Reddit mentions: The best instrument cables

Go to a music shop or guitar center and play with some guitars. The first thing I over looked was the mass of the neck, they very slightly. The Ibanez SR's and a many others have a thinner "fast neck," which is fantastic for me. I managed to buy a guitar and a bass that had thicker necks and were uncomfortable for me to play starting out, it would not be in a traditional posture while you're trying to learn.

Then talk to them about finding you something used. You can get a used guitar for 1/2 to 1/3 the MSRP. It's really awesome..

I just picked up my Ibanez SR800 today and am euphoric.. It was $265, came setup, new strings and excellent intonation, no buzz or action. So I didn't have to do much other than tune it in, which it was just off. Very little cosmetic scratches, no dings or bad scratches, fantastic condition. :)))))))))))))

So going used you may have some extra fees like doing a setup at the store or buying strings and intonation, but you still save a fortune. Learning to do it yourself is imperative, that's a few bucks in tools. Pro's will set up your guitar strings within a millimeter, probably not, they're supposed to though. The tuning key's for intonation are like $45 for the set.

Amps (10-20watt is fine for a bedroom, I had a 100w too)and phones and things are a bit trickier used. They can be blown or have other electrical issues.

Most amps come with headphone jacks 1/4th inch or 3.5mm, you can get a 1/4th adapter for a few bucks for your 3.5mm headphones. I haven't seen much USB. Oh, types of headphones.. Regular stereo is fine, but you will want "monitor" headphones like Audio Technica A31's or something like that. These are for audio production, which have various higher and lower frequencies than ordinary stereo phones, so you will hear every imperfection in audio, they aren't for ordinary listening. x_x

Also, Instrument Jack to USB Cable, these are 16 bit and sound terrible but you can hook up directly to your computer.

Make sure you have a return policy with your gear!

I am also playing you the software "Yousician" (1 free lesson a day, $9.99 a month) it's like "Rocksmith" they're fun games and you will learn a lot!

Steam's a legit service. It's the most used client/store for PC gaming. If you don't trust Steam you could use Uplay as well, which is Ubisoft's client. I'm pretty sure Rocksmith's on Uplay. It doesn't really matter which you get it from if playing a PC game's like a one time thing for you. A second hand copy will work on a console but there's no second hand when it comes to Steam and Uplay. FYI you'll need a 1/4" to USB cable if you get it on Steam or Uplay.

Rocksmith on Steam

Cable that should work

Official cable

Apart from being able to learn some select songs on Rocksmith, one sorta cool feature on it is session mode which lets you jam with the game itself. You choose what instruments you want to be playing in the background and it'll play certain riffs and shit according to what you're playing. Another cool thing about the game is you can learn bass guitar as well. Only downside to the game imo is the DLC's expensive. Some song that ain't in the game by default's like 3 or 4 USD. Also take a look through the song list of the game before buying to make sure you'd be satisfied with their selection.

Check out Reverb.com for buying some used pedals. That will help make things fit into your budget. You can find a DS-1 for around $30 on there. A used crybaby for roughly $40. The MXR is actually a phaser and not a chorus so I'll address that in the phaser section.

As for the other stuff, I highly recommend the TC Electronic Sub 'n' Up as an octave ($100 used or for the mini on reverb.com).

The Vox Delaylab is a ton of delay for not a lot of money if you want tap tempo and all that fancy stuff ($125 used on reverb.com). Plus, if you don't use delay and tremolo at the same time then you can set up the delaylab to do a trem type thing.

The Trelicopter is a really great trem (the guys on That Pedal Show have demoed it before). It gets rebranded by various companies so just find the cheapest one. If you want some more features then check out the TC Electronic Tremolo that just came out.

As for phasers, you can pick up an old Boss PH-3 for $50 used a lot of places. I don't have a lot of experience with other ones, but I'm sure you could get a phase 95 pretty cheap ($90).

After all of that you should have spent roughly $375-420. So you still have a good amount of money for a solid power supply and cables. Get yourself a Truetone CS7 which is fully isolated, has great power ratings if you want to add more pedals, and is fairly inexpensive ($120). Now you still have about $60 for patch cables. Go cheap or get good quality ones. You're definitely gonna be under $60 for 6-8 patch cables.

The labeling idea would be a viable solution if there was an aesthetically pleasing way to pull it off, but I also didn't have enough cables of the appropriate length to make my patchulator fit nicely & flat. So buying $40 worth of cables (hella cheap for 6x 2', 4x 3' cables that work) was an elegant solution to both problems.
Helpful link for anyone interested in doing something similar:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F67S35Q
I hadn't seen that video though, all I'd seen was the Knobs demo before I purchased it. It's probably the most informative & elegant intro to the Patchulator.

Most Amp/DACs will plug into a computer via USB and appear as a playback device on Windows(don't know what it's called on MAC). When the amp and DAC are separate units like the Schiit Modi + Magni, the DAC will go into the computer, the Amp plugs into the DAC, and your headphones go into the amp. As for the mic interface you posted, it looks like it doesn't have a USB connection, but instead it just has the XLR out. In order to connect this to a computer, you would need something to go from an XLR into your computer. There are XLR to 3.5mm cables, but that might not be ideal. I might recommended going for something with a USB interface for simplicity and reliability. A lot of people recommended the Scarlet 2i2. Personally I have the Line 6 UX2 which works best when paired with Line 6's Pod Farm software. I hope this helps, but you might be able to get some more answers from the stickied daily purchase advice thread, or rather, try in a few hours when they put the new one up. Good luck.

"dirt" pedals are overdrive, fuzz, or distortion pedals because they 'dirty' up your signal

if you're okay with waiting, used is always the best to go in terms of cost. if not, here's a small list of cheap, simple pedals that work

delay:

tc electronic the prophet


joyo d-seed


boss dd-3

joyo delay

donner yellow fall analog delay

reverb:

mosky spring reverb

tc electronic drip

caline snake bite

behringer dr-600

chorus:

mxr analog chorus

joyo classic chorus

biyang chorus

danelectro fab chorus

volume pedal:

ernie ball

boss fv-50h

power supply:

cs7

mxr iso brick

here's a cheap/basic place to start. since you're going simple, most pedals you come across will honestly work with what you want you want to accomplish, it's mostly down to your budget. if you're looking used, you can't go wrong with MXR, boss, and EHX pedals, they're usually everywhere on the used market

I had an MXR ISO brick that smoked up on me while still under warranty. I bought one on amazon to fill in while I shipped the MXR back for repair. The amazon one works way better for me and I love the USB ports.

Here’s the one I got on amazon
Caline CP-04 Guitar Pedal Power... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D8NZKS6?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share


I edited the original and added the usb light strip link from amazon too if you’re going for something like that.

Do you want to like completely build your own cables - as in wrapping the wire and shielding it and everything yourself? Or are you just looking to make cables the length you want them?

I bought the George L cable set and love it. Super easy to use, no tools even required

https://www.amazon.com/George-Ls-Effects-Black-Nickle/dp/B000HQMS2U

This is my megaboard from last week. Still working on the cable management. Hoping to use some of these to clean up the looks here soon. I replaced my FAB chorus on it with my Ibanez PC10, and I'm loving having a wet/dry flanger in the mix. Will post more audio clips at request of anything on here (Check my post history for a clearer photo of this thing).

You need something like this. A TS instrument cable to USB with analog to digital converter built in.

https://www.amazon.com/Neewer-Guitar-Cable-Adapter-Recording/dp/B00834KJ60/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1481562843&sr=8-3&keywords=guitar+usb+cable

It's generic there are lots of them rebranded but essentially the same.

https://www.amazon.com/VAlinks-Interface-Connector-Instruments-GarageBand/dp/B01EV0V58A/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1481562843&sr=8-2&keywords=guitar+usb+cable

For regular Rocksmith 2014 on PC you just need https://github.com/Maxx53/NoCableLauncher

The launcher switches the hardware ID for your interface so Rocksmith thinks its a rocksmith cable. I have one of those but prefer using my interface. That will let you use the $10 with rocksmith.

The neewer cable in the first amazon link has the review I did on my wifes account with the screenshots of bias FX and the settings I used in ASIO4ALL which is why I linked it.

To get low latency you just need ASIO4ALL drivers which are free. ASIO is a low latemcy Audio streaming standard for the PC developed by steinberg and is what all the high end interfaces use. The ASIO4ALL drivers let you use ASIO4ALL with any kind of input.

http://www.asio4all.com/

The PC specs don't have to be too high since the cable electronics takes care of converting the signal to a digital one. You just need an ok CPU to handle the modeling amp and effects software. Your I5 and onboard sound should be fine assuming it has some kind of realtek audio chip on the motherboard.

So, I've got a small board consisting of five pedals, all powered by a T-Rex Fuel Tank Jr. It all works great; everything's plugged in and velcro'd down. However, I have more than those five pedals and have been playing around with the idea of setting up a second board with hopes to, sometime in the future, merge and/or expand them, leaving one for a smaller 'basics' board for traveling. In the meantime, I'd like to be able to power one or the other without too much hassle. Rather than spending money on another power supply just yet, the simplest solution would be to just buy more DC power cables so I only have to unplug/replug them on the T-Rex's end. I've been having a hell of a time trying to find where online I can buy them. T-Rex's website has them listed, but no links to where to buy them and a google search has been about as much help. I found these on amazon and they look good, but I don't need 18" and 24" cables for a PSU mounted underneath a Pedaltrain Nano+ (or, I guess, on the floor next to it in the case of board #2).

I'm aware that was a lot of text for a very small problem. Sorry for rambling.

tl;dr - Where can I find extra DC power cords? Are there any good packs out there with cords less than a foot long?

> M MAKA Patch Cables

Sweet :) thanks.

fixed the link for you
M MAKA Patch Cables

I don't have one brand I prefer and to be honest I pay a little more for leads than I used to pay because after a few months I am throwing out cables, which to some degree is normal, I am just hoping the little extra for a brand name helps them last longer.

I wouldn't pay 20 for 3. You can get these much cheaper than that.

Maybe these. I have gotten them cheaper though.

M MAKA Patch Cables

I bought a bunch and they are awesome.

Edit: if anyone knows a make-alike that are available on not Amazon, please let me know!

Edit2: trying to fix my but reddit is messing it up, thanks for fixing below

This one should do just fine to make you wish you had something better.

I was in the same predicament and decided to splurge and get an isolated because I knew I wouldnt regret it. I got the Truetone CS12 but they make a CS7 that super affordable and has lots of power options https://www.amazon.com/dp/B012F2AWMQ

Define cheap? For 100 bucks new or 70 used, a Focusrite solo does the job pretty good.

https://reverb.com/p/focusrite-scarlett-solo-2nd-gen

Or for 10 bucks, you can just get a quarter-inch jack to usb cable, which did the trick for me for awhile.

https://www.amazon.com/Interface-Connector-Instruments-Recording-GarageBand/dp/B01EV0V58A

I have one of these and its pretty ok. I think it would suffice for recording your ideas onto the computer.

Absolutely! These are the first two I would recommend, just to get started auditioning different pairings. The main "rules" are, as you may know, don't cross digital pedals with analog pedals, and keep Strymon(or other high current draw digital) pedals separate and isolated. Feel free to deviate, as long as you are providing enough total mA and keeping the polarity the same.

Your audio interface should have an input for a standard audio cable.

Also, your PC should have a mic/line-in input that would take a cable plug that looks like a headphone plug. Alternately, you could use a USB audio cable like this:
https://www.amazon.com/VAlinks-Interface-Connector-Instruments-GarageBand/dp/B01EV0V58A

Get Amplitube software and one of these and some decent headphones. You will get the joy of all the effects without having to deal with neighbors.

I also like Mogami a lot.

I was playing through a vintage Super Reverb, so all my cables sounded good but after I bought some Mogami's, I stopped having any cable connection issues. Durable.

specs

would something like this work?
https://www.amazon.com/VAlinks-Interface-Connector-Instruments-GarageBand/dp/B01EV0V58A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487882667&sr=8-1&keywords=guitar+to+pc

You could probably chain any of the Timmy, BB Preamp, and TU2, and Fuzz together without any noise problems using one of these.

Don't worry about isolation until you have to, i.e. when something does make noise. There's a fair number of combinations of pedals that you can chain together without any power supply noise problems.

amazon has mogami pancake sets for cheap: https://www.amazon.com/Units-Effects-Instrument-Low-Profile-Connectors/dp/B00PZGTVAE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466192746&sr=8-1&keywords=mogami+pancake

come in different sizes too

Yah. Typical anything “analog” is far less than 10 mA. A big muff is maybe 4, a tube screamer somewhere in there. I believe under supplying mA does not damage stuff it just won’t work right. You can daisy up 8 or 9 on 100 mA, depending how much “noise” you add, and you probably won’t do that either.

Andoer Caline 3 Ways Daisy Chain Multi-interface Connecting 1 to 3 Cable Cord Copper Wire for Guitar Effects Power Supply Adapter https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014KR7F6K/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_TpX6AbGX2QRJ9

This one will split an existing cable you have rather than plug direct into the power supply. Same difference. I believe this was the one I use unless I did find one a little cheaper.

Those connectors you're using are prone to damaging pedals, so good call on that.

You can get super slim connectors like these that are flexible and very low profile. I'm not recommending these specific ones necessarily, just the first link I found. Warwick makes some, I think D'Addario have some, lots of the big names make them.

MAKA - on Amazon. They come in white, red or black.

Could I connect my Shure Sm-58 to my Canon T3i camera using this?

Hosa XVS101F Right Angle 3.5mm M to XLR F 1 Foot https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000068NZG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_lxCJwbDMPZRGM

I already own the xlr to xlr cable that came with the microphone

Would I be able to get one for less than $40? It's a simple cord, I thought.

Edit: Would this one work on an Air?

Your supply should still be able to handle it. Figure out how many millaamps each of your pedals draw. Get some splitter cables. 6 of the outputs put out 100mA. 2 of them put out 250mA. So you’ve got 1100 total available. With a few splitters you should have plenty of juice. Just keep any noisier pedals on their own.

3 way daisy chain. pick up a couple of these.

They are powered!

JBL LSR308 Amazon Link

Focusrite 2i4 Interface Amazon Link

2 X TRS cable Amazon Link

I got a rainbow of these. If they wear out it means I'm doing something right. Not sure why this company seems to not stock these items in their non-Amazon store. 1/4 to Quarter Inch Right Angle Instrument Cable Guitar Pedal Keyboard Patch Cord (3ft, Purple) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F67S35Q/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_W59Bxb3CM1TKR

I bought three different lengths of these:

M MAKA Flat Low Profile Guitar Patch Cable 6 inch for Effects Pedals, 1/4 inch Right-Angle, Red, 3-Pack New Version https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D7QJWTM/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_sLEJDb7QEHGEQ

Not at all!
We currently use:
3x Logitech C922x Pro Webcams
7x 3.5mm Lapel Mics
7x 3.5mm to 1/4in adapters
2x Mini Audio Mixers
1x USB-to-1/4in Cable
1x 1/4in to 1/4oin cable

For video, we just use the webcams like normal.

For audio, we daisy chain the two mixers with the 1/4in cable, and plugin each mic to their adapters and into the mixers. Use the 1/4in to usb cable to capture the audio out of the last mixer, and now you have a dial for each audio line, but only one audio input device to your PC.

It's not the best solution, but it is way less expensive than buying the hardware video encoding and digital audio mixers would have cost (by factors of 10).

You could go with a Voodoo Labs Iso-5 for what you have now. Or a Truetone CS7 if you think you'll be adding more pedals.

Also, your patch cables are fine. I have those and have no noise with an isolated supply.

my bad! https://www.amazon.com/MAKA-Profile-Effects-Right-Angle-Version/dp/B07GBMLNTX/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1543300665&sr=8-14&keywords=patch%2Bcable%2Bguitar&th=1