Patch Cables

Just get a bunch of good L jacks and a spool of quality cable... sit down with your soldering iron and make them to the exact size you need. It will be cheaper and a cleaner signal path as well as a neater looking board.

Livewire for the 30 dollar range.

I bought the color coded cheapy patch cables online that come in a set. They are hit and miss though. One of them was bad right out of the package and caused a hum. You get like 12 of them for 8 bucks though so it's not the end of the world if they don't work.

I really dig color coding for stuff like that. Much easier to follow the cables on racks and such.

If you have the time and want to create your own, you could always dip them in that colored rubber coating for tool handles.

Do NOT buy those lightweight, 5 dollar cables you see in guitar shops in buckets and fish tanks.

Ibanez cables have always been good to me as well.

Livewire for the 30 dollar range.

I bought the color coded cheapy patch cables online that come in a set. They are hit and miss though. One of them was bad right out of the package and caused a hum. You get like 12 of them for 8 bucks though so it's not the end of the world if they don't work.

I really dig color coding for stuff like that. Much easier to follow the cables on racks and such.

If you have the time and want to create your own, you could always dip them in that colored rubber coating for tool handles.

I still have some of those colored plastic ones you are talking about that I bought in like 1995 or some shit and they sound good and the ones I haven't lost still work... but new ones? nah!

Do NOT buy those lightweight, 5 dollar cables you see in guitar shops in buckets and fish tanks.

those tiny cables in bins for a buck are definitely crap, but the jacks are sometimes great! and the hole shitty cable is cheaper than buyin' jacks online... you have to look at them. Also ask the guitar store if they have any 'house' cables laying around that have been broken by customers. I used to like to buy the broken cables from stores in big bags for a couple bucks and then repair them.

Thank you everyone for your very helpful advice, I will be sure to take it into consideration to choose my patch cables

you could also use less effects, if you have a snark tuner then you only need 1 long cable, LOL

LOL, that sounds like a lot by my standards

Haha, thanks for the help anyway

seriously though, when I used a bunch of pedals live for about a year I just got a sack of jacks and cut broken 20' cables to size and soldered 'em up to make a neat little board (still only like 5 pedals at my max I think, but that's a whole lot for me - I think I had my trusty radial ABY splitter, a TU2 on the tuner out, then an old fuzz of one sort or another to my marshall depending on my mood, and to my showman on the clean side I would run a mutron flanger and a small stone? I think Is tarted with the flanger hooked up to the plexi with an mxr blue box in the mutron... I think I sold that mxr to the girl from Haelstorm after I switched to tonebenders, wow, old times... then I had a whole fuzzface period where I ran it into a cork sniffer standalone buffer before my marshall when I switched my rhythm amp to the HC30 and eschewed all other pedals apart from the tuner and splitter... although there was also the 'plexi on a load-box with Yamaha SPX90 and power-amp' period too... I am rambling, who cares what my rigs were 8 years ago? especially since I would never remember to engage any of those effects at shows LOL... I just remember a lot of guys would drool at my stuff, most of which I hardly used).

Some excellent suggestions here. Especially asking the store (and I would pick on a big chain, like Guitar Center) if they will sell you their broken cables for cheap bulk pricing. Although, I suspect they won't, because Guitar Center now has their own brand (which I think is called LIvewire ...) and they process the lifetime warranty on those cables. So basically, they are most likely shipping their broken house cables back to their own manufacturer and not selling them to you / us.

The only thing I can think of adding, is that I really didn't have time to solder all my cables, even though I have a soldering iron and the knowledge, so instead I bought the Planet Waves Cable Station cable kit. You can find it on my Equipboard. It's REALLY REALLY easy. And takes a few minutes. And comes with more than enough cable and parts to handle a busy board. In fact I have two boards, and got them both done with one package, and had leftover cable.

Some excellent suggestions here. Especially asking the store (and I would pick on a big chain, like Guitar Center) if they will sell you their broken cables for cheap bulk pricing. Although, I suspect they won't, because Guitar Center now has their own brand (which I think is called LIvewire ...) and they process the lifetime warranty on those cables. So basically, they are most likely shipping their broken house cables back to their own manufacturer and not selling them to you / us.

The only thing I can think of adding, is that I really didn't have time to solder all my cables, even though I have a soldering iron and the knowledge, so instead I bought the Planet Waves Cable Station cable kit. You can find it on my Equipboard. It's REALLY REALLY easy. And takes a few minutes. And comes with more than enough cable and parts to handle a busy board. In fact I have two boards, and got them both done with one package, and had leftover cable.

Actually, due to financial failures and the end looming near, Guitar Center is said to have stopped honoring their lifetime warranties. Heard it over on TalkBass some months back. Guitar Center won't be around in 10 I don't think.

If that rumor is indeed true, then I would avoid their brand of cables because almost all other brands offer the same warranty. Mogami is cheaper than Monster, and Planet Waves I think, and they have a lifetime warranty. And what ever happened to Whirlwind? I have a few Whirlwind cables from 20 years ago (yeah, I'm sort of old I guess) and they still work like brand new.

Also, don't buy a coiled cable (the slinky ones) unless it has a lifetime warranty. I bought a Fender 'vintage' one and it broke after a couple months. I bought a Monster one, still works great, and if it ever breaks (many coil cables do apparently, not just mine) it has the warranty. Monster is too heavily invested in home theater and other audio arenas, to be impacted by lack of sales at Guitar Center. In my opinion.

Also, don't buy a coiled cable (the slinky ones) unless it has a lifetime warranty. I bought a Fender 'vintage' one and it broke after a couple months.

you gotta be selective about the coiled cables, although when I got my 1st stratocaster as a tike my uncle gave me his '64 Princeton reverb (god I miss that amp! where are you now, old girl?) but the patch cable he gave me was bad.... so I bugged my mom all day to run me to George's music or radio shack (there was no GC or even much near our house in the way of music stores back then, though now Philly is overloaded with music retailers of all kinds). She broe down and took me to the mall to visit the shack and she bought me a 5 dollar coiled shack cable that I used literally forever! I wish I knew where that wound up.... I am sure she has never stopped regretting that decision to give me my way!

Although when I was having some success as a local guitar hero in my 20s she had a strange grudging pride in what I could do.

I love Radio Shack. It [was] the only place you could buy a MIDI cable if you had a gig in at 7 PM on a Friday and all the guitar stores were closed. Spent many hours at Radio Shack over the years, especially as a kid. Got my first RC race car from the Shack. Anyway I digress ...

I had a coil cable of theirs. Black, small coil diameter, 10 or 20' whatever it was. Broke just like the Fender cable. I take care of my cables. I think it's a problem inherent with coil cables. The monster one I bought seems to be holding up well. The rubber insulation seems to be thicker than the other brands. I'm keeping my fingers crossed .... but then there's the lifetime warranty :)

Lucky, my starter cable were a bunch of funky looking Roland Cables. Got a yellow one that doesn't twist well, a black one that's really weak, acts like a string, and a few shorter ones.

They're old, and something tells me I should buy new cables.

On a side note, and very slight derail of thread, take a look at this: https://reverb.com/item/123175-reverb-20-foot-1-4-guitar-cable-orange-limit-1

For $9, it's deceptive, but I trust Reverb.com. Fairly new product.

Lucky, my starter cable were a bunch of funky looking Roland Cables. Got a yellow one that doesn't twist well, a black one that's really weak, acts like a string, and a few shorter ones.

They're old, and something tells me I should buy new cables.

On a side note, and very slight derail of thread, take a look at this: https://reverb.com/item/123175-reverb-20-foot-1-4-guitar-cable-orange-limit-1

For $9, it's deceptive, but I trust Reverb.com. Fairly new product.

that's pretty cheap! come back with a report....

that's pretty cheap! come back with a report....

When I test them out, I'll give that report.

Curious why you said it's deceptive? I don't see any catch in the ad listing. Free shipping.

PS: Definitely more footage than you need for a patch cable, right? unless going back to your rack gear...

Haha, damn right about that. Still, a cable for $9 just seems a bit iffy. I guess all that used gear has been getting to me. You expect something after watching videos and reviews, you get it, and suddenly you realise the speed of the spring is too slow and you can't do crap because you bought it used.

Thank you, VHT Amps, your tremolo on your Melo-Verb pedal is pretty good, but your 'verb is too slow. Sounds nothing like a good Fender reverb.