George L's vs. Lava vs. Bill Lawrence vs. ...?

[benjuro]

Not looking to start a battle here, just hoping for some input on peeps' experience with the solderless cable pedalboard routine. Wanting to save some space with the teeny plugs, so I think the Planet Waves are out, but these other three are pretty much the same $$$...and of course I'm open to hearing about other options I'm not aware of.
They're going to be set and forget, used for a pedalboard with fixed pedals that rarely if ever change, so plug->unplug->plug->unplug worries are not so big.

[Holy Schnikes]

I prefer the Lava kit for a few reasons. Sound is full and well balanced as opposed to the harsh/brittle highs I've heard with the George L and Bill L stuff. Also, Lava is way easy to assemble with tiny RA plugs and very low failure rate, most likely due to the design which makes grounding simple and reliable.

The reason I went with a solderless option was simply to save space with custom lengths and cram more shit on my board without a mess of cable everywhere. Changing things up is easier as well. Those reasons alone were worth it to me but I gotta admit, they sound FAR better than the Monster patch cables I had previously, undeniably, and I'm no cable snob.

[julius_deane]

I have George L's because that's what was on sale on MF when I bought them, and I continue to buy them because that's what the shop close to my house carries.

I've never noticed any difference between one cable and another as far as tone goes, but the intricacies of tone don't really matter to me. Plus I tend to like things that some people might call "awful."

[valentine1]

i have a lava kit arriving in the mail, as well as a few ELC cables to finish my rig. purchased all this for the same reasons as holy schnikes^ described - i've used george L's before and didn't like them too much because of that mild harshness. when plugging straight into my amp with the lava ELC, it just sounds better. their solderless pedalboard kit is pretty damn appealing, and most people say it's reliable as. this gets my vote!

[sylnau]

I have Lava nickel plugs right angle and Evidence Audio Monorail cable.
The Lava plugs are easy to connect and take less space.
The Monorail cable sound great... no need for a buffer on my board.

[FuzzHugger]

I had some failing cables with the George L's...also, the plating started flaking off them after a year or so, with the metal flakes ending up inside pedals.

[Gunner Recall]

I'm a big fan of lava, no complaints here.
Easy to construct (at least imo) and they are TINY. More pedals on the board = good times.
I made about 15 in various lengths that I've had for a while, not one failure.

[proroby]

I have only used lava cables as far as solder less goes. I think they sound great and were a huge improvement from my random boss cables I had prior. My only qualm is that when you rearrange your board a lot, like I do, which I know you said isn't a problem for you, that they can start to loosen. I've gotten in the habit now of retightening them every time now though so it isn't a huge thing.

Don't mean to sound negative, I love lava cables just splitting hairs.

[NakedInTheRain]

i have the lava solderless. takes a bit of practice to make them. but they're very nice.

[benjuro]

Thanks for all the input, exactly what I needed to hear