Where does one get speaker wires for cabinets?

Nothing wrong with regular speaker wire or lamp cord found in any hardware store.

Never seen jacks with leads attached. Just get a jack, a cheap iron, some solder, and do it yourself?

 

I gave up trying to find them, and just went out and bought some lamp cord and a bag of those little clips, I can't even remember what they're called....

 

Most ACE Hardware stores sell it off of spools (custom length cuts) by the foot.
My local one has several different gauges available.

The wire itself is the clear vinyl jacketed paired type ('lamp cord')

Good stuff, not expensive and works great. I believe the wire strands are 100% copper (not aluminum) too.

 

I’ve never seen wires with the quick-disconnect ends already attached. Soldering at that level isn’t difficult, and soldering supplies aren’t expensive. There is a wide variety of wire that will work, from adequate (for economy) to overkill (for fun). As @PhredE said, it should be pure copper.

 

16 -18 gage Lamp cord or Gold/Silver "speaker wire" and 3/16" spade terminals from your hardware store. (a few speakers are 1/4" spade but most are 3/16)

 

What you are asking about is usually called a "wiring harness". That not normally sold in stores. Some entrepreneurial builders sell pre-wired ones for popular Fenders amps and Marshall cabs on eBay and Etsy, but most people/companies make their own. Either with crimp connectors or by soldering.

 

I’ve used lamp cord, speaker wire from Radio Shack on a spool (basically lamp cord with clear insulation) and most recently, a handful of multi-stranded copper wire from an old 8’ fluorescent fixture we tore out (between the ballast and fluorescent tube sockets on the ends).

 

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...osacat=619&_odkw=eaker+cabinet+wiring+harness

Cheap enough to not bother with soldering too.

4 speaker


2 speaker


1 speaker

 

This is the closest thing I was ever able to find sold at retail:

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...0001&campid=5338148343&icep_item=402145725365

 

I use 16 gauge audio wire or zip cord for all my speaker wiring. I like the flat wire because I can never confuse it with a guitar cable. Amazon is a good source as well as your local hardware if you are lucky enough to still have one.

 

If you haven't needed a soldering iron yet, probably silly to get one just to wire up one cabinet.

My only concern with the pictured pre-made ones is that those jacks look crummy. I like Switchcraft jacks, they aren't even particularly expensive. Then again, I guess if I was trying to profit from something I was selling for $16...

 

Too bad Radio Shack is gone. What you need is common speaker wire as described above. The connections are crimp connections. Search crimp terminal connections. Get shrink tube to fit around the wire and over the crimp. Use a crimping tool so the crimp looks neat. Slide the shrink tube over the crimp. Use a heat gun or a lighter to provide the localized heating to shrink the tube. Like many guitar related tools and supplies, this is a one time purchase for a DIYer.

 

Just get some lamp/zip cord from your hardware store. The short lengths of cable used in cabinets will have zero effect on how your amp performs.

 

I hate new wire! That crap they sell at Ace or an auto parts store, the strands in it are thicker than old wire and it's stiffer. The insulation sorta sucks too. Now the electrons probably don't care one little bit, but I do.
I save the old two prong AC wires off old amps that get new grounded cords and use those for speaker wire. The lamp cord types get used for head to cab cables and the round ones get pulled apart for the nice black and white covered wires inside, they get used in cabs and combos to go to the speakers.
Vintage wire=vintage tone.
They still make good wire today but you're going to have to order it, if you want to? Because it probably don't matter anyhow.
Then there's the slip connectors, they range from total crap things made out of crap metal that loosen up and fall off, to really good ones. And they all look alike!
If a speaker wire falls off bad things can happen, I solder those.
If I could get the ones Fender used on 70s Super Reverbs I wouldn't worry about it, those were good stuff.

Don't even get me started on nail clippers today!

 

Some old, kaputt computer power supplies have quite good wires to re-use

 

I already have enough wire to last until I'm dead in the cold ground. And yet I'll still cut the power cord off vacuums or whatever I walk by in the neighborhood. Real hoarder mentality..

Great, just what I need, more junk to look out for

 

I was after a speaker cab cable with 6 mm (1/4”) plugs, so got some suitable cable off the reel, cut it to the length I was after and soldered on the plugs. Soldering is not too difficult, and a useful skill. There may be a TDPRI person in Wisconsin who can help? Or call in here (Melbourne, Australia) if you’re passing through!

 

They can be found here in several varieties:

https://www.mojotone.com/Pickups_x?search=wiring+harness