Making your own speaker cables

Hey guys =)

I asked a friend who builds amps about this but never heard back from him. I'm curious about speaker cables - the kind that go between an amp head and a speaker cabinet. I became curious about this after reading that it's not good to use a guitar cable and that using one can cause damage. However, every time I see that mentioned, no one says exactly what type of damage or what it does to cause said damage.

From what I gather, the type of cable needed is not the shielded type with stranded wire running down the center, an insulator, a braided shield, then the outer insulation, but instead a side-by-side wiring. I asked my friend about what types of wiring can be used to make my own cables. That's the part that went unanswered. I asked about heavy duty lamp-type cord or speaker cable (like Monster cable home speaker wiring stuff that's about 12awg).

The original cable that came with my amp (half stack, ca 1975 by a company very few people have heard of) is kinda short and just seems a bit wimpy. I'd like to have something a bit longer to use so I don't have to have the head on top of the cabinet.

Answers, thoughts, suggestions, anyone? Yeah, I know I type a lot. I'm wordy like that.

Guitar cables have high capacitence due to the shielding and they are unbalanced. The shielded side has more conductivity than the core. It may cause the peak of one side of the wave to be lower than another which isnt good for the head or the sound. They are also designed to carry a lower voltage signal. You may not have a problem with low wattage applications but for high wattage power heads the voltage can arch across the dialectrec which is disastorus for the head. Why take a chance.

What happens to the cords themselves in my experience is the cords become crackely when used for a signal, then the wire separates from the plastic insulation inside, and the plastic coating shrinks. Oxygen gets in and corrodes the copper and and then they tend to short out. This is mainly the result of heat generated from the high voltage. It ruins the wire for signal use either making it noisy, Microphonic, or just plain unrelyable. Copper once it corrodes/tarnishes is poor conductor plus the copper fibers will tear when it separates from the plastic from bending or pulling. The tarnish is what causes the noise when using it as a signal carrier.

In my own PA applications I built my own from AC Extension cords, The Orange ones you get from Home Depot for like $10~$20 for 50'. Theyre cheaper than anything you can buy elsewhere and only require some good jacks solderd on.

Mains cable is perfect electrically for the job. Or any non-premium speaker cable that has good hefty conductors and is double-insulated. I do not believe there is any good evidence to suggest that the premium speaker cables are any better at all (and there's plenty to suggest they're not).

In general, the shorter the better, as long as it's long enough to reach from the amp to the speaker and not be pulled tight.

In general, bigger is better, but you're not likely to hear any difference if it's a short cord. Even the very thin 22 gauge wire often sold as speaker wire has a resistance of only 0.016 ohms per foot, so a 3 ft cord would have a resistance of less than 0.1 ohm (.016*3, doubled because there are two wires in the cord, one going each way = 0.096 ohms). Personally, I'd never intentionally use anything less than 18 gauge, and I prefer 16. Anything heavier than that can get hard to work with, but if that's not a problem, go with 12 gauge if you want to. It's just not necessary, unless you're making long cable runs, like 50-100ft, as you might with PA speakers. Also, you'd want to go heavier if you're feeding high power to the speaker, as with a kilowatt bass amp.

Like WRGKMC said, instrument cable is unsuitable because it has high capacitance, and wasn't meant to take the current load for a speaker. It can potentially damage a high wattage amp because the capacitance lowers the effective impedance of the speaker and cable. To be honest, I've never actually seen an amp damaged this way, but I've heard stories. I have heard a PA speaker connected with a 50ft. instrument cable, and it sounded dull and bottom-heavy.

Also, a shield isn't necessary for speaker cable. It would take one helluva strong magnetic field to induce enough voltage to cause any noise when the signal level is already a few dozen volts peak-to-peak.

"Zip cord" type speaker cable will work fine between a head and amp. You can get 30ft rolls of Acoustic Research zip cord at Home Depot. A roll of 16 gauge costs $12, and a roll of 12 gauge costs $25.

For longer runs, like floor monitors and PA speakers, I'd use two conductor jacketed cable. It can stand up to foot traffic and abuse better, and it's easier to roll up after a gig.

+1. Get a roll of the stuff. It's always worked well for me. If you've got halfway decent soldering skills, you'll be fine. Use good sturdy plugs though - that's where your vulnerability lies.

I like the orange extention cords. They're tuff and easy to see, less of a trip hazard.

Wow, some great replies. Thanks, guys!

I never thought of using a mains cord such as an orange extension. I have a decent amount of that stuff; any time someone cuts through one accidentally (power tools, mowers, edgers, etc), I grab the cord before they can throw it away. I haven't paid for an extension in over 20 years because of that. I cut off the ragged end and solder on a new end, heat shrinking the wires and sometimes use Plasti-Dip over that.

I was planning on using one of these that I recently bought when they were on the Stupid Deal of the Day for $1.50 each, but now I'm considering the extension cord thing.

What do you guys think? I have decent jacks for this already and I'm not too shabby with a soldering iron (I actually love to solder).

As has been posted, get some zip cord from Homeless Depot, 16 gauge will be fine. The larger gauge the better but it gets difficult to solder thick gauge wire to 1/4" plugs unless you have a heavy duty one. It's important to use good connectors, Parts Express has everything you need, including a couple that will take up to 12 guage wire.

Those would be fine, as would the extension cord. In your position, I'd probably go with the extension cord, only because you say you have a decent amount of it on hand.

i took a look at that link. I would stay away from that molded end crap, especially for speakers. You flex them pulling them in and out a few times and you're back to where you were with a busted cord. You want something thats repairable and heavy duty so it puts an end to your problems for good.

You can buy standard bananna plugs that screw down on the wire that last forever for $.25 each and put them on any wire. Also Gold plated ones arent any better than the silver ones they just cost more. You can also go cheap and just tin the ends of the wire with solder like I do to make a plug for the type of connectors that clip to the wire.

I use zip cord for guitar cabs and home stereo stuff. For my PA I use the orange stuff and roll them up on the reels they sell. I also use those reels for my mike chords. I just plug one into another and wind them up. Saves alot of time breaking down and setting up and saves wear and tear on the wire.

I could be wrong, but the impression I got was that he'd be cutting off the ends and installing different connectors, in which case the quality of the banana plugs doesn't matter.

Yup. I said I was only thinking of using the cable part itself, not the banana plug ends. Though I only pull cables out of sockets by the jacks, thinking further about this, the cables I bought from Musician's Friend (the ones with banana plug ends) has a really soft, flexible cover, so I think I'm going to save those for other use and use zip cord, which I also have a lot of (in 12g and 14g). The power cords I have can be used for other projects, one of the next which will be a power supply brick for stomp boxes.

{edit} *grumble* Inevitably I forget something... as for soldering the end jacks, that's no problem. The ones I have will accomodate down to 12g wire. I also scuff areas to be soldered for better adhesion and I heat shrink just about everything I solder. {/edit}

Muchas gracias, guys! =)

ps @ isaac: I'm a chick

Sorry bout that, I just looked at the pic. The wire may be OK. For short 6' runs I use Computer cords and replace the ends. I get them for $1 at the dollar store. They have a ground wire I dont use. One other trick I use on 1/4" plugs is after soldering I fill the cavity between the pins with hot glue and then mold it smooth before screwing the cover on. It makes the jack extremely solid and works alot better than heat shrink for preventing wire fray and the connections from moving and losening up.

If you ever had to reuse the connector, the stuff peels off easily with a littel work or you can reheat it.

Yup. I said I was only thinking of using the cable part itself, not the banana plug ends. Though I only pull cables out of sockets by the jacks, thinking further about this, the cables I bought from Musician's Friend (the ones with banana plug ends) has a really soft, flexible cover, so I think I'm going to save those for other use and use zip cord, which I also have a lot of (in 12g and 14g). The power cords I have can be used for other projects, one of the next which will be a power supply brick for stomp boxes. {edit} *grumble* Inevitably I forget something... as for soldering the end jacks, that's no problem. The ones I have will accomodate down to 12g wire. I also scuff areas to be soldered for better adhesion and I heat shrink just about everything I solder. {/edit} Muchas gracias, guys! =) ps @ isaac: I'm a chick

Okey-doke. Seems to me there had been a clue or two before, but I can be a bit dense. Besides, it doesn't matter much in this context. I'll try to remember for future reference!

No worries, isaac =) I'm aware that the vast majority here are male. I've been on male-dominated boards before with my real nickname (kitty) and some guys still didn't realise I was a chick. It's the internet hehehe

WRGKMC: Good idea with the hot glue. I was pondering that last night while taking a break from trying to find my 3mm LED mounting rings (never did find them, so they'll be hot glued into place on this project, which is what gave me the idea).

While I was moving boxes around to set up my little table again for electronics projects, I noticed that the cables MF sent me are 5', not 10' as described. Oh well, it's been a few weeks now and I can deal with 5-foot cables. It just ticks me off that they did that and I forgot what others have said about them in the past in regard to checking orders for accuracy. Mental note burned.

As always, thanks, guys!