Gathering opinions from roll-yr-own patch cable peeps

[popvulture]

So...

After wrangling a bunch of EBS flat cables that are way too long and creating a total rat's nest on my board, I think I'm going to order some plugs and cable for making some custom patches for myself.

I've got a switcher, so on one end I'm going to use the short Switchcraft 380 plugs—pretty much a no-brainer because it'll give me a little more space.

As for the rest, I'd love a couple of opinions. What's your favorite cable and why? What kind of pancake plugs have you liked? Best places to buy either? There are some great deals on GLS plugs out there, but I wonder what the lowest profile option is. Any particular tips that could help me out?

PS I ran a search and know this has been covered before, but I was just finding random bits across various threads. If there's a dedicated thread that anyone can point me towards, that'd be great. Otherwise of course I'd love just hearing about it here.

As always, THANK YOU

[popvulture]

No takers? I know it's a boring topic but I could use a little steering.

Interested in Mogami 2319—anyone used it before? It seems to be not too pricey, and is a thinner gauge for pedalboard use.

Basically I just don't want anything that's a pain in the ass to strip, and since I'm going to go the pancake route on the pedal end of the cables, I'd love to know which company makes the most compact plugs.

[Jwar]

The new Planet Waves are amazing dude. Lower profile, screw locking and cheaper than the rest. Have not had a failure ever with Planet Waves. Hate all the others George L, Lava etc.

The only other cables I trust are EBS and Hosa.


Sometimes GC gets good deals on Planet Waves. I'd look at them.

[Jwar]

Also I hate pancake cables lol

[popvulture]

Pancakes do take up a little more space, but I don't wanna go solderless. I'll take a look at those Planet Waves, though...

I'm gonna be hard to convince, haha. Lavas made me wanna smash everything with a bat.

[cogweh]

I make my own. I use Mogami 2319 and Switchcraft RAs. Buy from redco generally. Works great.

[PeteeBee]

No idea on price and all that, probably really expensive, but sinasoid just released some new cable end that looks nice. Lowest profile thingy I've ever seen.

[popvulture]

I make my own. I use Mogami 2319 and Switchcraft RAs. Buy from redco generally. Works great.

Ah sweet... yeah Redco looked like a great price for the cable. Thanks for confirming my suspicions!

No idea on price and all that, probably really expensive, but sinasoid just released some new cable end that looks nice. Lowest profile thingy I've ever seen.

Shitttttt those look awesome. Soldered, too... but they're 4.25 apiece and I'd need 20 of them. Buying pancakes would be about 50 bucks cheaper.

Man. I'll have to do some measurements—I think I'll have room for pancakes, but those are goddamn tempting.

[Jwar]

If you're stuck on pancakes (which I do hate lol), I'd go with Chandler from Mammoth. Good quality and half the price of most shit. They are easy as fuck to make too, just make sure you get them solder joints right! LOL! I hate them because of the size, but they last forever if you do them right!

[JonnyAngle]

I know you don't want to go solderless, but I think you should

They are the only cables that can be fixed on the fly with only a side cutters. No soldering iron needed

[whoismarykelly]

Pancake plugs are really the wrong way to go. The strain relief in the plugs is insufficient for solid cable assembly and you cant put two pancake plugs next to each other when jacks are tightly packed on a pedal. Also, unless you use the cheapest crappiest versions they only save a small fraction of an inch over a regular right angle plug. When I make patch cables I use Lava mini ELC and GH right angle plugs. The assembly is incredibly solid and the strain relief is sufficient for long term reliability. Its worth spending the money to do the job right and you'll notice the difference after assembling one with a GH right angle compared to any pancake plug.

[whoismarykelly]

I know you don't want to go solderless, but I think you should

They are the only cables that can be fixed on the fly with only a side cutters. No soldering iron needed

You'll never need to 'fix' a properly assembled soldered cable assembly on the fly. Solderless plugs require such service regularly, especially if you change your board often. The fact that this is even a concern should tell you that solderless plugs are a problem, not a solution.

[goroth]

Solderless sucks. If you have a small board there isn't really a need, and if you have a big board the maintenance is a nightmare, and debugging even worse. As Mary Kelly said.

That mogami cable is pretty good stuff. I don't give a crap if the capacitance is slightly higher than some other stuff - a buffer sorts that out, and the cable itself is well constructed. I've bought all my plugs from redco or whatever they are called. Good prices and service.

But these days it's all about the EBS.

[CyaNitrate]

I bought this 20 pack about two years ago, and cut up a decent quality 20'cable I had lying around. Made each cable to fit exact lengths, and still have a few. No failures to date. I have been satisfied. I'm also not as hard pressed for space because all but three of my pedals have top mounted jacks, and i made my board with room to grow.

https://www.amazon.com/GLS-Audio-Profil ... B003UIC78W

[bigchiefbc]

I didn't see this until now, but I made enough cables for two big boards with Mogami 2319 and the GLS pancakes. Never had a single failure, and it's been 4 1/2 years now. The only solderless I ever tried was George L and it made me want to microwave kittens.