. It was a BIG help in understanding this.

[isaac42]

Reverb.com has 10 ft guitar cords for $7 shipped. $9 for 20 ft. That'd get you some usable though probably not terribly high quality cable for not much money, along with some plugs thrown in.

[Frets]

Much thanks isaac42 Ill have to check that out.

[bentsnake]

.

Just chiming in to agree with WRGKMC, I've had noprob results with patch cables from eBay.

 

Also cutting long cables to make shorter ones. But of course for this you have to a have a braided copper shield, a Mylar shield is near-impossible to connect. If the seller doesn't state or doesn't know what the shield is, you just have to keep looking.

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[WRGKMC]

Believe it or not, You can buy Mic cables cheaper then guitar cables. You can buy like a 50" mic cable, cut it down into shorter guitar cables and add the 1/4" jacks. A mic cable has 2 inner core wires for a balanced pair. You have your choice, You can use only one of them and ground the second core wire to the shield, or combine the two core wires to make for one thicker core conductor. I've done them both ways and there isn't any noticeable difference in tone. I usually choose to ground the second because it adds to the cables shielding.

 

The good thing about mic cable is its usually very durable and often times has added strengthening materials. Even the budget stuff usually has thicker core wires which gives you better fidelity and wider frequency response a mic produces.