Buying Components
Buy cable “off the reel”
With a little online research, you should be able to find an electrical parts supplier near you that sells good quality cables “off the reel” (i.e., they’ll cut you a length of whatever cable you want). Look out for cables from manufacturers including Canare, Klotz, Sommer and Van den Hul, but don’t be afraid to check out the specifications on others, too, and if it looks good, see if they store will let you have a free sample to test it out with.
It’s usually worth buying about 1 m (3 ft) more than you think you’ll need, just to give you a wide margin for error.
Get the right plugs
For one guitar cable, you’ll need 2 good quality mono plugs. As I mentioned earlier, any good quality, metal cased straight or angled 1/4” plug will work well: there’s no need to use gold plated plugs.
Set Up Your Workspace
Any desk or table where you can sit comfortably will work fine as a workbench but, unless it’s an actual workbench, do take care to put down an old blanket or some newspaper before starting work.
You’ll need:
- A soldering iron and stand
- Some solder
- A damp sponge or cloth to wipe the iron on
- A sharp knife or wire strippers
- And, since we’re dealing with hot things and cable that can have a mind of its own, some means of holding the cable steady while you work. You can buy “helping hands” which have adjustable arms and crocodile clips but, if you don’t have one, I’ve found that using some Blu-Tack to hold the wire or plug still works quite well.
Step 1: Stripping the Insulation
At each end of your cable, carefully strip about 1 cm of the plastic insulation from the cable. I like to do this by rolling the cable on a penknife blade since it feels more precise and controlled than using my (admittedly rather blunt) wire strippers, especially when dealing with the conductor. Whatever method you use, be careful to apply only enough pressure to cut the cable jacket: don’t snip right through the copper wire! This is where that extra metre of cable can come in handy.
Step 2: Prepare the Wire
The conductor is the thin wire in the centre of the cable. The shield is the outer layer of copper strands, and is usually braided around the circumference of the cable.
Tightly twist the shield strands together, making sure there are no loose strands, and fold it back out of the way. Now strip around 5 mm of the inner jacket from the end of the conductor wire, using either a knife or wire strippers. As before, twist the copper strands together.
Before going any further, check that the cable fits properly into the plug. The grip on the connector needs to be able to clasp around the outer jacket of the cable, and the two wires should be able to reach their respective terminals (centre conductor to the centre terminal, outer shielding to the outer terminal). Ideally, we want as little exposed wire in there as possible, so it should be quite a tight fit without straining the wire. If necessary, strip a little more insulation until you have a good fit.
Now, we’ll “tin” the ends of these wires with solder to keep them from unravelling and help them adhere to the terminals in the plug. We want to ensure there are no stray strands of copper so, before soldering, double check that the wire is properly twisted together.
Get your soldering iron hot and, starting with the shield, place it under the twisted wire. Touch the iron to the copper for a moment before bringing the solder down on to the top of the wire. The solder should melt over the twisted copper strands, forming a neat cap of solder. You may need to repeat the process a couple of times to get even coverage.
Warning: copper is a good conductor of heat, as well as electricity, so avoid holding the wire with bare hands.
Step 3: Solder the Cable to the Plug
Before you solder, do a quick trial assembly to make sure everything fits and you know which parts of the plug casing need to be on the cable before you attach the plug.
Grip the connector with your helping hand, or Blu-Tack it to your workbench, and gently heat the outer terminal with the iron. Don’t overdo it or you may damage the plug. Touch a little solder onto the terminal and then solder the screening wire to it. Now do the same thing with the centre conductor, attaching it to the centre terminal of the plug.
Make sure your work is tidy: you don’t want any stray strands of wire touching across the terminals or the outer casing of the plug.
Now assemble the plug and screw it together, being careful not to twist the cable in the plug casing.
Step 4: Rinse, Repeat and Test
Clean your soldering iron and repeat the above process for the other end of the cable. Before you pack up your soldering iron, plug the cable in to make sure it works and that there are no unwanted noises. If it isn’t working, or there is noise, check both ends of the cable to see that there are no stray strands of wire and that you’ve connected to the correct terminals.
Step 5: Rock!
