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10 DIY Patch Kits to Streamline Your Board

Scientific fact: The shortest distance between two guitar effects is a custom-length patch cable.

If your cable routing resembles a rat’s nest and you’d like more space to squeeze another pedal onto your board, a DIY patch-cable kit can make quick work of a tidier existence. Here, we’ve rounded up 10 varying options to help you envision a more shipshape effects center.

     

SIS/Monorail

With 5' of the company’s super-strong Monorail cable and eight of the smallest plugs on the market, this kit can help make use of every inch of a ’board.

EVIDENCE AUDIO
$79

Effects Pedal Cable Kit

This kit provides 10' of the company’s 155-gauge cable and 10 right-angle solderless plugs to assist in ridding a pedalboard of old and unmatched patch cords.

GEORGE LS
$93

Pedalboard Cable Kit

Including 10' of double-insulated instrument cable with a braided-copper shield, 10 right-angle plugs, and a screwdriver and cable cutter, this kit has everything needed to keep things tidy.

D’ADDARIO
$69

BCK-24

With gold-plated contacts and 24' of low-capacitance, studio-grade copper cable, this kit will provide plenty of options for plenty of pedals, and is designed to transfer a signal with no noise interference.

BOSS
$149

Piston

Paired with Lava’s low-capacitance ELC cable (10' included), this kit’s low-profile Piston plugs are smaller in size than others on the market, which means more stomps on a pedalboard.

LAVA CABLE
$79

CrocTeeth

This pedalmaker’s offering includes 10' of thin and flexible MSL cable and 10 solderless low-profile plugs to build custom-length patch cables for clean and uncolored sound.

ONE CONTROL
$119

Pedalboard Patch Cable Kit

With no wire stripping and no screws to tighten or loosen, custom-length patch cables are a breeze with this kit, which offers a variety of cable color choices and small-footprint plugs.

3 MONKEYS SOLDERLESS
$68

SAPT205

While not solderless, this value-minded kit includes 15' of cable and 12 right-angle, low-profile adapters for easy access to jacks that have minimal space for connecting gear.

SEISMIC AUDIO
$25

CK-6 Cable Kit

Able to make up to six cables, this kit contains 12 solderless plugs and 10' of stranded cable designed for the perfect balance of DC resistance and low capacitance for an unaltered signal.

BLACKBIRD PEDALBOARDS
$44

DIY Patch Cable Kit

This kit includes 10 G&H plugs in a variety of colors, 5' of Mogami 2524 wire, and enough heat shrink (also in a variety of colors) to DIY five patch cables.

SINASOID PRO AUDIO COUTURE
$39

Ethnomusicologist Frances Densmore records the song of Mountain Chief, head of the Blackfeet Tribe, on a phonograph for the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1916.

Once used as a way to preserve American indigenous culture, field recording isn’t just for seasoned pros. Here, our columnist breaks down a few methods for you to try it yourself.

The picture associated with this month’s Dojo is one of my all-time favorites. Taken in 1916, it marks the collision of two diverging cultural epochs. Mountain Chief, the head of the Piegan Blackfeet Tribe, sings into a phonograph powered solely by spring-loaded tension outside the Smithsonian. Across from him sits whom I consider the patron saint of American ethnomusicologists—the great Frances Densmore.

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Need more firepower? Here’s a collection of high-powered stomps that pack plenty of torque.

There’s a visceral feeling that goes along with really cranking the gain. Whether you’re using a clean amp or an already dirty setup, adding more gain can inspire you to play in an entirely different way. Below are a handful of pedals that can take you from classic crunch to death metal doom—and beyond.

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Paul Reed Smith shows John Bohlinger how to detect the grain in a guitar-body blank, in a scene from PG’s PRS Factory Tour video.

Paul Reed Smith says being a guitar builder requires code-cracking, historical perspective, and an eclectic knowledge base. Mostly, it asks that we remain perpetual students and remain willing to become teachers.

I love to learn, and I don’t enjoy history kicking my ass. In other words, if my instrument-making predecessors—Ted McCarty, Leo Fender, Christian Martin, John Heiss, Antonio de Torres, G.B. Guadagnini, and Antonio Stradivari, to name a few—made an instrument that took my breath away when I played it, and it sounded better than what I had made, I wanted to know not just what they had done, but what they understood that I didn’t understand yet. And because it was clear to me that these masters understood some things that I didn’t, I would go down rabbit holes.

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Featuring the SansAmp section, Reverb/Delay/Roto effects, and OMG overdrive, with new additions like a switchable Pre/Post Boost and Effect Loop. Pre-configured for the RK Killer Wail wah, this pedal offers versatile tones and unmatched flexibility.

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