How to make guitar cables step by step tutorial

Making your own cables is really a good idea, mainly because it is easy and will save you a lot of money! High end cables can be very expensive. Moreover, most of the times, there are no datasheets provided for these expensive cables (with at least the capacitance per meter, or the type of cable that is used to make them, because most manufacturers do not make the cable wires themselves). So for me, it would be better to make it yourself so you can control everything,and not pay the extra money of a luxury type of brand.

To lear more about guitar cables, to know what makes a guitar cable good or bad, read my article: all you ever wanted to know about guitar cables, but were afraid to ask.

The guitar lead cable is the most important cable of your chain. This is the cable that goes from your guitar to your effects / straight to your amp if you are this kind of guitar player. If your guitar has no buffer in it (or no active pickups), which is highly probable as you are a conservative / vintage lover guitarist like me, the impedance of your signal will be high. You can loose trebles if the capacitance of this cable is too important (see my guitar cables: myths and legends article), before going through a buffer. Thus, if you which to keep it, you should have a short and low capacitance per meter cable.

If you want to make patch guitar cables, I also wrote a step by step tutorial about how to make patches for your pedal board.

What do you need?

For the cable itself, you have different options. The capacitance between the core cable that transmit the signal and the ground wire is the most important value that determine the treble loss. I would suggest to take a look at this table that sums up the capacitance per meter of many brands and types of guitar cables. Another thing to keep in mind is that this cable will go through a lot of gigs, concert, will be plugged / unplugged a lot of times, so it has to be rugged! The best for me is the Sommer LLX which has a super low capacitance per meter value, and is highly resistant. It is really made for guitar lead cable applications. Another option could be the Sommer Spirit XXL or the tricone XXL (they have the same capacitance per meter value, and the XXL stands for the fact that they are rugged). The cable must not be too long, so for me 1.5 to 3 meters is a good length. So to sum up, the cable should be rugged, short and with a low capacitance per meter.

The connectors have to be also of good quality, because this cable will go through a lot of use. The connectors should be tough. The Amphenol ACP M-GN is a classic plug that will perfectly fit this function. Neutrik NP2C is also a nice option. Remember: you do not need gold plated contacts.
Then, you will need a soldering iron, solder of course, pliers, a cutter (razor blades can do the trick too) and a wire stripper.

Ditto Looper repair (how to fix a broken switch)

The Ditto looper from TC Electronics is a good looper - in theory-. Easy to use, no audio quality loss due to the high sample rate of the recorded signal, true bypass... Everything to make it the best looper for guitarists!

However, practically speaking, it has downsides: no stop button, which makes loops hard to synchronize, and it is really fragile! Mine did stop working after 6 months of intensive use (I bought it used so I guess it makes more than 6 months total). LED is still working, but I have to press many many many times on the switch before anything happens. Impossible to record loops! It was thus really useless as is.

First, I contacted TC Electronics customer service, and I have to say that they were not helpful. I bought my Ditto used, so I did not have any invoice. However, when the problem happened, it was less than 1 year and a half that the Ditto was issued, and it was guaranteed for 2 years!TC electronics did not agreed and suggested me an exchange, which more expensive than buying a new Ditto in a shop... Thanks TC!

It was try or die then: I tried to repair it!
Here is the step by step guide if you ever need to repair yours.
The main problem seemed to be the switch, which just needed replacement. I dismounted the pedal. First, you need to remove the knob by pulling it with pliers, and unscrew the potentiometer. Then unscrew the backplate. You have to separate the 2 circuit boards that are in the pedal. Indeed, to gain space, the Ditto is composed of two PCB, linked by connectors, allowing to fit such a complex system in a small enclosure (1590A size!). You have to pull up gently the top part of the circuit, holding the jack connectors. Then, you have two screws to remove to be able to pull the top part of the PCB. You should have something like this :

Electro Harmonix Soul Food diodes mod (step by step)

So I decided to mod my EHX Soul Food. As you may know, the Soul Food is a pedal "heavily inspired" by the famous Klon Centaur. The Klon is a rare overdrive pedal, which sells around 1500 euros today! This stompbox, created by Bill Finnegan in the 90s, is an overdrive with 3 controls: gain, volume and treble. It has been used and abused by many guitarists, including some famous ones like Jeff Beck. The Centaur is also known for its good quality buffer, like the Pete Cornish pedals. Thus, the Soul food is a cheaper version of the Klon.

However, when looking closer to the pedal, we can see that the diodes ("essential" says Bill Finnegan on the PCB of the new version of the centaur, the KTR) are not the same as in the Klon. Indeed, the klon centaur's diodes are germanium, whereas the Soul Food uses Schottky silicon diodes! The diodes are hidden on the top part of the PCB, in order not to scare the klon maniacs I guess. Diodes are indeed essential to generate saturation generally speaking, and germanium and silicium diodes have different properties, so changing it seemed a good idea.