Great video Dan! i can´t stop laughing about the Mick´s photo with the glass of wine on the solder table! hahahaha great great detail!

Having been an engineer at a major U.S. pedal company from '79 to '89, I watched this with great interest. You 'nailed' every part of this presentation. It should be a great help to everyone!

I just fainted and needed to be revived on hearing that Dan once used a POD.

A show on patch cables is not dull Dan, they’re something we all use, and for me it’s perfect timing given I’m about to build up a new pedal board. I’m looking to use solderless connectors this time so this episode was very helpful. 👍

Met Dan randomly at a music shop here in Tokyo several years ago. Such an awesome, genuine, down to earth guy that geeked out about pedals with me.

Honestly Dan; I’d watch you install a Sky dish! Lovely video.

I used for years , the best on the market , easy to use and a must have for the ever changing board

I love that Dan has a framed pic of Mick at his workbench

Having just received a GigRig Quartermaster, this is extremely helpful. I’m 100% sure I would screw up the Evidence cables without these detailed instructions as a guide. Many thanks 🙏🏻

Dan, any chance to hear your wizardry and passion is appreciated (and not dull). I find videos like this very zen.

Dan, you’re the guy who introduced me to evidence audio SIS and I haven’t looked back. It’s expensive but I don’t care…I rely on those connections to make my living and they’re SOLID 👍 EDIT: a quick tip for building SIS patch cables. It helps *immensely* to plan the angle of your cables in advance. I always put my cable roughly where it’s going to be on the board then use THOSE angles when attaching my connectors. That way you have a minimum amount of excess pressure on your cable connectors and your pedal/switcher jacks. Just another added layer of reliability…

The cable prep is THE issue - thanks Dan!! Popsicle stick is a great tip.

The Evidence Audio SIS system is a great thing! Admittedly it’s all home use but no failures or re-dos required so far (although I do need to get the pliers out as finger tightness does tend to loosen if the cables are moving about at all - still none failed, though). The ability to create a cable exactly the length you need in under 5 minutes and without getting the soldering gear out (because I’m rubbish at it) is GREAT. 😁 Thanks, Dan, for the intro to it and the GigRig power stuff!

Good to see the photo of your most loved one out on your workstation!

Video's like this are a huge asset to me and I appreciate the time and effort you take to share them. Learning how to do things properly not only saves me time & money, but I enjoy doing my own set-ups, repairs, and builds. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

Cautionary tale for those who make their own patch cables: I once used a different brand of high-end cable to nake up some patch cords. My work was beautiful- lovely solder joints, heat shrink, strain relief. Continuty tests were good. HOWEVER various patch cords had varying degrees of level drop. Very strange. This fancy cable had a second layer of sheathing around the central conductor. Turns out that this (black) layer is conductive (it minimizes cable handling noise). Special care must be taken to skin it back to ensure it doesn't touch the signal path or weird things can happen. I had to undo (and redo) all of my painstaking work. Now these cables are great and hopefully others can learn from my mistake.

Excellent content Dan!! I've been making both solderless and soldered cables for many years and I still learned some things with this video. Thank you and keep up the good work!

Thanks Dan for taking the time to do this. I’ve been making my own cut to length patch cables from various companies for years now. The sharing of your experience, wisdom, and techniques is very much appreciated. I’ve had pretty good luck so far. But I will start employing a few of your tips that I hadn’t considered before. Much gratitude. Love my TPS!

Extremely informative, and in no way dull, Dan. Thank you, some great tips there!

Everyone in these comments and watching this video are the coolest people in the world. This is beyond question.

A very well made and needed video. Thank you Dan! Took the fear out of using solderless patch leads and I wont hesitate to make my own.

Can't go wrong with George L's.. man that George L's, Evidence audio and mogami are the most desirable cables, back in the day when I was still in the band.

This tutorial is going to be a resource for years to come; all cable sales should come with a link to this video! Why thankyou Dan!

You are a great presenter, Dan. This kind of content really stands out to me. Thanks for sharing your wisdom.

Outstanding content, Dan! Insightful discussion of soler vs. solderless, a well as practical how-to guidance. Best TPS content in recent memory.

Hammer. Legend. Seriously, this is the best tutorial I've ever seen on this subject.

I clicked this video on a whim. I figured I wouldn’t watch the whole thing but here I am 26 minutes later and inspired to give these tips a try. Great video Dan. Thanks!

Well done Dan! Great info here! I've been using Evidence Audio patch leads for almost a decade, and I've never had one fail on me!

I won’t go on anymore but this is incredible timing and every question I had, you answered, amazing

Dan, thank you so much! Since going full TheGigRig, I've made and used Evidence Audio leads with no issues but watching your detailed demonstration makes me nervous. There will now be some technique upgrades going forward and a refresher of this lesson before each new attempt. You look after us very well! Cheers.

Not dull at all !!!! A very timely episode for me... pedalboarding is not a crime !!!

Really appreciate and was looking forward to watching this video! Everyone in the circles I run in turns their noses at solderless cables. I picked up some Evidence SIS on your recommendation and they’ve been rock solid. I’m glad there’s some more information about this that I can offer as reference!

Videos like these is why I love this channel, whilst being super informative to even the most experienced pros it is also so beginner friendly. A lot of channels will dismiss the £1 patch cables as unusable junk but you get it.

I saw an ad for Evidence and thought, "Isn't that Dan's favorite?" so then I just wanted to find any old video of you naming your solderless cables.... then I found this! Thank you for making this!!!!! I'll bookmark it and refer to it often. I got talked into a master builder's pre soldered cable for double what I would normally pay. It's here on my desk and the soldering job failed... I have no iron right now so I have to find a tech who will repair it after rolling his eyes at me.

I've made all of my cables for years using Mogami cable and a combination of Switchcraft and Neutrik connectors. I always test them and then heatshrink the ones that it is appropriate for. I used to think that solderless cables were junk and way overpriced until the first episode that I saw you discussing their value. Knowing your experience it opened my eyes. I can even see were they could be better for some applications now that I'm more educated. Watching you strip off the black insulator off the inner core, similar to a high-priced Mogami cable made me even more of a believer. I love watching the episode where you build pedalboards as it helps me build my own. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience. I'm only making them for myself. I'm an Electrical Engineer and have a lot of experience designing and building circuit boards, digital and analog. Even though a lot of the skills and knowledge is transferable, there are always nuggets of wisdom that a person can learn if he is open to learning. And I have picked up several very helpful nuggets from you sir!! The part where you emphasized NOT scoring the inner conductor is extremely important. It's just as relevant for stranded cable, even though you can get by with a few less strands, but it's just not as good of a cable. And if you break or score too many you could end up with a cable that fails. And if it's on your pedal board it might not be that easy to find, depending on your layout. Strain relief on a cable would be another good point to stress, pun intended. 😉

Hi Dan, an absolutely ripper of an episode of TPS … great to get the expert tips and clear explanations of the little details that make all the difference. Cheers, cobber !

I haven't enjoyed That Pedal Show like I used to for many months now. This one reminded me that I still love these guys. Keep doing teaching moments and that's the ticket!

Love my three monkeys cables. So easy and I had no issues after assembled.

Thanks Dan, no one could have made a relatively mundane subject more interesting. Love ya work mate. Cheers, Pete

Very useful video and I really enjoy this laid back vlog style. I'd love to see a mini series of vlogs focussed on these more utility type topics that a lot of guitarists wouldn't have thought to develop the skills for

Dan thank you so much for making this video! I’ve used solderless cables for years on all my boards and never had a cable fail! The only cables I have ever had fail are cheap soldered patch cables purchased online. However I recently started a new build and I’m trying to get the best results, and looking at other KZfaq videos, I convinced myself that the only way forward was to build my own soldered cables. Unfortunately I’m terrible at soldering and don’t even own a decent iron. This video helped a lot and rekindled my love for solderless cables and helped me move forward with the build!

You’re a true gentleman Dan. I appreciate the class and restraint in your delivery…considering other builders have been quick to unnecessarily call out and criticize their colleagues on this topic. Good on you.

Thanks for sharing your experience with botj of these types of cables & their connectors. Your knowledge bombs will continue to grow with great shockwaves.

I got the D’Addario solderless cable kit for my board before I saw any vids that said “Don’t use solderless cables!” Those vids spooked me. Already, I had (carefully) made just one custom length cable, so I used it, while carrying a spare soldered cable, waiting for my solderless to fail. 2 years later, my custom cable still has a solid connection. So, I thank you for your re-assurance. Since, I am currently re-doing my board, and all my custom cables will be solderless.

Been using Evidence Audio SIS cables for a few years now (thanks to Dan) and I still learned new great tips on how to use them in this video 🙂 Thanks Dan!

Nice video. My dad taught me how to solder when I was very young. So, I’ve been making my own cables for a while. I’ve never messed with solder less. That being said, I learned a lot about solder less. Great tips. Thanks Dan

Love the pic of Mick at your soldering station. Very touching.

Dan, I really appreciate this video! I've been building electronics circuits for decades, also audio and other analog cables. I figured out all of your tips years ago, but whenever I've tried to teach someone they say I'm being "nit-picky." That's right. I tell them "Of course it's nit-picky! Your don't want it to fail!" I haven't tried solder-less connectors in recent years (decades), but I'm willing to try them again after watching this show. I'm a convert! And I think you hit all the important points, including the tension on a bent cable. Thanks! 👍

Thanks Dan! That was an incredibly useful video with everything clearly explained and well filmed. I’ve struggled in the past with putting together solderless cables but this video has inspired me to give them another go. If they’re good enough for Dave K then they’re good enough for me! 😀

Brilliant video Dan! So many people are quick to dump on solderless patch cables. I've used the Evidence SIS for years now and think they're absolutely fantastic and they really made my rig sound clearer. Always learning from your videos. Thank you 🤘

Not boring at all. You did a great job on this topic Dan.

Really helpful to have another point of view even if you have been at this game for years. There is always something to learn.

Made 3 10' George L instrument cables 25 yrs. ago. Gig with them every weekend without a failure.

Love all TPS videos but this has to be in the top 10 for most important and useful.

This is an EXCELLENT video! Thank you Daniel.

Thanks a ton Dan, another world-class tutorial! For me it's definitely solderless ( life-changing for me) for patch/pedalboard and soldered for guitar to pedalboard and pedalboard to amp. I bought 50 meters of very high quality (at least really well shielded to my limited experience) and I haven't got through half of it over the years! Soldering is fun but it does take a while (and burns) to master indeed. You've covered everything! Greetings from France!

Much appreciated, Dan! The tips on soldering really opened my eyes to a few things...

Thank you, this was far from dull for me! I've soldered 3 cables yesterday. It's invaluable to learn from other people's experiences and mistakes. Thank you for sharing this!

thank you DAN for this topic i have been doubting solderless as a soldering guy i have done one of my pedal boards with solderless and no trouble , the upside to them are if one fails you dont have to get the soldering iron out a 1 min fix

Hey Dan. These are my favorite videos because i dont have the time to research all this stuff myself. Thanks!

Thanks for giving a great consolidated video on your experience with cables!

as an 18 year old kid from melbourne, i love hearing about your early days in london, and old stories from australia

Another great and useful vlog, Dan. Note that if you want to make extra sure the threaded caps don't come loose, you can put a dab of nail polish on both sides of the completed connection. Should never vibrate loose after that. Great for securing nuts on speakers, amps, bicycles etc. as well.

Awesome video on this topic! I've been burned, I've melted cables all the above! This video is super useful in filling "that gap."

Nice one Dan! I've literally been soldering all my life as a electronics engineering tech. I've learned things along the way. The smaller the signal the better the cable must be. Gold does not oxidize like the silver metals, Use it when you can for non soldered and soldered connections. If you can't use gold plated connectors, a light coat of Deoxit Gold on the contact surfaces holds off oxidation very well for a long time. A dab of Loctite Blue in the screw down threads keeps the caps tight from heat cycles and getting knocked around. I use Evidence Audio patch cable kits as well. Thanks for your hard work and great videos!

Perfect timing for this video. I’m getting ready to reconfigure my board which uses an HX Effects, HX Stomp, a Morningstar ML5 and a bunch of external pedals switched via MIDI. Was debating whether or not to use soldered or solder-less and, as you pointed out right off the bat, there’s that “soldered is better” thing floating around out there.

What a great video! 10 years ago I tried a couple of different solderless cables. There wasn’t enough info that I could find at the time to troubleshoot my dodgy craftsmanship. 😅 I eventually learned how to solder and began soldering my cables because I could troubleshoot that easier, but this video has given me the itch to try to salvage my old, busted solderless cables. Cheers, Dan! You’re a fantastic teacher!

Dan... First and foremost, this is a very good video. Here is a little more info for anyone interested. 1) Make sure the solder tip is clean and will "hold" solder. If it is dirty transfer of heat is poor and your job becomes really tough. 2) FYI... Leaded solder is easier to work with than lead-free and tends to be more robust against vibrational failure. For the hobbyist this is something to consider... for a business it''s lead-free. 3) Get some flux for the type of solder you are using to help with reflow / rewetting. Higher solid content fluxes tends to be easier to work with. 4) Get some solder wick for cleanup and rework. It is less necessary for this task, but it is really helpful when needed. It can also make a decent ground strap. 5) Invest in cheap, preferably lit, magnification, especially for those of us getting older. Reading glasses work in a pinch. The table mount swing arm style magnifiers work well. 6) Braided wires can wick the solder up its length. If this hapopens it will start to loose its flexibility in the area affected. This is a combo of too much heat for too long and too much solder. 7) Heat... heat is your friend... and heat is your enemy. There is a perfect temp for each type of solder (leaded 63/37 to 60/40 works best between 600F and 650F). Hotter burns off flux too fast and increases risk of component damage. Lead-free should be around 50F hotter but will depend on the type. A good soldering iron and clean tip will transfer heat quick enough that setting it hotter has no benefit. Look up the proper temp to use with your equipment. 8) Hakko soldering equipment is solid and a great deal for the hobbyist / job shop. There are companies that use these for production. If you want the best, though, get a JBC in my opinion. 9) Blowing on solder... I'll have to disagree with this one Dan. This myth has been around forever., and I've never seen or heard of a real-world issue from doing so. If the joint is small and minimal heat is applied it will cool fast anyway. If it's a large joint that has absorbed significant heat, blowing may help the initial set but the thermal mass will force it to cool slower. The effect is not significantly different than soldering in the cold or with a breeze, and this is only an issue for getting heat applied. With that said, I wouldn''t get in the habbit of blowing because it doesn't tend to save any time. If anyone believes they got a bad joint from blowing, let me ask this one question.... were all pieces held still while you moved to get in blowing position? Cheers!

Great video, Dan!! Please do more of this!! 🙌🏿🙌🏿

Pure dead brilliant Dan! I've heard the nay sayers about solderless cables, but this gives me some confidence to try it myself. Thanks Dan.

This was a nice dive into a subject I often think about. Thanks Dan!

Spot on Video, I've always soldered my own patch leads, It was great to see a run through on solderless kit as I did not know how they went together, Also fab tips on soldering, pretty much covered every likely pitfall you'd come across. One tip I would add is to buy decent quality jacks for soldering up yourself as the cheapest can and do fail more often.

Dan I am so glad to you did this video. I was a radio tech for the first 15 years in my career. I know how to solder very good. But I've been a musician since high school. When I started building my first pedalboards, I've never had any desire to spend my time soldering patch cables. You get what pay for. If you buy high quality patch cables, they work.

Dan, thank you for this video! I was also almost religiosly pro-soldered cables. I love the way you telling this. Open minded, to the point, rational and fair. well done. At the end of the day it is the experience and craftmansship which decides quality from crap...... I soldered all cables for my massive board and I had a hard time to improve on my soldering. but no cable let me down yet..... Thank you for this!!!

OMG! thanks Dan, I fought w/ Lava cables on my pedalboard for a year or so & went to soldered cables again Now I know why!

You may have solved my biggest frustration with solderless patch cables: the cable cutting. Damn, that's why 75% of my cables are dead from the get-go.

That was a Paddle Pop? It was triangular! These sorts of videos are worth their weight in gold. Thank you Dan!

A lot of valuable info, as usual. Thank you. @ 4:49 Great tip, but I prefer to use oak 😉 @ 10:40 I just bought 3 kits of SIS and didn't get a cable stripper😢 Update: Yesterday I made 10 SIS cables for a friends pedal board. Then it was just plug in and play, They just worked. Since I didn't get a cable stripper in any of the kits I ended up using a traditional cable stripper for the outer layer. An exacto knife will work just fine if you're careful not cutting too deep into the shielding wires. The black middle "insulation" (it is slightly conductive!) is easiest to remove if you catch the top end with a nail and peel back. For the inner insulation I used an exacto knife to cut it, and a pair of pliers to remove it. The cables provided by Evidence is what I would call installation cables. Made to be stationary. I would minimise bending and twisting them. The solid core is not very flexibel and will break if manipulated excessively. So my method was: Attach a plug to one end of the cable. Plug it in to pedal 1. Lay it in the desired position on the board and measure. If you add the distance of two jack inputs (about 50 mm) you will get the proper length after stripping the cable. Cut and attach the second plug but don't attach the end cap just yet. Plug the fist plug into pedal 1. Lay it in the desired position on the board. Now you bend the cable at plug number 2. These cables are very stiff so it is important that you get the angles of the bends right. Just my 2 cents 🎸

Definitely gonna need to rebuild some of my lava tightrope solderless cables using these tips. That extra 20% of work make the cables go a much longer way. Thanks Dan!

Bravo, Dan. This is a great reference with a load of good info.

Brilliant video. Thanks for doing this Dan. Since I moved to BOSS solderless cables my success rate has become 100%. For cutting the cables try a bicycle brake hydraulic hose cutter. It has curved blades and distorts the outer less.

great video, ppl often give things a bad review when they don't know how to use them properly, or fall victim to confirmation bias, when they had one solderless cable break while forgetting the box full of broken soldered cables under their table

Thanks. Greatest pedal show on t'internet. Informative on the basics without patronising. Peace 🦉🇺🇦🇨🇿🦉

Been using Evidence Audio monorail and plugs for my pedalboard patch cables since seeing them in use by you good lads at TPS and yes, super reliable, easy to construct (and reconstruct when the inevitable re-jig of pedals happens) and sound great and noise free.

Love the tip for not dinging the core wire in the Evidence product. Super clever. Thanks

love these detail vids, so much good info, cheers dan

Well done, Dan. Your instructional/tutorial blogs are always a pleasure. I taught myself how to solder when vivid happened so I could get into a Squier upgrade project. Fast forward two and a half years and I'm competent, but still learning how to solder. The Squier did turn out sounding pretty damn good, though when I finally got it right. Thanks for all the knowledge you drop on your faithful following. Peace and love from North Carolina, be well.

Perfect timing, I am doing my first board and I am struggling with which cables to use. Time to start practicing how to solder. Thanks Dan!

Spot on, Dan! Well done. Can't have too much information.

Brilliant video Dan! Having been buying and making both solder less with George L’s and soldered cables for years and learned some great tips from you!!!! Thanks for sharing!

If you’d asked me this morning if I’d spend half my lunch hour watching a video about cables, I’d have laughed at you. Great job as always, Dan.

Thanks Dan, this was super helpful and really interesting. You actually answered a couple of mysteries that I had with making cables. I tried the Solid core solderless and I think I was cutting into the core 😢. When I tried to make soldered cables, I couldn’t solder the ground because of the heat loss. I ended up doing a sort of hybrid approach where I soldered the tip connection and then crimped ground under the strain relief of the jack. I then covered both connections with heat shrink. It seemed to work ok but some of the jacks I got were bad and had the tip of the Jack come off inside of a couple my pedals 😢. I really appreciate your objective thoughts about all of the options.

Absolutely loved this video! Great way to look it all over.

very helpful! i recently wired a board with the evidence audio sis monorail screw-in solderless system. not cheap and took a little practice, but the results were fantastic! Dan is the man

I've struggled with George Ls for long enough and I ordered an Evidence setup finally. Had a gig that took me an hour to trouble shoot patch cables that had worked forever and 3 of them just decided to stop working. Glad to have a tutorial for the SIS.

Very useful vid Dan, thanks. I've been meaning to replace all the cheap crappy cables on my regularly gigged board, and I've been pondering going solderless or soldered. I'm now leaning towards solderless, as I'm more likely to do a good job of it.

One of the best clip of the channel

really enjoyed that. good work. i am a technician and guitarist (useful combination by the way) and i live in the tropics. Dan probably knows FNQ and how moist it can be. i have found in these conditions that solderless and particularly crimped connections will fail. the solder or the flux seems to at least partially seal the end of the wire and slow the moisture ingress. one point about testing; measuring the resistance is a good idea but one thing a multimeter (especially yours because it looked slow) will miss is momentary breaks or shorts. a tester like the Behringer CT100 will pick up a millisecond break or short and latch that state on the leds. patch away and don't forget to play...

So this is why some of the solderless cables I cut and connected sounded a bit worse than a regular cable. Really good vid

Yeah Dan ,..I think the most guitarists will agree your input on this is influencal ,you have the experience to know factually,plus it keeps the newbie's on point when trouble shooting cables an self inspection...