Home made patch leads/instrument leads

[phil_the_bassist]

Ok, as my recently acquired pedals start flooding thru the letterbox (metaphorically!) I've noticed that linking 'em with my collection of 20ft instrument leads is not only a pain in the guitARiSt, but messy, inefficient and completely impractical to recreate on the pedalboard I'm building.

SO

I'm reading up on building my own leads, as Ive got about a mile of various dead/dying leads from which I should be able to scavenge a few decent lengths of cable to link my fx together. How hard IS it, do I need any special crimps/tools, and is it actually worth it?

[BOD2]

With a little practice it's not hard but you will need to solder the connections, not crimp them.

With the exception of products from the [url="http://www.georgels.co.uk/"]George L's[/url] range, most guitar leads are made up with soldered connectors. Better quality connectors will give better leads. The best connectors are probably Neutrik. Also, cheap and old cable is not ideal for making up good leads. It's better to use higher quality cable that will last the life of your gear.

Remember, all of your signal goes through these leads. There's no point spending a fortune on good guitars, amps and FX and then connecting them all up with crappy leads. Having said that, it is not necessary to buy extortionately priced ready made leads. You can make up your own or contact obbm on this forum for a quote for ready made, custom length leads.

Some info at the links below -

[url="http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-Custom-Guitar-Cables-on-The-Cheap/"]http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-Custo...s-on-The-Cheap/[/url]

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn-biPVqkHs"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn-biPVqkHs[/url]

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0HBxLxy218&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0HBxLxy218...feature=related[/url]

[clauster]

+1 to what BOD2 says

Get some decent cable, quality plugs, some solder and iron and it's quite a nice way to spend an evening.

[budget bassist]

Yeah, it's easy to do, i've done it before, make sure you get some jack plugs with decent cable clamps on them though because i've ripped them right out before.

Basically what you will need is:
wire cutters
wire strippers
soldering iron
solder
wet sponge and/or flux to clean the soldering iron with
an even number of jack plugs
instrument cable

If you don't have a soldering iron or anything it would probably just be cheaper to buy patch leads, they're only like 50p to a quid each.