# Lava cables



## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

Well I rewired my entire pedal board tonight. Twas a bit of a chore.

These Lava cables seem like a pretty good system, once you wire them correctly. 
First cable attempted was a dud. Operator error, doh.

The ends consist of the plug end, the collar and an insert.
You have to strip the wire, slide the insert over the exposed wire up to the outer coating.

Here's where I ran into my first mistake.
You have to leave a smidgen sticking out in order to wrap the outer cable over the end of the insert.
If you have too much cable out over the insert, it makes for a really hard time getting the plug end over it.
Not enough and it's NFG. It's a very fine line to get it right. A little finnickey but nothing terrible.

The good thing though, once you have it together properly, it's fairly failsafe and solid.
I had some Planet Waves on there before. They were easier to put together, just push the wire up into the end
and then tighten the little screw down, but more prone to failure as they could loosen up.
I had one calf out on me this way. With the Lava cables, once they are tightened, they're not going to loosen up.

I ordered and recieved a Behringer CT 100 cable tester before I attempted the rewire, thank goodness.
I'd make a cable and test it before installation. This saved a ton of troubleshooting. $30 well spent.

I used around 15' of cable from three kits and that was with a few redos.
My advise would be to order less kits and more ends. I could have got away
with two kits and just ordered ten more ends to do 15 cables.


----------



## whackystrings (Feb 11, 2006)

I purchased a Lava right-angled DIY kit in winter and built the cables then. As diligent and attentive I was in following the written and video instructions from Lava, 2 of my 5 cables began shorting out over time. Not that I would ever dissuade people from buying Lavas but I would recommend that they install them them where they would get zero strain and never get regularly plugged/unplugged. Personally, I will never buy them again. But I *do* seem to be in the small minority who had failures according to all the glowing remarks seen on other gear message boards.

Over time, I have put together about 30 Planet Waves DIY cables together and only had one failure - but it was caught with my tester before I even installed it on my board. And yes, that is after loads and loads of connecting/reconnecting them with my growing and changing pedalboard. I use PW factory molded connectors and both factory and DIY solderless connectors for all my cable runs, short and long, with the exception of the handful I made of Lavas.

I am willing to admit user failure with the Lavas but they will go nicely in my storage boxes holding all of all old gear that seemed like good ideas at the time.


----------



## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

I fired everything up today and nada, at first.
That left me scratching my head, as everything was tested yesterday. Hmmm.

I have the dirt going into the front of the amp and modulation into the effects loop.
I noticed that when I turned on the Little Dipper in the loop, it would light up,
so I was getting signal there.

I unhooked the dirt and went in straight with the guitar and left the effects loop intact
and it worked. I plugged back into the dirt and everything was working again, wierd.
I tested it last night and everything was fine and had'nt touched or moved anything.

If these guys don't pan out, it'll be a soldered kit next.
I'm hoping that this was an anomally, we'll see.


----------



## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

I used a set on my board. Once I got passed the first one I was flying. Fired up perfect and so far so good.


----------



## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

Ya, I'm not sure what happened with mine.
Everything seems good now.

Same here, once I realized my initial mistake, it was pretty smooth sailing.
Fingers were a bit tender after 15+ cables.
Lunchroom hands. 8)


----------



## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

So it wasn't the cables after all, it was the guitar that I was using, doh.

Loose input jack on guitar. 8)


----------



## zerorez (Jul 4, 2008)

I found Lava diy solderless right angles hard to get good consistent connections on the short lengths between pedals under 2 inches for multiple pedalboard connects.

Returned the Lava connectors and switched to Bill Lawrence solderless cable and plugs, perfect connection every time with this solderless system by Bill Lawrence.

Easy to use, cut the cable to length push the cable into the tip and tighten the allen screw on the side of the tip flush, done!

Lawrence shortys on the far left in the pic, no affiliation just a happy customer!










Cable and Plugs


----------



## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

Once you get it right with the Lavas it's a good go.

You have to get the outer wire over the insert, not enough and it's NFG,
too much it's very hard to get the plug over it.

A bit finnickey, like I mentioned earlier.

The PW has a system like that, more user friendly.
I'm just not sold on the reliability of them.


----------



## zerorez (Jul 4, 2008)

Lawrence system was out years before PW or GL, as far as reliability, no issues you can can pull and tug on them and they hold just fine as subjected to a normal load of kicking or tugging a pedal in a chain of other effects or normal connecting or disconnecting between practice or gigs.

The lava is a fine system, but way more time consuming to make a cable and to get good connections on tight spacing on short connects. After cutting stripping about 20 lava shorty's, I had about 1/2 them fail after testing when they were looped and wound tight between pedals on the board for final placement.



sulphur said:


> Once you get it right with the Lavas it's a good go.
> 
> You have to get the outer wire over the insert, not enough and it's NFG,
> too much it's very hard to get the plug over it.
> ...


----------



## zurn (Oct 21, 2009)

I'm personally done with solderless, they where a pain in the butt. This is my next purchase. I don't have that many pedals any more so it wont cost me a bundle.


----------

