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This has to be one of my favorite things about working in this biz. I love figuring out how best to connect everything and wire it all up. All of my friends and family know to call me when it comes time to hook up their new TV or Stereo or Surround system. I don't know why I like it..I just do.

Anyway...

I have a few different lengths of bulk snake cabling ranging from 15 feet to 6 feet and it's all top quality cable. I was thinking of using this cable to wire up my rack and patchbay. Would there be any problems if I were to cut open the snake and use the cables as individuals instead of having them all together in the snake?

I don't know if the individual cables are shielded but I do know that they are all balanced. I know that that will have some bearing on whether or not this is a good idea.

The reason I ask is because the longest cable I'll really need is about 5 feet long and there's no reason (that I can think of) to have cables shorter than that grouped together in a snake.

Also, would it be a bad idea to use this same cable to build some patch cables? These would really only be about a foot in length.

If this isn't a good idea, hit me up with some suggestions.

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Comments

RemyRAD Fri, 03/24/2006 - 17:35

Well, you can pull the individual wires out of the snake. I would only do that if the individual balanced wires are individually jacketed like in the Mogami cabling. Many others are merely wrapped with a cellophane/Mylar/aluminum foil wrap with a ground drain wire. The Mylar/cellophane/aluminum foil wrap is the shield which is easy to compromise. Plus it's very hard to keep it from unraveling. Even on a 5 foot pull, I would still leave the main jacket intact and just strip back which you need from each end. That's the way I did it in my remote truck and that's the way NBC Washington DC also did it. It keeps things so much neater. The other nice thing about the individually jacketed snake cable from companies like Mogami is that you will find they are also all individually printed upon with numbers so generally mistakes can be kept at a minimum whereas the ones with the Mylar/foil wrap our generally only color-coded and there are numerous duplicated colors as well.

All wrapped up
Ms. Remy Ann David

anonymous Sat, 03/25/2006 - 13:38

yea, i wouldn't think it would be a good idea to open a snake and use the cables individually unless they were shielded, but i dunno what u have, so it could work. why not just buy some basic bulk cable and some connectors for whatever u need (1/4" jacks, xlr, rca...) and make them yourself. look online for some stuff.

cfaalm Sun, 03/26/2006 - 10:12

I have wired my guitar rack with multicable leads. If they all have their own proper shielding, then yes, you can do it.

There are of course the ends on the chassis connectors that are prone to pick up some interference. I have seen jackets for those at in a pro rack, but I don't know where to get them. I was a bit worried I needed those but so far the signal of my rig has been really clean.

I also used a 6-pack of short balanced TRS cords where I knocked off one plug and solder the lead to the chassis part and plugged the other one in one of the rack units.