Howdy!

I'm no expert but I thought this maybe handy for those of you who don't already know how to make/repair your own cables. I reckon it's something, as a guitarist you should probably have a go at. Its dead easy, cost effective and may well get you out of a tight spot if your gigging regularly.

Also worth doing if, like me your looking to connect all your pedals on a budget (spent all my spare cash on the pedals!) and need a load of patch cables in various lengths. Great when wiring up your pedal board, neat and tidy.

Although the following info is for making a patch cable the same will apply should you wish to make your own guitar lead...just make it a bit longer.

For those of you who do know how to do this, feel free to skip to the end where there's a nice pic of a tasty beverage and a very brief but relevant life skills tip!

Lets get started!

You'll need to have a Soldering Iron, some Solder and the ability to use them with hurting yourself. Might be worth finding someone to show you how to solder if you don't already know, or check Youtube for a tutorial.

You'll also need some cable. A lot of folks recommend Mogami guitar cable. I have an old Horizon cable that died years ago so will be recycling that.



As I mentioned earlier I'm wanting to make a hole bunch of different length patch cables so I've bought a big bag of angled jack connectors. Of course for a normal guitar lead, pick up a few straight jack connectors instead.

I'll be using one of these for demo purposes as the internals are pretty much the same as a straight connector.





As you can see above, once dismantled there's a plastic sleeve and the metal outer case. You'll want to slip them on to your cable now as you won't be able to get them on once you've soldered the jack connector on!

Other than that there's not a lot else to worry about, so we can move on to preparing the cable.

Cut your cable to the desired length (pop the metal outer casing and the plastic inner sleeve on the cable now!) then gently slice through the outer layer...



...making sure that you don't cut any of the exposed copper wire underneath, so go slow!



Gently pull the outer layer away and you should have something that looks like this...



Now take all the copper wire and twist the ends together nice and tight. This outer core is the cables ground (-) wire.



Remove the black and transparent layers, but leave about 5mm...



....Again be careful not to cut any of the copper wire and give it a twist. This is the Hot (+) wire. Now we need to tin both the Hot and Ground wires.



Yeah, action shot!



Damn you blurry pic! But you get the idea.

Now the cable end is prepared we can have a closer look at the internals of our jack connector.



We want the inner core/hot wire to go to the terminal marked Hot and the outer core/ground wire to go to the sleeve bit. If you look closely you'll see I've lightly filed the area where the ground wire needs to go. This helps the solder stick a little better.



Trim the wires so there's no chance of them ever touching. If the do touch your cable won't work. You can see in the pic above that I've curled the hot wire through and over the terminal. I'll give that a pinch with some long nose pliers to ensure a good mechanical connection is made before soldering.



You'll want to pre-heat the area where the ground wire will be soldered as its pretty big and acts as a bit of a heat sink, which may hinder the solder bonding to it. Once its hot go ahead and stick the ground wire to the sleeve with a blob of solder.

Now, don't do what I've done here and try and take pic's while your soldering the ground wire to the jack! As you can see above, I've managed to melt a bit of the inner sleeve.

Any-hoo, now you can go ahead and solder the hot wire to the terminal...



Another action shot (managed not to melt anything this time!)

Now tighten the two end cable grips so they clamp the wire. This should ensure the solder joints aren't put under strain when you yank the cable.



Then slide the plastic sleeve over the top....



...Followed by the metal outer casing. Make sure you screw it up nice and tight.



And there you have it. Job done! Your now the proud owner of a custom made cable.

Probably best to reward your hard work with a little treat....



... For me that will be in the form of a nice cold beer!

Feel free to post you DIY cable here and receive 50 points! Yeah, that's right 50 points!

No go forth, have fun, enjoy and remember...



Andy

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Pending Greatness

Great post..... thank you....

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Thanks Andy, killer post. Gonna try it this weekend.

Cred for that one ! Excellent

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A-man

Yo, Andy!

Superb. ...Where, please?

And even more important:



What is that fascinating looking beer, if you'd be so kind? Baltika? Sounds like the latest wacky creation from the Peckham Tandoori - a cross between a balti and a tikka. Strange... I'll bite!

Anyway. A neat thread! Good Lord, a useful thread about guitar related stuff on a guitar forum. When did that last happen? Wonders will never cease! Thanks, man.

"Pending Greatness"? Greatness long since attained!



The best bit of all!

Cheers - C

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Bravo, Andy! Super well done, as usual!!

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You dig?

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That post was a work of art..thank you for all your work on that and the share!

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Mona
"Music is What Feelings Sound like"

Nicely done indeed!

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"Where would rock and roll be without feedback?"

Thanks for that, Andy! Consider it bookmarked.

Excellent thread Andy! Cool pic's! Thank you for posting!

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

I feel like such a schmuck for not trying this sooner

I make computer cables and that's way harder, this should be easy and save me a ton of money (I have lots of 'bad' cables, I bet snipping off the jacks and starting over would bring them back to life).

Thank you for taking the time to make this great instructional!

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Please subscribe to my Channel!
https://www.youtube.com/user/b7567

So when I recently built a couple of BYOC pedals I followed your instructions to the letter, and quickly learnt which end of the soldering iron to hold.

Be carefull boys and girls, those soldering irons do get hot!

Well done my friend!! A great example of what can be done on the forum!!

Awesome Andy - - I'm donating my 50 points to you my friend!

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!