Building my firsy pedal. What gauge wire should I use?

[gators81]

Just wanted to know what gauge wire is best for pedal building. Should I be consitent with the gauge of wire through out the pedal? Should I use different colors for each connection.

[doitle]

Colors are a personal preference. They can help you keep track of what is what. I don't have enough money to buy a bunch of different wires so all my electronics are built with red wire.

I'm interested to know what people think as well about the gauge. I have so far built my Valvecaster with 22AWG solid core copper wire as that's what I use for breadboarding.

[gators81]

I've seen a couple of pics of builds that used ribbon cable that was seperated for color. Is that really thick enough for good audio signal?

[Electron Tornado]

Either 22 or 24 gauge is good. I've seen and used smaller gauge wires, but you have to use a bit more care with them. Some will debate the merits of solid or stranded wires, but unless you're rough with it, you should be fine with either.

Using different wire gauges in a pedal shouldn't affect the sound. I built a kit that came with some rather thin wire. I added some mods and used some larger wire I already had. Pedal sounds great.

As for colors, I've only used red green and black for the most part because that's what was readily available.

[Andi]

I use 7/0.2 in a load of different colours, and I have a common scheme for what colour is for what - yellow from the input jack, grey into the circuit, green back out of the circuit, orange to the output jack.

[biggy boy]

I just started using 22 AWG. I find it to be a good size, not to big and stiff and not too small and breakable.
I was using hard drive ribbon cable, but it was too small and could break too easily at the solder joints.

[StereoKills]

Personally, I prefer 24 AWG stranded wire. Color preference is completely personal, but typically it is accepted that your +V is red and ground is black.

[panterafanatic]

i'm kinda new to the pedal thing. but i got a couple things of wire from sbe, and i try to get a different color each time i order so i gradually build up, i got purple in my last order. 

[gators81]

Thanx so much for your opinions. This forum is great. I have learned so much from reading all the other topics. You guys are the best.

[gators81]

Went with 22AWG stranded wire with Teflon jacket. Found several spools of different colored wire at a local electronics surplus store. The teflon seems to withstand the heat of the soldering iron better. It's a little stiffer, but still bendable. The different colors have helped me keep things organized.