Guitar cable good for shielded wire in tube amp build?

[Cups]

Is there any differance?

[billcreller]

Seems like guitar cord would be really awkward to use in an amp (?)   Doug has good shielded wire in his parts store for use in amp wiring.

[Fresh_Start]

+1 on Hoffman's choice for shielded runs.  It's thin and has the right amount of flexibility.

Chip

[G._Hoffman]

Many people will do it (or at least, I've seen it done more than a few times), but I think its, yeah, awkward to use. 

Myself, I found a guy who sells reasonably priced Teflon insulated shielded wire on eBay, and so I use that, but I've got some of Doug's shielded wire too, and it is fine too.



Gabriel

[bluesbear]

I keep a roll of George L on hand for making cords. It's thin and works just fine in the amp. I don't know that the low capacitance actually does anything in this application... but it doesn't do any harm.
Dave

[Cups]

So basically it'll work just fine, but it's not recommended. Right?

[Geezer]

Right....it only matters if size & flexability is an issue.
I've seen some large cable used in some of Dumble's stuff. He is known for using what he has on hand or what is easily available @ the store down the street. Same for the late Ken Fischer (TrainWreck amps).
If you've got it & want to use it, right on!

G

[HotBluePlates]

Here's what I think everyone is saying indirectly:

Guitar cable is too fat unless you're using George L's cable. I've used it myself in a pinch.

The drawback of George L's is the center conductor is only a few strands. It's been a while since I bought some, but I seem to recall it costing quite a bit more than the shielded cable Doug sells.

So there's no performance advantage, and there could be a cost disadvantage.

[FYL]

The drawback of George L's is the center conductor is only a few strands.

The Mogami mini-coax I use in some builds is even worse.

[phsyconoodler]

Quote:"I've seen some large cable used in some of Dumble's stuff. He is known for using what he has on hand or what is easily available @ the store down the street. Same for the late Ken Fischer (TrainWreck amps)."

Ha ha ha! I'm the same way sometimes.But I look back at pics of old builds using guitar cable and they look kind of funny with that HUGE shielded cabling inside.I use RG174 for all my stuff now.I thing that's what Doug sells.Easy as pie to use in an amp.

[simonallaway]

I recently replaced some ridiculously fat Monster cable I used because it was close at hand. Now it has Doug's RG174 which is waaay nicer to prepare for soldering.

Now that I read this thread I don't feel so "dirty" about using that Monster cable 

[Tiny_Daddy]

I have been using Belden 8451.

[rzenc]

I use Van den hul D-300-III for single runs. Where double shielded cabling is needed I use Flexicon B4. Very easy to prepare.

http://www.vandenhul.com/p_B13.aspx
http://www.vandenhul.com/p_B26.aspx

[eleventeen]

Belden 8451 (or 9451) is tops, in my book. Super easy to work with, and cheap. I've torn out numbers of audio studios and gotten hundreds of 6-10-15 foot lengths of 8451 and cheerfully saved most of it. Eminently re-usable. The "hot" conductor is excellent hookup wire, 22 ga, I think, so even short one-foot scraps are modestly worth saving, just for short wire runs. Great cable. It is *NOT* very good for guitar cable, as it's not as flexible as you'd want, plus there is some microphonic action between the center conductors and the foil shield. 8422 is another variation, dual-coaxial [red-black] and [green-white] with independent shields. I used to find this type of cable in scrapyards and junkyards all the time, by the way.

If you ever buy a full (new) roll of 8451 with the intention of supplying your lifetime requirement of inside-chassis shielded wiring, my recommendation is NOT to buy black or grey jacketed cable--you'll find the blue or red or green jacketed is a lot more limp, thus it will take corners a little easier. Not that big a deal, really. Same price.