lava cables or george l's or other...

[magiclawnchair]

ok, so...

i need some new cables...

i am thinking about some of these fancy ass solder free cable kits and want to know what yallz think of them. great, good, fair, meh... not worth it?

am i better off just buying a bunch of hosa cables like the cheap ass ones i already have?

what do my fuzz loving home skillets use???

[Gunner Recall]

I've got lavas, really solid and it was pretty awesome to make custom lengths without bothering with the soldering iron.
They allow you to really pack in your board, the plug ends are really tiny. In some cases I was able to double the real estate.

I don't know about tonal mojo, I think they're slightly less noisy than the cheapo hosas I have.
I'm not going to claim it brought back the "sparkle" to my sound or that the tonal difference is night and day, but I think they are worth it if you can get a decent deal.

I got most of mine at a discount and the rest in a raffle so I didn't pay much for my set of 20 cables.
It was a back to school discount actually...I'm guessing they might run another again soon

[Ryan]

I recently got a couple sets of the Lava ELC solder less plugs and cable... got the right angle plugs and the blue cable... it's great stuff! Really easy to work with, really compact, and really top notch too.

And yeah, I don't know if it sounds dramatically different than the cheapie no name shorty cables I had before but I like how small it is plus it's just fun making the cables... you get a neat little cutter tool to play with and you get to screw fittings together and I think you'd get a kick out of it, something fun to do after a nice evening pizza.

[one bad monkey]

I went with a package from Pro Cables 'n' Sound. Sure, I spent a LOT more time soldering all of the wires on my pedalboard, but I didn't mind doing it. After the first couple, I really got into it and the four hours just flew by!

However, now I'm looking already at moving stuff around. D'oh!

[symbolique]

I'm of the same mind at the moment. Got 2 George L patch leads, nice and compact.

I've read the GL's are a bit more brighter... I was just after more room and a neater setup.

[FuzzHugger]

I had George L's for a bit back in 05-06...a few stayed good, but others shorted frequently (despite doing them as perfectly as possible)...and after about a year, the chrome plating was flaking off inside my pedals. Maybe they've improved them since then, but I was really disappointed.

I got Lavas and I'm really impressed. I just got some in to sell, actually, so now it's a conflict of interest! They're expensive (depending on how you look at it), but imo, easily the best option for making custom pedalboard cables.

[fattone77]

Personally, I think both are good. I've had less issues with Lava's though.

[Ryan]

However, now I'm looking already at moving stuff around. D'oh!

This is something I forgot to mention too... I think getting the fancy perfectly set-up cabling is maybe more important to guys who keep their boards the same for a long time... I put different pedals on my board all the time, non-stop pretty much. *runs over to board and puts only tremolo pedals on it* So for me I probably would have done fine just sticking with the generic cables, although the super small plugs are great for getting pedals close to each other.

[smallsnd/bigsnd]

i use the cheapest crap i can find, gig a lot, don't use a pedalboard (so i'm constantly plugging, unplugging, winding, unwinding, etc...) and don't treat my cables especially well... and they usually last for years.

if any does ever have an issue - which isn't often - i don't feel anything when i toss it and get a new one.

just sayin.


also, a short, not well-written story.
joe, the guitarist/singer in my band has weird issues with cables (especially the one from his guitar to his board) because he sweats a tremendous amount at every show. i mean, A LOT of fucking sweat. anyways, he bought a bunch of "fancy" expensive cords and after i teased him a bit about it, he was determined to prove to me that his purchase was a good decision. a cord basically stopped working a few days after he bought it... i think he got rid of the rest of them and just used some random ones that i had lying around. he's still using those, 6-8 months later.

[Jero]

^See, that's the way I usually go. I just spend like $10/6pack of warwick cables when I need, and they are great. Just as low profile as the lava or gls from what I can tell...still wouldn't mind having some lavas though.

[Wizard]

Well, my buddy andrew owns a company called Cameltone and i use his. The quality of his wires is comparable to that of Mogami's high end stuff, which is pretty rad, but it's infact a bit more affordable. He's helping me re-wire my pedal board and using custom lengths, colours and all...

http://www.cameltone.net/about.html


The quality of your cable matters. But it doesn't necessarily have to have a very low capacitance to be awesome. Half of the reason Jimi hendrix got that far out crazy heavy psychedelic tone was because when he was going for that sound he used really high capacitance cables. Isn't that sort of neat?

But if you want stuff up to George L quality, definitely go with Bill Lawrence.

http://www.wildepickups.com/Wilde_Bill_s_Collection.html

I guess his page is under construction, but it's like absurdly cheap for the wire and ends.

My buddy derek uses exclusively them. Apparently they're even rated lower capacitance than George L's, but not Lava.

[Eric!]

I went with a package from Pro Cables 'n' Sound. Sure, I spent a LOT more time soldering all of the wires on my pedalboard, but I didn't mind doing it. After the first couple, I really got into it and the four hours just flew by!

However, now I'm looking already at moving stuff around. D'oh!

SO GOOD!!!

[deadbeatriot]

I FUCKING HATE GEORGE L'S

they would crap out on me even if i hadn't moved them for weeks. they'd just die after a month of sitting on the floor, doing nothing.

[sevenSHARPnine]

I use the Hosa ones almost exclusively, I love em. Never had a problem with them. And they're cheap.

[The4455]

I use George L's on my pedal board, i get them cut at Fat Tone guitar shop (check out their website, boutique heaven) I don't reccomend them any longer then 5 feet. The lava cables are too complicated in my opinion, but i need instant gratification so... I do not reccomend Hosa cables, bad quality high prices, i don't understand their angle.