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cheap instrument cables - where?
| Message Board > Gear Buy & Sell > cheap instrument cables - where? |
| Tyler User Info... |  basically I'm realizing I have only a couple decent cables and need a lot more. one for connecting a 1/4" left output from a keyboard to a mixer, one for connecting a 1/4" right output from a keyboard to a mixer, a couple more for effects, blah blah blah, I'm getting a new analog synth sometime soon and maybe something to connect that to a mixer as well... basically, I'm sick of taking everything apart just because of my lack of cables. I'd like to be able to have it all hooked up at once. really I just want like 8 mono 1/4" cables, maybe 2 meters long each, for really cheap, that are still in noise-free tight working condition. does anyone buy those giant spools of bulk cable and cut them to suit their needs? anyone know where I could get what I want without shelling out a ton of cash? - Wed, 14 Jun 2006 8:14pm | ||
| hoffa User Info... | Quayle Electronics on Burnside down the hill and across the street from Tempo (ass-fuck) Trend. Sometimes they have some really cool all metal 90 degree plugs for pedals and guitar cables. As far as noiseless... people always say to get cable with good quality shielding (braided etc.). You can spend as little or as much as you like in that regard. It's like anything, you get what you pay for. Buying a whole spool "without shelling out a lot of cash" are 2 mutually exclusive concepts. Plainly put it's not cost effective unless... there is no unless in a musician's case. Figure out what you need in feet or metres and they will cut it if you wish. Avoiding a cold solder will avoid noisy results. Make sure both ends (the hot wire-copper and the point you apply it to) are both tinned with solder and then blob some more on to bind it all together. Make sure the ground lead or braid is soldered to the casing in the appropriate spot. Decent material properly assembled = minimal noise. Too cheap to do things properly = frustrated fool. Good luck - Wed, 14 Jun 2006 10:05pm Edited: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 10:08pm | ||
| ender60 User Info... | get a job???? - Sun, 25 Jun 2006 12:56am | ||
| Josh Rosario User Info... | Are you kidding me? I've seen your equipment and you should have thousands of those things just laying around. I have no idea how you could get along without enough cables! You rock, White Josh. - Mon, 26 Jun 2006 7:58am | ||
| Tyler User Info... | most of mine are makeshift cables, josh. 1/8" cables with two 1/4" adapters on each side haha, half of them being really lose and not working too well. then I have a couple 1/4" cables, again half of them are loose and not working too well. and of course some adaptors are stereo, some are mono, some cables are stereo, some are mono, haha. anyway if anyone is interested, I ended up buying a bunch of prepackaged planetwaves cables since they have a lifetime warranty at long and mcquade. 10 foot cables are like 25 bucks, 20 foot cables are like 30 bucks, I think. - Mon, 26 Jun 2006 4:03pm | ||
| Jrock313 User Info... | hey dude, i work at a music shop in Vancouver. Westcoast Music. we have a bin of used cables (tested) for like 5 bucks, all different size/lengths etc. and heads. u might find some stuff you'll need in there a lot of XLR and quarter inch stuff. - Tue, 4 Jul 2006 1:03am | ||
| Tyler User Info... | I'll remember that and check it out when I'm next in vancouver in august. where are you located? - Tue, 4 Jul 2006 2:23pm | ||
| Jrock313 User Info... | We're on Granville and Drake downtown. Its right after you cross the bridge beside a piano shop and across from the 7-eleven. - Tue, 4 Jul 2006 9:58pm Edited: Tue, 4 Jul 2006 9:58pm | ||
| Jrock313 User Info... | hehe i don't suggest it.. but if you go to a school you could always take the cables there like all the other ratty children do =) - Tue, 4 Jul 2006 9:59pm | ||
| Tyler User Info... | I go to uvic and don't really plan on taking their stuff but one of my XLRs came from a friend's school, the friend gave it to me, aww how nice - Wed, 5 Jul 2006 12:21am | ||
| gnumusic User Info... |  I'd also like to really understand the difference between those $8 cables and the $30 ones. Is it actually the cable? the soldering? the tips? I've had one trustworthy/experienced friend tell me that he uses the cheap ones on stage, with no problems. Another trustworthy/experienced friend says he'd never go near the cheap ones. Ach! I want to learn to solder well enough to make my own. Any experts out there? Host a class! Make Your Own Cables 101. I'd sign up. What was this thread about again...oh yeah cheap cables. b-rock - Wed, 5 Jul 2006 10:25pm | ||
| Microphonic User Info... | I'm skeptical of shelling out large dough for cables, but my skepticism has inspired me to keep up on research. Like most other things, the expense of high-end cables comes back to materials and workmanship. It's like buying some British hand-built boutique compressor that costs $2500 when you could get a DBX from some factory in China for $250 - they do the same job, so why does one cost 10x more? Of course cables connect A to B, but high-end cables are usually made of more up-market and exotic materials than just threaded copper of a given gauge - silver and other alloys designed to be the optimal capacitance and resistance for a given task. The materials are much more rigorously engineered to gauge, winding, and particular attention is paid to shielding (both internally and from outside interference from radio-frequency sources, electrical noise, etc.) The soldering is done by hand, again usually using more expensive materials like silver solder (as opposed to lead solder), and the connectors themselves are usually either name-brand or manufactured in-house (as opposed to mass-produced off-the-shelf connectors). So to answer your question, my reading leads me to believe that the difference is in the cable, the soldering, and the tips. If you've ever taken apart a flaky patch cord, it's quickly apparent how basic they are. Problem is, the basic components that "basic" cables are made of is most of what's readily available to DIYers anyway. I'm talking about the basic black-rubber-shrunk-shielded-copper-core crap that you buy on the spool pictured above, plus some mass-produced off-the-shelf tips to solder on. Soldering is of course a good skill to have, and you can save some money *over time* by building your own cables, but if you're into high end cables, I'd be inclined to say just buy them pre-made. And if you must go and spend on high-end cables, make sure you blow your wad on replacing your digital cables first, then mic cables, then patches. At the end of the day, though, I'm not recording in Abbey Road here, and I'm doubtful that I'd even be able to hear any significant difference between one cable and another in my room and on my monitors. There are technical issues waaaaay more important to the sound than the cable you're using - mic selection and placement are going to change the sound waaay more than plugging in an expensive cord. So if it sounds right to me, it must be OK. Use sensible lengths of reasonable quality cable (not the cheapest thing you can find), whenever possible, and keep it away from RFI sources, electrical wiring, and power transformers. Apologies for the long post. Dirk - Thu, 6 Jul 2006 12:25am | ||
| Josh Rosario User Info... | I think some of it is the amount of shielding in the cable and the tips and if it's gold plated or not. I have two of the planet waves cables, but most of mine are the cheaper $8 ones and they work fine. They're just not fancy and gold plated. - Thu, 6 Jul 2006 12:26am | ||
| hoffa User Info... | Consider this, I attended a workshop at Mushroom in Vancouver blah blah years ago given by this engineer who was the go to guy for some big producer in Vancouver. This guy worked on everything from mixing a Baraba Streisand record to resampling and pasting in one by one bass drum kicks for a live Motely Crue record. This guy had worked with Van Halen at one point and told a rather revealing story about Edward. Eddie could tell which brand of battery was in a pedal in a blind test by the sound. So attuned to his his sound he would discard very expensive patch cords/cables after each take leaving a dust bin full at the end of the session. Whatever you think of Eddie I think this speaks to the whole cheap verses pricey debate. Gold plating is debateable, but good shielding counts. Crappy cables will start to fall apart without braided shieling creating a well secured ground. If you don't know this, play a few more years and learn the hard way. It's all about minimizing junk in the signal path. Garbage material offers too much resistance. Certain materials conduct better and affect the sound less as well as simply breaking. Use you ears and pay attention, you will start to notice. OK, I think we uneccessarily exhausted a rather inane topic, I'm stopping now - bye - Thu, 6 Jul 2006 11:09pm Edited: Thu, 6 Jul 2006 11:11pm | ||
| Tyler User Info... | I'm pretty sure the cables were expensive because they have a lifetime warranty. Meaning they'll be replaced if anything goes wrong with them. Meaning I have cables for life. - Thu, 6 Jul 2006 11:42pm | ||
| The Wolf User Info... | I hate how some musicians will shell out tonnes of cash on pedals but scrimp on cables and a power cleaner/surge bar just my rant ... the more pedals the greater the guitarist sucks,,, - Fri, 7 Jul 2006 2:41am | ||
| Jrock313 User Info... | May i cough out *cough*Tom Morello*cough* None of my planet wave cables have gipped on me and evrething seems to be in working order. - Fri, 7 Jul 2006 10:32am | ||
| ML7Mike User Info... | you can make your own cables at Gordies Music up by the Oak Bay Junction. I switched to expensive Planet Waves cables a few years ago and havent had to buy a new cable since. I used to use the cheap ones, and even the Fender (gauranteed for life) brand for a while and those broke as easily as the cheapo Yorksville type. The PW have been very solid, Im still using the same main cable I used to tour across Canada with in 2004 so that cable is almost 3 years old, normally I burn through a single cable in less than 6 months without even playing live. - Fri, 7 Jul 2006 12:11pm | ||
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