Cable pedalboard kit recommendations

[vedt]

I'm a month or two away from doing it all at once: buying a Pedaltrain PT-2, Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2+, and a cable pedalboard kit. Trouble is, I don't know which cable kit to pick. A simply search on musiciansfriend.com yielded two options:

10' George L's - $74
10' Lava - $90

I've heard wonderful things about George L's.

Any recommendations?

[silentechoes]

I use the Planet Waves board kit right now, but if I did it again I'd go with the Lava kit.

[tazzboy]

George L .155 from Lava Cables.

[drjordan]

I recommend the Bil Lawrence kit (scroll to the bottom of his page here). Instead of 10' cable in the other kits, $78 gets you 50' in the Lawrence kit. The extra plugs are about half the price of the other two kits as well. That's what I used and they've been flawless.

[Jelle]

I have Lava on my board and it works great. No experience with the others though.

[68 Shovelhead]

If you use the pedaltrain 2, I suspect you have plans for more than 6 pedals, which means you would need 2 of any of the cable kits previously mentioned.
For about the same money as one of the above fancy kits you could build twice as many cables using Switchcraft 226 plugs and Beldon 9778 cable (or whatever cable you prefer). I bought pre-made cables that use the Switchcraft 226 plugs, now that I need to expland my rig, I'll build more. Of coarse you need to be able to solder. Here's a source for materials...

http://store.acradiosupplyinc.com/switchcraft226.aspx

[plroad21]

The George L's are great if you intend to put the pedals on your board and never ever switch them around again. as soon as you start plugging and unplugging and trying out new pedals, the George L's will die. i started with an entire board of them and now I have two still on there. Honestly I just went back to mostly using the little cheapie cables I picked up at my local music store. Maybe they don't sound quite as good, but I don't notice that much of a difference and they last a heck of a lot longer.

and I figure, if it works for Tom Bukovac...

[Flewis]

Originally Posted by plroad21

The George L's are great if you intend to put the pedals on your board and never ever switch them around again. as soon as you start plugging and unplugging and trying out new pedals, the George L's will die. i started with an entire board of them and now I have two still on there. Honestly I just went back to mostly using the little cheapie cables I picked up at my local music store. Maybe they don't sound quite as good, but I don't notice that much of a difference and they last a heck of a lot longer.

and I figure, if it works for Tom Bukovac...

I have had the same george L cables in my pedal board for 10 years and they still work like a champ, I swap out dirt pedals for new flavours a fair bit, and I'll try the odd phaser or delay and they still haven't failed me - George L all the way

[maches]

If you are competent with a solder iron I suggest making your own cables. They will be less expensive and more than likely last a lot longer than any of those cable kits you can buy with screw on jacks. I built 12 patch cables using George L's .155 cable and G&H jacks bought from ebay. I spent all of $50 for the cable plus the jacks, and they will last practically forever.

[Zagnut]

I went kinda whole hog and bought this http://www.amazon.com/Weller-WES51-A.../dp/B000BRC2XU
and then the Evidence Pedal board kit from http://www.lavacable.com/ and had fun making my own. Mark's own Lava brand pedal board set would be my next purchase just to mix it up. I don't think the Weller set cost that much when I bought it, but you can shop around for other brands and models obviously. If you plan on doing more cables, changing pickups, making pedals, etc a soldering iron is a must. It opens up a lot of possibilities for diy guitar stuff.

[nic'o'caster]

I love solderless cables for my pedalboard since I can't stop rearranging and changing my pedals on it ! I only use right angle plugs as I need to loose the least room on the board.

I have been using George L for several years without any problems but I recognize that the Lava solution seems better. I have now a second pedalboard with a used Lava kit I found on ebay. The Lava plugs are even smaller than the George L which was a great advantage on this board.

[superhand]

Originally Posted by maches

If you are competent with a solder iron I suggest making your own cables. They will be less expensive and more than likely last a lot longer than any of those cable kits you can buy with screw on jacks. I built 12 patch cables using George L's .155 cable and G&H jacks bought from ebay. I spent all of $50 for the cable plus the jacks, and they will last practically forever.

That's the ticket right there. If you can solder, then save yerself some dough. I've been thinking about doing this as well because my cheap Hosa patch cables have to go. They are great if you don't move them, but I had a tip break off in my LPB-1 output jack and I had to preform minor surgery to get it out.