# pedalboard PATCH cables



## GTmaker (Apr 24, 2006)

HI guys

I've been strugling with a bunch of mishmash cables on my pedalboard.

Is there a good alternative that I should be using.?

Ive seen online a set that uses NO soldering and am wondering if thats such a good idea.

Any input will be apreciated.


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## Scottone (Feb 10, 2006)

GTmaker said:


> HI guys
> 
> I've been strugling with a bunch of mishmash cables on my pedalboard.
> 
> ...


I've been using the mini-ELC cable (with soldered connectors) from Lava Cables and they are great. I know that Lava sells solderless connectors as well, but have no experience with them.


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## kw_guitarguy (Apr 29, 2008)

I bought the Planet Waves solder-less pedal board two years ago and have had zero issues with it. It comes with a cutter and I think 10-12 right angle connectors. The connectors are good quality, as is the cable.

I made 6 cables in about 10 minutes.

~Andrew


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

George Ls for me.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Curently, The Source is selling off a bunch of things from their components aisles at rock bottom prices. Among them are some decent right-angle phone plugs at 96 cents for a pair. Run to the Source outlets around your locale and buy up as many as you can (there are usually only a few bubble packs per store). You can produce your own offset male-to-male adaptors for 96 cents each by simply soldering a short wire from hot solder lug to hot solder lug (I use a short piece of resistor lead) and screwing the chassis of one to the other.








These are not the identical model, but you can see here that the back portion is held on to the "front" by two screws. Simply point the second plug so that it is "upside down opposite" to the first one and screw them together (they WILL line up in all cases). These are great for matching up side-mounted jacks that are not situated at exactly the same height. Although some folks are a little perturbed at what seems like "exposed" areas, there is all the shielding you need, and these puppies actually have a slimmer profile than anything commercially available (meaning you can snuggle up your pedals closer together).
If you need something to reach from around back, you can solder up a hunk of shielded cable yourself.


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## Michelle (Aug 21, 2006)

mhammer said:


> .........You can produce your own offset male-to-male adaptors for 96 cents each by simply soldering a short wire from hot solder lug to hot solder lug (I use a short piece of resistor lead) and screwing the chassis of one to the other...........


Awesome idea! Yep, I've been raiding the 96c stuff for a while. And you could install a resistor inside if you needed a pad or a cap if you needed a filter....

hmmmmm


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Michelle said:


> Awesome idea! Yep, I've been raiding the 96c stuff for a while. And you could install a resistor inside if you needed a pad or a cap if you needed a filter....
> 
> hmmmmm


Brilliant! Now you're *thinking*. All those pedals? They're just one big circuit with a few walls between 'em. Absolutely no reason why you couldn't use a few components inside a solid adaptor to shape the signal between stages so it does what you want. The nice thing is that it involves no modding of the pedals themselves, so resale value is preserved and you don't bugger anything up. Just make sure you take steps to keep stuff from shorting out against the plug chassis.

I sent in a letter to Vintage Guitar last year which they nicely divided and reshaped part of as a query to Zac Childs. In it, I asked if there were anything on the market (well, actually I said there oughta be, but they rephrased it into a question) that could disable the battery while leaving patch cord plugged in.

Consider this. When a mono plug is inserted into the stereo input jack of a pedal, it shorts out the ring and shaft connnections so that the battery is now connected to ground. If you insert a stereo plug into the jack, the ring is not connected to ground and the battery is essentially "off duty".....unless you deliberately connected ring and ground. 

So, imagine that one side was a stereo right-angled plug, rather than mono, and the two halves of our male-to-male connector were spaced a little farther apart (you'd need longer screws but they're easy to find). You could insert a little mini-toggle (and they make 'em pretty slim these days) in the space that could open or close the connection between ring and ground for the stereo side. This would let you use batteries (and the clean, quiet power they provide) without requiring you to unplug everything just to save battery life. A flick here, a flick there, and the batteries are safe from accidental draining. It goes without saying that you need to make sure the stereo side is plugged into the input jack.

Most folks, if they have any sort of appreciable pedal-chain, will use a power supply, but some folks simply like what a battery does (especially what low ones do for fuzz), and it would be nice to have the option of an intact pedalboard with easy battery-power switch-off.


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## GTmaker (Apr 24, 2006)

This forum is great.

Saw the "Source" special listed today at noon.
Rushed to the Guelph mall and picked up the last 2 pacs of right angle phone plugs. $2.17 for the 2 packs tax included.

Life is good.

By the way....asked the wife to tag along.
She got a nice top and a nice dressy shirt.

Moral of this story. If you realy want to spend $2.17. Leave the wife home.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE.....


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## jv100k (Feb 29, 2008)

Moral of this story. If you realy want to spend $2.17. Leave the wife home.kkjuw
Amen to that brother.I have just gone through this.I had my board done up with George-L right angles for 2 years and have had some problems with them.I have since gone to those cheap multicolored premolded cords if one acts up in the trash it goes.


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## al3d (Oct 3, 2007)

Paul said:


> These are great for BOSS type pedals.


Been trying to find those in Canada but never found any.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

I've used those, but quite frankly they are of limited use. They keep your pedals too far apart, and assume that your pedals are all the same make and have the jacks mounted at exactly the same height. For my money, the offset ones work better in my own context.

On the other hand, if you have pedals with side mounted power jacks, then I guess the extra space is helpful.


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## pattste (Dec 30, 2007)

al3d said:


> Been trying to find those in Canada but never found any.


I saw them at Archambault on Monday. They were made by Hosa.


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## Andy (Sep 23, 2007)

al3d said:


> Been trying to find those in Canada but never found any.


Planet Waves makes a version, as well as one that's slightly offset if you're going from a Boss pedal to a Marshall or Ibanez pedal that's close, but not identical in design.


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## Cowinacape (Feb 2, 2006)

GTmaker said:


> Moral of this story. If you realy want to spend $2.17. Leave the wife home.



This should be included in the "how to be a male" handbook when you are born


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