Irrational fear of solderless cables gone

[phractus]

So I've refused to use many of the cabling kits out there and finally ended up with a board in need of custom cables and got some goerge L blue and gold solderless cables. Wow, easy to assemble and a noticable audio difference from the EBL flat patch cables. I'm sold on using these from now on. Didn't notice any problem with the "premium" cables was using until added a switcher which more than doubled the cabling on the board. Then after building the george Ls for the board it's back to its former glory. Very nice and made a customer out of me.

 

[vintage66]

They work great until they don’t. Wouldn’t use at a gig. That’s my experience, loud hum means tracking down bad connection, it’s happened too many times for me to feel comfortable with them. It’s too bad because it’s cool to have custom lengths.

 

[phractus]

They work great until they don’t. Wouldn’t use at a gig. That’s my experience, loud hum means tracking down bad connection, it’s happened too many times for me to feel comfortable with them. It’s too bad because it’s cool to have custom lengths.

I was going to keep a smattering of my decent prefab cables with the board (in a bag under it). You have them fail that much? This is a first so am not looking forward to endless failure If that's a thing.

 

[vintage66]

Moving pedals on your board makes it more likely but it happens at random times and makes a loud annoying hum which actually makes it hard to troubleshoot quickly like just intermittent signal would cause. It’s not so often but it’s enough that I dont have any on my board anymore.
Some people like them, give them a shot since you have them already, I just lost patience and trust with them.

 

[tj1004]

I’ve taken the time to put them together as directed and plugged them in and they don’t work. Has happened numerous times. The ones that do work will fail soon after being plugged/unplugged a few times. I also understand that some people have had no issues with them. I used up all my George L cable and soldered square pancake plugs on. I’m a believer in the cable, but not the solderless right angle ends.

 

[phractus]

I put them on connections not planning to move anytime soon. All work great. You guys got me freaked out. Because they're all in loops think it would be easy to troubleshoot. I did ohm readings on the cables and all fell within a certain tolerance I was good with.

 

[D.G.]

The George L right angle plugs are the ones everyone seems to have difficulty with. I've used them for 20+ years. Here's what I do:

• Cut the cable at an exact right angle with a pair of heavy duty wire cutters.
• This will deform the cut end of the cable so it is oval rather than round. To resolve this, gently squeeze the cable back to round with the cutters with just enough pressure to push it round, not enough to accidentally cut it again. A pair of regular pliers can be used for this instead.
• Push the cut end into the plug firmly with enough force to ensure that the core is firmly touching the internal pin.
• Bend the wire over and while keeping it bent, making sure to not let the cable slip, screw the cap on finger tight.
• Using a pair of regular pliers, tighten the cap all the way down.
  
  That's it! I have no problems using this method. Takes a lot longer to write it down than to do it!

 

[phractus]

The George L right angle plugs are the ones everyone seems to have difficulty with. I've used them for 20+ years. Here's what I do:

• Cut the cable at an exact right angle with a pair of heavy duty wire cutters.
• This will deform the cut end of the cable so it is oval rather than round. To resolve this, gently squeeze the cable back to round with the cutters with just enough pressure to push it round, not enough to accidentally cut it again. A pair of regular pliers can be used for this instead.
• Push the cut end into the plug firmly with enough force to ensure that the core is firmly touching the internal pin.
• Bend the wire over and while keeping it bent, making sure to not let the cable slip, screw the cap on finger tight.
• Using a pair of regular pliers, tighten the cap all the way down.
  
  That's it! I have no problems using this method. Takes a lot longer to write it down than to do it!

Yeah so I cut it with box cutter rolling it as I did to avoid deformation. Then seated it and pushed, twisted slight amount. Bent it but not that much so while you screw it down forces it through shield. Then used pliers to tighten. Then did test with ohm meter to ensure integrity. These are not planned to be moved.

 

[Digitalshrub]

Never tried George L’s but they get great reviews on here.

I’ve spent more money than I care to admit on 3Monkeys solderless cables and components, and every cent was completely wasted. Failed on me at numerous gigs and not a single cable has held up for longer than a month.

 

[njslim]

Never tried George L’s but they get great reviews on here.

I’ve spent more money than I care to admit on 3Monkeys solderless cables and components, and every cent was completely wasted. Failed on me at numerous gigs and not a single cable has held up for longer than a month.

Hey, thanks so much for this!!

 

[njslim]

Yeah so I cut it with box cutter rolling it as I did to avoid deformation. Then seated it and pushed, twisted slight amount. Bent it but not that much so while you screw it down forces it through shield. Then used pliers to tighten. Then did test with ohm meter to ensure integrity. These are not planned to be moved.

I've had George Ls that seemed to be doomed from the start, mostly with angle plugs, but I've had a couple that just seem as rugged as soldered connectors (hopefully I"m not jinxing them now), and care while making them is the ticket. I have one that sees frequent movement, so it can work sometimes!

 

[chanley]

I've had pretty good luck with the Evidence Audio SIS (screw in solderless) stuff. It's a bit on the expensive side, but really nice. With that said, I don't move things around all that much on my board, (12 pedals with a switch looper).

 

[stallworth98]

I can't figure out what I'm doing right. I've been using, touring and gigging George Ls for twenty years and have never had a problem.

 

[chanley]

I believe you mean Evidence Audio, unless the cable company recently merged with Source Audio.

heh, You are correct sir! Brain fart. That is one of those things that got stuck in my head at some point and I always mash it into Evidence source audio.

 

[BearBryan]

I can't figure out what I'm doing right. I've been using, touring and gigging George Ls for twenty years and have never had a problem.

I've never had a failure with Evidence/SIS either, but some people have a hard time with basic tech stuff and suffer failures. I haven't used George Ls but it is essentially impossible to screw up the Evidence ones and not know it. Come on people.

 

[BearBryan]

In the very near future, someone's going to post here that ALL solderless systems are terrible, and the only truly reliable and adequate way is soldered.

They will be wrong though. The mechanical connection of threading the core into the jack is better than any blob of solder could ever hope to be.

 

[teleking36]

I went from George Ls many years ago, to prefab soldered, back to Lava Mini ELC solderless (pieces of garbage), back to rolling my own soldered, and finally back to primarily Disaster Area EVO solderless.

The Disaster Area stuff has been solid for me now going on about 2 years, including touring and lots of gigs. Make them right with the proper tools, take your time, test them with a cable tester and give them a bit of a stress test before you wire your board up, and you're highly unlikely to have problems.

I also use Disaster Area kits for custom board builds that I do for players in my area, and they love the small, low-profile plugs and cabling.

 

[tigerzhang513]

I use Free The Tone Kit and it only failed me once...if your pedals are fixed on the board and well bagged when carrying around I don’t see any problem with solder-less cables.

 

[p.j.]

I've use George L's for a really long time. They can be finicky but are easy to troubleshoot. They sound great.