let's discuss ideas about guitar cable diy.

[kugua]

need good idea . diy low noise guitar cable.

[smoguzbenjamin]

Get some low-impedance cable (make absolutely sure that it's flexible enough) and a couple of jacks, solder as hot as you can and you're rockin'! Just don't make the cables too long or you'll find that your tone goes straight to hell

[Thomas P.]

I have heard from a cable supplier who uses a shielded stereo cable. one lug for signal, one for ground and the shield is tied to ground only at one end.
Maybe that's a point to look after if you make a diy cable.

[smoguzbenjamin]

Not necessary, since the ground is allready around the signal wire you're doing things twice. It's not necessary to actually shield the ground/live wire, the ground wire does that itself All my "pro" cables use this method and they're hum free.

[Mark Hammer]

Not much to discuss, really.  Don't use curly cable, and look for the lowest cable capacitance per line foot.  There are probably some brands and part numbers that people will recommend.  I haven't made many in the last 20 years, but the last time I did, our band bought a 100 foot role of Belden 8410 ( http://bwccat.belden.com/ecat/pdf/8410.pdf ).  Good sturdy stuff.

I bought some Audio-Technica stuff last year which is microphone (as opposed to instrument) cable.  The shielding is good, and the neoprene covering is ridiculously flexible; so much so that it almost feels flimsy.

I'm confident there is more choice than this.  Until the suggestions roll in, read the article by Craig Anderton in DEVICE (http://hammer.ampage.org/files/Device1-5.PDF ) called "When is a cable not a cable?: when it's a capacitor".

[Paul Marossy]

Don't use curly cable

Unless you want some Jimi mojo thing goin' on...  :wink:

[Thomas P.]

Not necessary, since the ground is allready around the signal wire you're doing things twice. It's not necessary to actually shield the ground/live wire, the ground wire does that itself All my "pro" cables use this method and they're hum free.

The thing is to have equal conditions for the 'hot' and 'cold' lug. Therefor you'll need a stereo cable with two seperate lugs. And the shield is only connected at one side to avoid ground loops.

[STOMPmole]

I use Mogami 2792 cable.  It's relatively inexpensive, sounds great, and is flexible and noise free.

I disagree somewhat with smoguzbenjamin.  With SOME cables the ground is already around the signal wire.  With the Mogami 2792 it has 2 conductors with a ground braid around both.  With the that cable you can do what tomboy described (which is EXACTLY what I do when I make guitar cables or HI-FI patch cords) and tie the braided shield to only one end's ground.

[Samuel]

Yeah ground wire, even if twisted with the signal is not equivalent to good shielding. I'm sure it will help, but def. not the same thing.

[Hal]

what would happen if you used something like STP cable?  it probably has higher resistance, but is fairly cheep next to coaxial.  Or even UTP.  It would be cool to use modular plugs on your gutiar :-D

[zeta55]

Something about cables???http://sound.westhost.com/cables.htm

[aron]

I want to get the new cable from Bill Lawrence. I didn't order it yet because I am enjoying plugging my pedals by hand on every gig. Eventually though.

[TheBigMan]

I use Klotz La Grange guitar cable for leads with Neutrik NP2 jacks.  For patch leads I use Sommer Spirit cable which is more flexible along with Neutrik NP2RC right angle jacks.  In the UK and Europe this is actually a cheaper option than George Ls for the most part, and I personally don't like solderless connections.

[kugua]

"I have heard from a cable supplier who uses a shielded stereo cable. one lug for signal, one for ground and the shield is tied to ground only at one end. " it's not a good idea.i have made some experiment about this .it has some noise than shield is tied to ground at
both ends

[STOMPmole]

" it's not a good idea.i have made some experiment about this .it has some noise than shield is tied to ground at
both ends"


Well, FWIW I have ALL my cables (HI-FI, guitar, and studio patch cables to monitors) shielded on one end and they are noisless.  As always, others might have different results.

[Curt]

Using a braided shield stereo cable with the braided shield tied to ground on one end only makes perfect sense, electronically speaking.  If we want the least capacitance, then consider what a capacitor is!  It is 2 pieces of metal separated by a THIN non-conductive dielectric.  Using stereo cable would put 2 layers of dielectric shielding between the + and -.  Plus, radio interference, noise, etc would be "caught" by the braided shield and sent to ground along a different path than the return signal.  
Also, solderless plugs bite!  They are no better than twisting 2 wires together.  If that weren't the case, manufacturers would never spend the money to solder components the PCB's...they would just shove them into tight fitting feed-thru holes.

[Elektrojänis]

what would happen if you used something like STP cable?  it probably has higher resistance, but is fairly cheep next to coaxial. Or even UTP.

STP might work... I dont know about the capacitance though. The resistance should not be a problem if you are driving high impedance input as most guitar inputs worth anything are. even 100ohms of cable resistance is not much when the input impedance is around 1 megaohm.

STP cables are not very flexible though, and the shielding is usually foil type so they might be somewhat fragile (at least for the shielding part). Electrically the foil shieldin should be good though.

UTP is not shielded as the name says... So it is probably no good for guitar.

It would be cool to use modular plugs on your gutiar :-D

Hmmm... http://www.gibsonmagic.com/digitalguitar.html

It's not for the regular guitar signal though...

[STOMPmole]

Man....just buy the Mogami cable for God's sake!  It's $0.42 a foot at Markertek (50 ft minimum) and is extremely flexible, has braided shielding, and is quiet.

Foil shielding and solderless plugs suck IMHO.

[EdJ]

I really like the VANDAMME cable that Farnell sells.
Ed

[12afael]

if you want low noise you need to improve your signal noise ratio you could do this with a preamp near  of the pick ups the use of a atenuator stage (cable) like first stage is the poor selection.

but I can live with noise