DIY Pedal Patch Cords suck tone

[Beo]

So I picked up some Canare GS-4 and GS-6 cable and GLS plugs, and last night made 8 cables. All 8 work with no extra noise or hum, but three of them suck tone. The good ones measure negligible capacitance, while my three bad ones measure 25n, 41n and 54n respectively. What should I look for that my be causing this capacitance? A cold joint? A stray wire strand? Can I rework these, or should I desolder it all and start from scratch?

[lowell]

I've had this happen w/ diy cables.  Sometimes the insulator between the "hot" and "shield" melts inside the cable near where it's soldered.  It compromises the tone slightly.  Try making sure all connections are tinned well, and get in and out FAST when soldering.

[R.G.]

I have no financial connection with them, only know about their stuff. George L's cable and connectors make good (and FAST!!) patch cables that are high quality and low capacitance. If you haven't looked, you owe it to yourself to find them at a dealer and get a demo. They are solderless. I put together a patch cord in less than 2 minutes, including taking a swig of coffee.

[Beo]

Probably overheating the inner insulation did it, plus the strain relief clamps squeeze that compromised layer closer together. I opened up the connectors and pried the clamps apart, and I could get my capacitance reading to increase, just by squeezing the insulation near the solder connection.

George L's and other solderless brands are expensive. I don't mind investing my time if I think I will solder High Quality cables that will last... but if one out of three is going to be bad from solder heat... maybe it's not worth my time...

[tempus]

You're seriously hearing a difference in tone from the cable used in a 4 - 6" patch cord? I didn't realize cable capacitance was an issue on something so short. The cables sound pretty good from their description - did all the cable come from the same reel?

[Morocotopo]

I once made patch cables for my pedalboard, small 6 pedal thing, just little loops between each pedal, wit a no name cable. It was as if I closed the tone control in the guitar, so not subtle at all. Replaced them with Belden cable, problem gone.

[R.G.]

George L's and other solderless brands are expensive. I don't mind investing my time if I think I will solder High Quality cables that will last... but if one out of three is going to be bad from solder heat... maybe it's not worth my time...

I don't know about other solderless brands. We use George L's in all our trade show setups and all the office gear. We use them because (1) they work and (2) see #1.

The most expensive possible cables are the ones which fail and can't be easily repaired. All cables fail, if you use them enough. The only question is when. What's unique about the George L's is that you can repair an open/shorting end on a cable in 15 seconds with only a pair of cutters - no solder, iron, or other tools. I suspect but have not tried a razor blade or good, sharp pocketknife would do in a pinch.

Recapping:
I have no financial connection with them, only know about their stuff. George L's cable and connectors make good (and FAST!!) patch cables that are high quality and low capacitance. If you haven't looked, you owe it to yourself to find them at a dealer and get a demo. They are solderless. I put together a patch cord in less than 2 minutes, including taking a swig of coffee.

Another way to look at it is that one can only solder High Quality [sic] cables if one can solder with high quality. There's a price on developing that skill, too.

[trixdropd]

I own one of these http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-CT-100-CABLE-TESTER/dp/B0026SGCN8 .
With that cable tester i always test my cables. Sometimes a stray ground strand touching the positive can cause what you describe. The cable tester will show this for sure.

[Beo]

You're seriously hearing a difference in tone from the cable used in a 4 - 6" patch cord? I didn't realize cable capacitance was an issue on something so short. The cables sound pretty good from their description - did all the cable come from the same reel?

Yeah, I used an A/B Looper to test straight pass through versus just the 6" patch cord in the loop. Volume drop and loss of high end with 3 of the 8 patch cords. A 50n capacitance to ground will do that.

[Beo]

I don't know about other solderless brands. We use George L's in all our trade show setups and all the office gear. We use them because (1) they work and (2) see #1.

Yeah, I've seen your recommendations for these in other threads. I'll pick some up to build for my main pedalboard. If nothing else, I'll use the rest of my GLS connectors to work on my soldering chops. I wanted to make a bunch of patch cables to use on a rackmount patchbay, as I'm planning to put a lot of secondary projects into rack panels instead of boxing.