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Someone may say "hey, there's no electrolyte at that connection, so it won't be a problem". The reason is galvanic corrosion ("fretting corrosion") can occur, even when gold is used. That combo could lead to premature wear on the gold contacts, especially if the cord is plugged/unplugged multiple times a day.ī) no one but me seems to care, but I don't like dissimilar metals being used for contacts where small signals are involved. most likely.Īfter looking at the PW website, there's one more pet peeve I'd like to bring up: their choice of metal for contacts: "24k gold"Ī) it's about the softest, least abrasion-resistant metal they could choose, and with the cost of gold you know that plating is whisper-thin. Give it 47 ohms and it'll be happy AND quiet. While most pedals should handle it fine, it just isn't the best design technique. Hopefully there's a little resistor in that short so the upstream pedal isn't just running flat out into a short circuit. Yep, it sounds like they are shorting ground-to-signal to kill the noise potential. Lastly, if I were to offer a "lifetime warranty" on a cable connector, I'd probably want to make sure that the cable used was as ideally-chosen (for the above reasons) else I might be paying out for a bunch of warranty replacements whose failure mode could be traced to mis-matched cable. Hey, they want to sell their cable, amiright? OK, this is just a marketing ploy on their part, but it probably help them sell a few more miles of cable per year. I've got no idea of it's construction, but it is feasible that they've got, say, 2 connections for ground in that plug, and they want to make sure one isn't just laying in there loose/not used and ready to short against the signal conductor. PW specs out their 'double-shielded cable for this plug. The diameter issues are both to make sure that there's room for the cutback and routing within that connector, and also the external jacket should fit fairly tight to the connector as this will provide some level of strain-relief, and that's a big deal if you want the internal connections to be stable. Methods that are optimized for woven conductors may not be as well suited for solid wire, and vise versa. The solid vs woven probably has something to do with their method of making the connection to it. They are probably looking at issues like conductor type (solid vs woven), as well as the diameter of both the conductor(s) and the insulation. It shows connection when both tips are touched, connection when both sleeves are touched (as should be) but also connection between sleeve AND tip when the button is out (no signal)Ĭlick to expand.I'll chime in since no one else has: The cable as I have made it seems to work fine but it "tests" in an unusual way with my ohm meter. The plug has a "circuit breaker" switch that, when pushed, activates the cable, and when pushed again, breaks the signal path and allows you to unplug the cable from your guitar, while still plugged into your amp, without a loud pop. What is the reason for Planet Waves listing their 1/4 " signal cable as a restriction for this plug, marketing or plug design? I saw this after I made the cable using Redco instrument cable. The back of the package says the plug should only be made with Planet Waves 1/4" Signal Cable. I recently made a 15' guitar cable using a gold TS Neutrik connector on one end (soldered) and a Planet Waves "The Circuit Breaker" 1/4" plug (unsoldered) on the other end. Since this thread is discussing Planet Wave cable products, I thought I would chime in. I've done that in the lab, bitd, getting ready for FCC testing of some products I'd helped develop. Well, the only times you 'might' hear that noise are:Ī) if you were plugged straight in, guitar-to-amp.ī) if the guitar-end of the cable was plugged into a battery-only (no plugged-in power supply) pedal.Ĭ) if you were playing in an aluminum-refinery or some similar, electrically-noise-ridden environment.įYI: IF the 'shield-end' were to be plugged into a noisy, ground-loopy pedalboard setup (with relatively high resistance/inductance to absolute ground), it may be possible to have that shield act as an antennae and broadcast noise into your pristine signal. But there may be a little less noise escaping thru the shield when that shield-end is plugged into the amp. It therefore makes more sense to ground your shield down there.ĭO NOT be buffaloed into thinking you will hear a 'tone difference' with the cable either way, as the signal/ground path is the same (I believe you'll find a ground-tracer-wire terminated at both ends).
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The connection to ground is much shorter, contains less resistance, inductance and therefore noise, at the amplifier (vs the pedal or guitar) end.