Re-cabling the pedalboard: solderless vs soldered

[Occam]

My board is currently wired with Bill Lawerence solderless cable and I've never had a problem with but I'd like to go more "transparent". I'm torn between going solderless again like the Lava pedalboard kit or for a few bucks more their Van Den Hul C5 soldered cable. I need to have absolute faith in my gear when I perform and obviously tone is highly important as well. I've been wrestling with this decision for two weeks and everytime I think I've made up my mind something causes me to consider the other cable.

[nrandall85]

All I'll say is that there's nothing worse than showing up to a gig, plugging in, and hearing the "EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" sound of a George L cable gone bad. I've been tempted to switch to soldered cables for this reason alone- only reason I'm keeping the George L's is the plugs fit in to my board nicely.

[Leftyman]

I used George L's for years. I just recently switched to switchcraft pancake jacks and mogami wire to save room on my pedalboard and I think tey sound better than the George L's. Maybe a little off the subject but I thought I would give you my 2 cents. L.A. Sound Design does a lot of professional boards with these patch cables.

[I'm so board]

There's a huge difference in tone and sound depending on which you choose!

You will loose so much tone with solderless and also your playing will be hindered.

Petrucci doesn't use solderless, he says he once used solderless within his rack unit and his power supply melted the jacks off. Go on his website it says it there.

[shawnshack]

I went with soldering my own cables due to the price of the kits. I have 12 pedals, so it was going to take to me a couple of the solder less kits, and at the time I didn't have the money. I used a monster cable, cut it up, and bought the pancake style plugs like the switchcraft ones. I'm sure they aren't as good, but close enough for me. The plugs cost me less than $1 each when i buy in bulk, and I had the cable. I think with the cable and plugs I might have about $4 per cable...pretty good considering an 8" monster cable is $25.

[Ben C.]

Originally Posted by I'm so board

You will loose so much tone with solderless and also your playing will be hindered.

Am I missing the joke or are you for real?

1) Bill Lawrence solderless cables sound fantastic and are true to your guitar's sound.

2) I haven't had a single one fail / become intermittent / fall apart / etc. in 6 or 7 years. And I unplug / reconfigure a fair amount.

[Jangles]

Originally Posted by Leftyman

I used George L's for years. I just recently switched to switchcraft pancake jacks and mogami wire to save room on my pedalboard and I think tey sound better than the George L's. Maybe a little off the subject but I thought I would give you my 2 cents. L.A. Sound Design does a lot of professional boards with these patch cables.

Is there mogami cables where you can cut the length yourself like George L's or just their stock patch cables?

[Occam]

I'm definitely not going with George L's again. I started with those and then switched to Bill Lawrence cables and liked the improvement but I'm starting to wonder that if I "upgrade" again in the solderless world then I'll just keep doing this and should just stick with a high quality soldered cable.

[Leftyman]

Originally Posted by Custom_Tush

Is there mogami cables where you can cut the length yourself like George L's or just their stock patch cables?

You can buy the mogami cable and the switchcrat pancake jacks and solder them yourself to obviously whatever length you want. I had L.A. Sound Deisgn make mine for me. Just told them what lengths I wanted. I guess I should state that the mogami cable with switchcraft jacks are not solderless, but I think they sound better than my George L's did.

[jnepo1]

Originally Posted by Custom_Tush

Is there mogami cables where you can cut the length yourself like George L's or just their stock patch cables?

Redco.com .36/ft for Mogami 2319 and .70/ft for Mogami 2524. The 2319 is ideal for pedalboards, they are smaller in diameter.

[Bob Womack]

I work at a place where there are national bands coming and going all the time. For several years now, whenever an artist has had a pedalboard cable failure, in every instance it has been a solderless cable.

Just sayin'...

Bob

[Garygtr]

There's a huge difference in tone and sound depending on which you choose!

You will loose so much tone with solderless and also your playing will be hindered.

Originally Posted by Ben C.

Am I missing the joke or are you for real?

1) Bill Lawrence solderless cables sound fantastic and are true to your guitar's sound.

2) I haven't had a single one fail / become intermittent / fall apart / etc. in 6 or 7 years. And I unplug / reconfigure a fair amount.

Yeah, but they've definitely hindered your playing, Ben. Or so your bandmates have said.

[Ben C.]

Originally Posted by Garygtr

Yeah, but they've definitely hindered your playing, Ben. Or so your bandmates have said.

Totally! If there's one thing they've consistently said over time is that a switch to soldered cables would completely make my playing more fluid and I would play with more confidence.



(that said, I do suffer from 'red light anxiety')

[jamison162]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

I work at a place where there are national bands coming and going all the time. For several years now, whenever an artist has had a pedalboard cable failure, in every instance it has been a solderless cable.

Just sayin'...

Bob

How many were Bill Lawrence plugs though?

Just sayin'...

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by jamison162

How many were Bill Lawrence plugs though?

Just sayin'...

Don't know. Can't hear what the guitarists are muttering under their breath.

Bob