Well, I was working with Canare star quad (L-4E5C) today. I had to remind myself about some helpful hints for dealing with the braid. One does not want to cut the braid at all so how to un-braid it? Dental pick. Actually what I have isn't quite a dental pick but it is close and a pick. Carefully cut the sheath and pull that off. Now gently push the braid back and forth a bit to begin to loosen it up. Now use the pick starting from the end and gently pull the braid loose into individual strands. Work all the way back to the sheath. For soldering to both pin 1 and to the connector shell, divide the now unbraided wire into two equal portions and then twist tight & tin the ends. Now is the time to slide any heat shrink on the wires if that is your procedure. Solder to the connector. Pull the shrink up over the prongs and heat slightly. Epoxy can be used instead of shrink tube as desired. Assemble the connector and do the other end. Before soldering any wire on the other end make sure you use a multi meter to not cross any pins. Voila. One professional looking cable.

In my case I was soldering up a 5 pin XLR cable but the same procedure works for 3 pin XLR or TRS. The difference is you twist both blue wires together as one and both white wires together as one.

Have fun with cables.