Patch cables for patch-baying at the moon: >crap; <expensive

[stubhead]

I need to make the leap to a patch bay for ye olde rack, the pluggy-unpluggy-pluggy-unpluggy-pluggy is driving me... insane. So:

I am looking for the cheapest way possible to get or make the highest-quality imaginable patch cords for hooking up the semi-permanent connections on a 1/4" 24-banger Neutrik patch bay. I don't need big robust roll-over-with-mixer-cart 6mm (.255") or larger tactical-armored stuff, 4mm (.155") is fine, and I'm quite able to solder. (I'd like to find a hefty roll of .155" cable anyway {50 ft.}, but not at George L's price!) Two feet, maybe a few pair of three footers, will be the longest run and, happily, extensive shielding from each cable itself is not a big requirement. I know that "cheapest way possible" and "highest-quality imaginable" are somewhat combative bedfellows, conceptwise.... I don't plan to spend more than a dollar a foot for cable, if that's any indication of price range.

I have been told that there is now actually a quite functional brand of the molded cable packs - there are people selling expensive guitar cords with the molded-in Neutrik type connectors - and this IS for some basic, mostly non-flex, non-dicked-with use. But I'm not sure which is which? When you start looking at pricing 20-24 cords, yikes!

 

[Cagey]

You might want to peruse the Markertek site. You can go from one extreme to the other there pretty easily.

Last time I was in a patch cable mood, I just bought 100' of Mogami cable and a jillion Neutrik connectors. Worked out well, still does and I expect it will continue to. But, that's not the cheap/easy route. It is, however, the best if you aren't worried about stripping cable and soldering connectors. If you want cheap/easy, that will often work too - you just have to buy twice or three times as many as you think you might need. No real money savings there, but it does have the virtue of "easy". Just be ruthless about tossing questionable cables so you don't get surprised at some later date.

 

[stubhead]

Yeah, the Markertek people are exactly what I need! Do you know, George L's charges $1.95 per foot for what is surely either the Canares GS-4 or the Mogami 2333 - $0.49 and $0.34, respectively? Devils....

 

[AndyG]

I am looking for the cheapest way possible to get or make the highest-quality imaginable patch cords for hooking up the semi-permanent connections on a 1/4" 24-banger Neutrik patch bay.

Why not simply half-normal (or fully normal, depending on the application) the patch points that would be semi-permanent? 

 

[Cagey]

Yeah, the Markertek people are exactly what I need! Do you know, George L's charges $1.95 per foot for what is surely either the Canares GS-4 or the Mogami 2333 - $0.49 and $0.34, respectively? Devils....

I've never been that impressed with the George L stuff. It does what it's supposed to, but at an unjustifiable high price. Kinda like Monster brand cables. Plus, I've never been a big fan of insulation displacement connectors vs. solder-ons.  ID connectors will work in applications where the cable gets plugged in and left alone forever with no mechanical stress involved, but for performance pieces that are frequently fiddled with? Fugeddaboudit. They'll fail in no time flat.

Of course, the George L fans will say "but you can repair the cable right there with no soldering iron!" never mentioning that you might not need to repair the damned thing at all if it didn't have a shitty connector on it to begin with.

 

[drewfx]

If it's semi-permanent, why worry about it? Any reasonable quality cheap cables are fine if you're going to leave them alone most of the time.

 

[stubhead]

I shore du lak the innernets. In rapid succession (no obsessive, not me!) I came across Belden 8218, and the crimper tool used to connect coaxial connectors, and.... the stuff is basically cable-TV cable. Or whatever this means:

Common for Wi-Fi pigtails: more flexible but higher loss than RG58; used with LEMO 00 connectors in NIM electronics.

And - It's RG174U and RG179U compatible! :blob7:  :toothy10: :hello2: :toothy10: :blob7:

Bill Lawrence was the guy who came up with the whole solderless thing - again, he was so adamant about staying in his shop and out of court that he couldn't be bothered to sue the pants off his former employee George L, for both the solderless cord thing and the pickup thing. His lack of interest in money seems almost un-American, but then - he wasn't an American. And he was accumulating a few pennies off of a certain percentage of guitars legitimately sold in the world anyway, I suspect if he had died alone it would be one of those shocking "guy wearing old socks has 100 million dollars!" kind of stories.

But this is where genius lies - one day he was watching TV and thought "If the TV cord can do THAT..." So I have a 50-foot spool of Belden 8218 winging in for $24, roughly $175 less than George would've got....

<- Hey Kids! There's the lesson - once I figured out there was no WAY in heck that George & Bill were actually making wires in their basement, it was just a matter of time. Everything is cheaper somewhere. SAMICK & CORT makes yer Epi's and Squeerzes... and a "JV" Squier may be the best Strat money can buy DEPENDING ON THE YEAR.

 

[Prometheus]

For those who may go cable shopping to make their own, here are some Belden specs:
Belden 8259 101.1 pF/m 0.30 uH/m
Belden 8216 101.1 pF/m 0.25 uH/m
Belden 8279 68.9 pF/m 0.39 uH/m
Belden 89259 56.7 pF/m 0.30 uH/m
Belden 8218 20.5 pF/m 0.12 uH/m
Belden 8214 26 pF/m 0.07 uH/m

When I decided to make my own passle of patch cables, I went looking locally and found ... none of these. I ended up settling for
Digiflex Nk1/6 33 pF/ft = 108.3 pF/m  ?? uH/m

Good enough for 6" lengths. But a little higher than I wanted for some 6-10 footers. I tried to source some Belden 8218, but could only ever find 500-foot or 1000-foot spools. So, Master-Stüb, pray tell, where didja manage to find 50 feet? 'Cuz I'd take 50 or 100 if I could get it.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

B&H has a lot of stuff too, but they can tend to be on the pricey side.