Junction Box: Shielded guitar cable or hookup wire?

[iaresee]

I'm building a junction box. Nothing fancy. Just 4 jacks that pass from one side to the other. The box is an aluminium Hammond enclosure.

I was going to use hookup wire to connect tip-tip, sleeve-sleeve for each pair of jacks, but now I'm wondering if I should use a little bit of guitar cable instead. Is the box sufficient sheilding or should I go with the 1/2" bit of guitar cable to hook it up.

And while I'm at it: should I tie together ground on all the jacks? They'll be: guitar in to board, out to amp input, in from amp f/x send, out to amp f/x return.

[Paul Marossy]

I've never had any problems with using plain unshielded wire for that sort of thing - as long as the enclosure is metal or well shielded plastic. I would probably isolate the grounds of the FX loop jacks from the other pair of jacks to prevent issues with hum.

[Derringer]

I did a metal box with hookup wire and I did a plastic box with shielded ... neither have issues

I didn't bother isolating the grounds in the metal box either now that I think about it.

[smoguzbenjamin]

If you can shield it you might as well, just in case. It's what I do if I'm moving a signal all over the place.

Unless you're mounting it in a metal box, in which case I've yet to see any interference occur inside the enclosure.

[iaresee]

Thanks guys. I went with hook up wire and no noise issues at all. It's all in a Hammond aluminum enclosure. Common ground 'cause of the chasis. I didn't isolate the grounds on the F/X loop jacks. I haven't had a chance to test it all hooked up yet, just one jack pair at a time. I used cheap a$$ 1/4" jacks for this prototype and they're not sitting well so I'm going to pony up for enclosed Switchcraft jacks and rework it before hooking it up with all connections running. I thought the zit brand jacks would be okay for the prototype work. Nope.

Paul, how would you isolate the grounds between the front-of-amp and fx-loop pairs here? The jacks all touch the enclosure which provides a common ground. Without some serious application of rubber paint I can't see how to stop that from occuring.

I did use a Neutrik locking 1/4" for the guitar input jack. Wow. Seriously nice bit of hardware. Really does lock on to the plug.

Thanks for the tips guys. FWIW, this is prototype work for a junction box option that'll sit underneath the surface of the boards I sell: http://www.coastpedalboards.com/

[darron]

for isolating, you can try these:

Http://www.smallbearelec.com/Detail.bok?no=133

i bought some, not from small bear, and they work great. it's a bit of a snug fit with the large switchcraft sockets and a thick hammond enclosure, but it's been really nice. you'd just need to drill the holes a tiny bit bigger.

[iaresee]

darron, thanks man. I'll give those a try.