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Not sexy but necessary: 1/4" cables


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Being able to solder gives you the ability to cheaply repair your own cables rather than buy new ones--another cost-saving measure. Given the poor quality soldering jobs I've seen on some cables, it can also lead to more reliable cables in the future.

 

I don't like working on cars, houses, etc., but I'm able to do it and it has saved me a considerable sum of money over the years, which I've put to good use buying things like...gear.

 

Grey

I'm not interested in someone's ability to program. I'm interested in their ability to compose and play.

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I don't know if I somehow drew the long straw in this area, but I honestly can't think of more than maybe three or four cables in my whole career that have gone bad. I'm pretty nice to cables in general, particularly the business ends, but I've had plenty of "grab the spaghetti and go" breakdowns too where I've thrown them in a big caveman lump into my bag to be sorted out later. Maybe I'm forgetting some failed ones because I usually have spares, but is this actually a huge problem for the brethren and sistren here?

Now out! "Mind the Gap," a 24-song album of new material.
www.joshweinstein.com

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I've settled mostly on custom cables from Redco. I needed some 5' cables with right angles on one end, good luck finding that. Their prices are reasonable and you can pick and choose cable and connector brand and types.

 

I go with their "house brand" cable--though you can choose canare etc-- and switchcraft connectors. I've gotten mic cables, TRS and unbalanced 1/4 cables and never a bad experience.

 

I used to go as cheap as possible, which meant Monoprice. Ironically I'm still using a couple of their mic cables after eight years, while I had a few of their 1/4" cables crap out. I mainly avoid them because they are thick and heavy compared to the Redco house cable (and Switchcraft connectors don't hurt)

 

I am also a longstanding Redco user - going back a decade or more. I believe I was first referred to them from this forum (I believe EscapeRocks was an early user with custom snakes). I've had several custom snakes made by Redco over the years for both live and studio use. All of them are still working reliably and I have custom lengths in odd configurations of fantails to support my rig.

 

In more recent years, fellow forum member vonnor has made me a couple of different custom multi-pin snakes using parts from Redco and other suppliers. These things are truly magic!

 

After having custom snakes for all these years, I have very limited interest in buying one-off cables. I still have a few around that I've bought from Guitar Center or even Amazon for certain applications.

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It's funny, but I have some Hosa orange and grey cables that I have used for 15 years setting up and tearing down weekly. Oddly I have had better luck with the really thin ones where each wire is maybe 1/8" thick. The thicker 1/4"-ish jacket ones I have had have been poor. On the pro-audio side I like EWI cables - less expensive than Whirlwind, ProCo, etc., but very durable. For keyboards I don't like really thick cords as they take up a ton of space in my gig bag. If the new Hosas are anything like the ones from 15 years ago, I wouldn't hesitate to buy more.
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I'm actually a fan of RoadHog cables and RapcoHorizon cables. I've also used ProCo cables, which are usually good. D'Addario cables seem pretty good as well - though I mainly use them for expression and switch pedals.

 

 

Buying enough cables for everything a person has gets expensive quickly. More of a money pit than the instruments sometimes, it feels like. Hence I don't technically have the number of cables that I should have given the instruments I have. ;)

Yamaha: Motif XF8, MODX7, YS200, CVP-305, CLP-130, YPG-235, PSR-295, PSS-470 | Roland: Fantom 7, JV-1000

Kurzweil: PC3-76, PC4 (88) | Hammond: SK Pro 73 | Korg: Triton LE 76, N1R, X5DR | Emu: Proteus/1 | Casio: CT-370 | Novation: Launchkey 37 MK3 | Technics: WSA1R

Former: Emu Proformance Plus & Mo'Phatt, Korg Krome 61, Roland Fantom XR & JV-1010, Yamaha MX61, Behringer CAT

Assorted electric & acoustic guitars and electric basses | Roland TD-17 KVX | Alesis SamplePad Pro | Assorted organs, accordions, other instruments

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I am a fan of Mogami, and I've found the higher-end Live Wire cables sold at GC to be quite good. Canare is another name popular among pros. Kimber is pricier but liked as well.

 

The higher-end Live Wire cables are made by ProCo â I think they're basically the same as the Evolution Instrument series. A good off-the-shelf cable option.

 

I usually make my own with Canare GS-6 and Switchcraft 270 connectors. I'll use the Neutrik NP2X-BAG if I want the connectors to be black, or if I want to color code them. I'm a big fan of the PXR colored rings. But, as others have stated here, almost any cable is reliable if you take care of it, and most any cable will fail if put through constant abuse.

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I worked for Roland for many years so I bought a lot of Roland keyboards. In the 80s and 90s they all came with 2 cables and kept them all. I have about 30 of them now. Half of them are right angle 1/4 to RCA with a little adaptor on the end, model PJ-1M. The rest are straight 1/4 to 1/4. A handful have failed. But most of them are still working fine after 30 years. Some have just done duty in the studio but I have one set of 5 of these that have been used 100s of times live.

 

https://www.roland.com/jp/products/pj-1m/

Mike Kent

- Chairman of MIDI 2.0 Working Group

- MIDI Association Executive Board

- Co-Author of USB Device Class Definition for MIDI Devices 1.0 and 2.0

 

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I"ve sworn off anything Hosa, EVER...far too many failures with adapters that short out and have poor connection. I go far, FAR, WAY far out of my way to find non-Hosa stuff.

 

Pig Hog is my new go-to for cables, connectors, and adapters. Very pleased with their quality so far.

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I use Hosa for 5-pin DIN cables and 1/4" to RCA, 1/8" to dual 1/4" stereo splitter cables, and similar things. I've had one midi cable for six years with heavy usage with zero issues.

Yamaha: Motif XF8, MODX7, YS200, CVP-305, CLP-130, YPG-235, PSR-295, PSS-470 | Roland: Fantom 7, JV-1000

Kurzweil: PC3-76, PC4 (88) | Hammond: SK Pro 73 | Korg: Triton LE 76, N1R, X5DR | Emu: Proteus/1 | Casio: CT-370 | Novation: Launchkey 37 MK3 | Technics: WSA1R

Former: Emu Proformance Plus & Mo'Phatt, Korg Krome 61, Roland Fantom XR & JV-1010, Yamaha MX61, Behringer CAT

Assorted electric & acoustic guitars and electric basses | Roland TD-17 KVX | Alesis SamplePad Pro | Assorted organs, accordions, other instruments

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...is this actually a huge problem for the brethren and sistren here?

 

I have to confess I"m in the same boat as you Josh. I could count on one hand the number of cables that have failed on me in 30 years.

 

I have a 30 year old Hosa I still use live - seems to do the job. Hope I"m not tempting the keyboard gods with this sort of talk!

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I am also a longstanding Redco user - going back a decade or more. I believe I was first referred to them from this forum (I believe EscapeRocks was an early user with custom snakes). I've had several custom snakes made by Redco over the years for both live and studio use. All of them are still working reliably and I have custom lengths in odd configurations of fantails to support my rig.

 

In more recent years, fellow forum member vonnor has made me a couple of different custom multi-pin snakes using parts from Redco and other suppliers. These things are truly magic!

 

After having custom snakes for all these years, I have very limited interest in buying one-off cables. I still have a few around that I've bought from Guitar Center or even Amazon for certain applications.

 

Yep...big fan of Redco. In fact I have an order in now for another custom snake. They're good guys who do great work. Plus, they will talk to you about what you need and let you know if they think it's a good idea or not.

I'm very fond of their custom rack panel label plates. Not expensive, and come in many colors, and you choose what they say.

David

Gig Rig:Casio Privia PX-5S | Yamaha MODX+ 6 | MacBook Pro 14" M1| Mainstage

 

 

 

 

 

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Yep...big fan of Redco. In fact I have an order in now for another custom snake. They're good guys who do great work. Plus, they will talk to you about what you need and let you know if they think it's a good idea or not.

I'm very fond of their custom rack panel label plates. Not expensive, and come in many colors, and you choose what they say.

 

 

I had to recently pull the plug on a simple custom mult box from Redco. They're really struggling from not having enough people and after 3 months of broken promises I had enough. Ended up buying the standard box (from them) and doing it myself. I always liked them and agree they do fantastic work.

 

I understand and try to be sympathetic to the challenges of these small businesses but their handling of this job, especially what I felt was deceptive communication was disappointing. No excuse for that part imo. I'll be happy to learn your job went well.

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