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Hey guys. I'm considering upgrading from a Pedaltrain 2 to a Pedaltrain Pro, despite all of my past cable-making efforts to cram a million pedals close together. It'd probably be for the best... Footswitches would be easier to hit, cables wouldn't be so crammed and intrusive, switching out pedals would be a lot easier, etc. My board is currently wired with Lava Tightropes, and if I upgraded to a Pedaltrain Pro, many of those cables would probably be rendered obsolete. I need some pretty long cables, because many of my pedals are in a looper. My longer cables probably wouldn't be long enough anymore on a PT-Pro. Plus some of them get staticky if bumped into/moved, and it would be nice to get some better cables, anyway. It was kind of cool to make my own (solderless) cables for a bit, but I don't really want to continue down that route, and I don't want to bother with soldering.

I love how the Lava cables are so thin, flexible, and low-profile. Very easy to squeeze them in tight corners and bend the cables in convenient ways. I want to get a better grasp of what are some good alternative (pre-made) cables that are out there. Ideally, I'm looking for thin, flexible cables that preserve good tone, don't take up too much space and are easy to adjust. I'd also need some pretty long cables, probably at least 2 feet, maybe longer. Durability is a big plus, because I switch pedals in and out pretty frequently. I'm currently leaning towards EBS cables, as they've been highly recommended by many of you, but that seems to be the one complaint I've read about them-Not super durable if you switch out different pedals often.

The ONLY solderless cables I have not had issues with are Planet Waves. The newer ones are lower profile but not as low as the Lava obviously. I switched them around several times and not had one failure. I've had failures with George L's and Lava's from simply moving pedals. Now if you're not going to move them, I swear to God George L's make shit sound better.

The EBS are awesome, but even the longest ones are not long enough IMO. So you could do a combination if you wanted.

Did you already buy a PT Pro?? I have a spare one... LOL

EBS definitely seems the lowest profile, but their longest cables are 22"ish.

jwar wrote:The ONLY solderless cables I have not had issues with are Planet Waves. The newer ones are lower profile but not as low as the Lava obviously. I switched them around several times and not had one failure. I've had failures with George L's and Lava's from simply moving pedals. Now if you're not going to move them, I swear to God George L's make shit sound better.

The EBS are awesome, but even the longest ones are not long enough IMO. So you could do a combination if you wanted.

Did you already buy a PT Pro?? I have a spare one... LOL

I haven't bought a new board yet, as I'm also considering the Novo 32 and other options. I'll definitely keep your spare board in mind, though! Thanks for the tips!

I did what you're thinking on doing. I have big feet and I can't stand trying to stomp on some crammed pedals. I can't recommend the lava tightwires though. I've had nothing but problems with them, and they're expensive as all fuck too.

I've gone through these tribulations and after trying everything, my solution has been to sell my switcher and just have a simpler board. Kind of an infuriating suggestion, I know, but that shit was just driving me absolutely crazy. Even when I finally got my board up and running, simple troubleshooting meant having to go back and dig through twice as many cables, and this was only to right a routing issue—the idea of dealing with an actual cable failure during or before a show was enough to give me horrible anxiety.

BUT. One suggestion I got might work for you: the guy who made my cables said that on his board, he uses George Ls but actually solders the connections, and it's the best solution he's found. Food for thought.

vidret wrote:NO!!

What's this referring to?

I know some of you guys don't like Lava, but I'm considering trying something like a Blue Demon:

http://www.lavacable.com/index.php?id=164

Never used a patch cable with pancake plugs before. The main advantage of pancake plugs is that they're supposed to be less bulky/take up less space, right? That's what I've assumed, but I don't really know. Pancake plug disadvantages?

Also, these are available "with normal or opposite facing plug direction." If someone can elaborate on that, I'd appreciate it.

I'm assuming that means an "S" shaped configuration. Handy if you've got a mix of side and top jacks on your board.

weebles wrote:I'm assuming that means an "S" shaped configuration. Handy if you've got a mix of side and top jacks on your board.

Thanks!

Pankek negatives mainly come into play when running into configurations like so:


Can also be annoying with certain power jack placements being too close to an input/output. Best to have a mix of everything in ur cable bag.