Leads

[Scouser]

Time I replaced my old leads, getting a bit tired now, had them for years. Just standard mic, guitar and patch leads. Colour coded if poss. I thought this would be the best place to ask, don’t want to spend a fortune.

[Eddy Deegan]

The cheapest way to do it would be to make your own. Canford do a wide range of cable types and if you search the forum for 'Canford' you'll find a few posts discussing the subject.

[Sam Spoons]

Teach a man where to buy good leads and he'll have good leads for a couple of years, teach him to solder and he'll have burned fingers for life

[Hugh Robjohns]

Time I replaced my old leads, getting a bit tired now, had them for years.

What does 'tired' mean?

Some of my cables are over thirty years old and are still absolutely fine.

The key is good quality connectors (I prefer Neutrik, but Switchcraft and Cannon are okay; avoid the cheap versions...) and good cable (I use Canford and VDC; sensibly prices, sensible specs, all the colour options you could want, and dependable). Avoid anything with monster in the name, or with silly constructions, or with claimed directional signal flows....

...don’t want to spend a fortune.

Best if you learn to make your own cables then. If that's of no interest there are plenty of one-man-bands around who will make custom cables to order with the right bits in the right way.

H

[Music Wolf]

Of course you could learn how to solder (not that difficult, plenty of 'how to' vids on line, a temperature controlled iron isn't very expensive etc) then you could buy Neutrik connectors and good quality cable and make up leads of the right length, colour coded if you prefer, that will last a life time, or............................................

Visit https://www.russandrews.com/ or https://zaolla.com/collections/guitar-cables. You won't have to worry about signal quality because you will no longer be able to afford the kit at either end.

[Eddy Deegan]

Teach a man where to buy good leads and he'll have good leads for a couple of years, teach him to solder and he'll have burned fingers for life

A few less scars on the wallet though

Visit https://www.russandrews.com/ or https://zaolla.com/collections/guitar-cables. You won't have to worry about signal quality because you will no longer be able to afford the kit at either end.

Flippin' 'eck! I need to stop clicking on links like these because it makes my blood boil, but thank you for the great examples of squamata-related lubricants

[Hugh Robjohns]

....great examples of squamata-related lubricants

Must try and remember that one!

[Brian M Rose]

Yes, it's really annoying. We can just smile, but there are those out there who will buy anything. I remember being shocked at my local HiFi shop at seeing a 1M BNC cable costing more than a 100M drum of PSF 1/3 cable ; about £100.00. And yes, this was a M*****r cable. The salesman told me that the BBC ONLY used M*****r cable. I was a little surprised as I explained, that I had just installed the cameras for Grange Hill, and that we had used PSF 1/3 cables (from Canford I believe.)
I was told in no uncertain terms that I didn't know what I was talking about and that there was no such cable.
You can't win. Mind you, I did use those £500.00 super 13A fuses

[Hugh Robjohns]

Ah yes... they sound really warm and lush... I use them too...

[kingmoot]

I've just re-wired my studio with Stagg cables and I'm pretty happy with the build quality of said cables.

https://www.staggmusic.com/en/products/ ... dio/cables

[CS70]

It's not only audio.. the video/filming world is full of absolutely mundane stuff which is priced astronomically more than the same mundane stuff sourced from somewhere else... but which people buy. Differences of 1-2000 % in price aren't unusual.

For example, I was planning a night filming session the other day and realized I had lost a connection wire. Needing it in a hurry, I went to the local foto/film shop. Which I never use, and I remembered why.

The cable in question is a thin D-TAB to DC-in, about 10cm long. Goes from a V-Mount battery attached to the back of a led light panel to the DC in of said panel. It's thin wire and two plastic connectors: a little copper, a little rubber and a little plastic. I can source it for less than a dollar apiece if I have the time to wait - which is about the right price considering the marginal costs, plus a quite hefty percentage in profit. The bloody cable costed me 45 dollars!

At least tough nobody told me it was a special customized cable. That would have costed 450..

[ManFromGlass]

Don’t get me started on Apple cables - grrrr.
How the hell does the software know that it’s not an Apple approved cable?
Perhaps it can sense the cable was affordable?

[CS70]

Inside an Apple cable there’s a chip whose function is to say “I am an apple cable”

And of course you pay for it, it’s quite an expensive chip!

[Sam Spoons]

The nice thing is that PoundLand cables have a clone of the same chip so work just fine for a while at least. TBF they are not as robust but my cables don't usually last long enough to wear out as the guy lost or suffer from physical trauma......

[ef37a]

The nice thing is that PoundLand cables have a clone of the same chip so work just fine for a while at least. TBF they are not as robust but my cables don't usually last long enough to wear out as the guy lost or suffer from physical trauma......

Yup. When I bought a wallet and a USB A to C cable for my new Sony android phone a month or so ago the cable was a tenner. PoundLand a quid and I can tell no difference in performance.

There are limits though? RockBottom type shops sell CAT5/6 patch cables very cheaply and I had one that had a dent in it, a moulding fault not damage, and one pair was O/C. I am also betting even a good cable would not perform to top data transfer spec? Not that it would be noticed by 99% of the public.

There are two other advantages to "rolling your own".
1) You will be able to fix cables of a Sunday night which is when one-off recording opportunities always turn up and cables fail!
2) You will be able to make "specials" which don't exist as ready mades.

Dave.

[Sam Spoons]

And Poundland don't sell XLR cables

[Martin Walker]

....great examples of squamata-related lubricants

Must try and remember that one!

I'm afraid I had to Google it

Bravo Eddy - I shall attempt to memorise that one for future reference as well

Martin

[Martin Walker]

You will be able to make "specials" which don't exist as ready mades.

That's how I have so many pseudo-balanced mono jack to stereo jack cables for my various keyboards Dave

Martin

[N i g e l]

Possible innovations since you bought your last lead set are the

[1] Neutrik SilentPLUG ¼” jack, which stops amp buzz when you plug a cable+amp into your guitar.

[2] Chinese manufacturing

Im not suggesting you buy from Ali-express but big suppliers like Thomann have good quality cheaper own brand cables [sometimes cheaper than the bits alone].

I agree it is worth while making your own cables for small batches and can be therapeutic too, once you learn to remember to put all the tubular bits on the cable before soldering the final connector in place. XLRs make a good starting point ‘cos the're big and the easiest to do.

[Mike Stranks]

And Poundland don't sell XLR cables

.... reminds me of a 'bitter experience' saw that I sometimes quote: "Never buy batteries for radio mics from Poundland."

(They die after about 40 mins... )

[Sam Spoons]

Having bought a dodgy batch of Duracells from a, apparently, reputable Amazon seller I usually buy own brand from B&Q for Ikea these days. I did buy from Amazon for the show but we changed the batteries every performance (after testing in rehearsal so I knew we could get 2 ½ shows out of a set). Of course the best answer is to avoid wireless mics wherever possible but there are times.......

Neutrik Silent Jacks are the open mic hosts holy grail but occasionally they encounter an active guitar which still pops. I guess it's down to how the battery switching is accomplished.

[James Perrett]

Having bought a dodgy batch of Duracells...

Duracells are the dodgiest batteries you can buy - they're apparently far more likely to leak than the alternatives and, if they don't leak, they'll probably go high resistance after a while. The cheap manganese alkaline alternatives are far more reliable. In my old job we bought tens of thousands of manganese alkaline cells and we very quickly learned not to buy Duracells.