Wires at right angles

[SonicVI]

Is there any advantage other than aesthetic for doing your wiring at right angles like I so often see?  It seems like bending wires so sharply would put more stress tham than otherwise?  Can anyone enlighten me?

[foxfire]

i do it for a cleaner look mostly. there are times when you want wires that cross each other to be a right angle to help avoid cross talk. like in high gain stuff.

[DougH]

Is there any advantage other than aesthetic for doing your wiring at right angles like I so often see?  It seems like bending wires so sharply would put more stress tham than otherwise?  Can anyone enlighten me?

It will also make some wires unnecessarily longer- not a good practice.

It looks cool- that's about it.

[Skreddy]

If I have an input and an output wire to route, I'll either pull them as far apart as possible, or, if they must cross, I'll cross them at right angles.  High gain applications are about the only place where this matters, but it does matter in that case for sure.  If I really had a serious noise or crosstalk issue, though; I'd use coax on the input (ground only one end of the sleeve) to solve that.  Very closely-related: I've used 3-conductor, normally-closed switching jacks in effects loops before that actually oscillated in high-gain applications (the jack itself had enough capacitance across the signal-shunt region that it caused audible feedback).  I started using regular 2-conductor jacks on loops designated for high-gain effects.  Having an input and output close together is a bad thing.

[DougH]

From the OP it sounds like we're talking about bending at right angles, not crossing at right angles.

[SonicVI]

Yeah, that's what I meant, bending the wires at right angles.

[Skreddy]

Oh.    Sorry.  Yeah, I gotta admit that sometimes when I see builds that are really anal about that I go 

[DougH]

Yup.

More and more I see the "electronics fashion show- swimsuit competition" mentality in builds. It seems more prevalent in boutique amps (and amateur clones) but it happens in pedals more all the time.  indeed...     

[Dark Fader]

There are good reasons for it in valve amps. Bending at right angles will allow your cables to cross at right angles.

[Skreddy]

Another thing that bugs me more than right-angle bends is the practice of bundling leads with zip tie.  Unless you're using coax, you're likely to introduce some noise if there are signal lines being bundled up there.  But it looks "neat" and most people seem to think it indicates a good build when they see it.

On the other hand, I do like seeing things like supply lines braided or twisted.  You can even twist a signal wire with a ground wire for that matter; it should have the same type of effect as putting a ferrite bead around it.

[DougH]

There are good reasons for it in valve amps. Bending at right angles will allow your cables to cross at right angles.

That depends on how it's laid out.

[Dark Fader]

There are good reasons for it in valve amps. Bending at right angles will allow your cables to cross at right angles.

That depends on how it's laid out.

Well, er, yes.

[DougH]

Yeah, what I meant was whether you need to bend them at right angles to get them to cross at right angles depends on the layout. But I agree with basically what you are saying.

[Skreddy]

Yeah, what I meant was whether you need to bend them at right angles to get them to cross at right angles depends on the layout. But I agree with basically what you are saying.

E.g.; if you have two parallel lines that need to cross, each one can be bent 45* to make them cross @ 90*.

[Dark Fader]

Ah okay, sorry i did misunderstand you there! 

[Zben3129]

Basically, to prevent (well, reduce) signal bleedthrough, noise, etc in high gain stuff, its the routing that matters, not bending. Crossing wires is better practice than running parallel. But, to answer your question, bending wires at right angles is purely for looks. There might be an exception here or there, and that could be in valve amps to run a wire as far away from another wire as possible, but in pedals I just don't see it having an effect.

Zach