changing speaker cable.

[piggyboy]

hi I have a couple of mesa amps (combos) and I'd like to swap the speaker cable for a slightly longer one, so I can run a head into the cabs. I know I have to use proper speaker cable but is there any special solder I should use, or is regular stuff ok?

thanks

 

[noghiri]

Regular stuff is probably just fine. Just remember to clean off the flux when you're done.

 

[RR]

Regular electrical solder stuff 60 / 40.

Don't use that acid-something used to fix pipe joints.

 

[elvis]

Speaker cable just needs to be big. Lamp-cord works great. There is no special solder, just electronics solder like RR wrote.

The most important thing will be the end plugs. They need to be designed for high current, not just reused signal-wire plugs.

 

[piggyboy]

thanks for the responses
I was just going to re-use the 1/4 inch jack already there. But thanks for making me aware that it needs to be a speaker one, I did not know there was a difference.

 

[elvis]

Honestly, I'm not sure how you'd even figure out if the plug is high-current capable, or where you might find one. Best bet would be reuse from a commercially available speaker cable. At least they might have considered it when specifying plugs.

 

[MrMarkIII]

The actual cable, the wire itself, is what is different about speaker versus instrument cable.

Instrument cable is shielded. There are two conductors, an insulated central core wire, usually stranded, with braided-strand wire wrapped around it as a shield against noise.

Speaker cable is just like lamp cord. Two conductor, stranded wire, running parallel, not one wrapped around the other.

If you use speaker cable to connect a guitar to an amp, there will a loud buzz. It will sound bad.

If you connect a speaker to an amp with an instrument cable, it will sound OK until you turn the amp up to play loud, then the amp will blow up.

The plugs on either type of cable are EXACTLY the same as any other "quarter-inch phone plug".

They are called "phone plugs" because that's what was used on old-time telephone switchboards to route phone calls.

The PLUG is the thing at the end of a cable. It's "male".
The JACK is what the PLUG goes into. It's "female".

Don't laugh - idiots interchange the terms willy-nilly. Makes you wonder how they ever manage to reproduce.

 

[RR]

...
If you connect a speaker to an amp with an instrument cable, it will sound OK until you play turn the amp up to play loud, then the amp will blow up.
...

I was at a Guitar Center at the used section and saw an amp head plugged into a speaker cabinet with a guitar chord. :? Not good.

I remember when I was so anal, I would build my own speaker cables. I would buy big parallel 1/4" plugs and 12 gauge speaker cable.

Nowadays I say to myself: "Who am I kidding?"

PS but our PA system does have the large Speakon cables.

 

[NoelH]

Good ol' silver-bearing solder will do just fine. No magic to it. Speakers are two conductor wires, so pretty painless.