#186 - 14th October 2024 - Soldering

I did not have a soldering session for quite a bit.

Occasionally, I would solder larger batches of cables, e.g. when I built my pedal board and needed custom length patch cables.

Also, when I first integrated a small mixer, the Allen & Heath ZED14 as center piece to my home studio, I soldered most of my cables to specific length so they would fit the purpose. The ZED14 has 6 AUX channels and I don't think I had a patch bay back then.

Oh yeah, patch bays. They urge you to have patch cables. It comes with the name.

And I hate it when cables are too long for the situation they are supposed to serve.

That's a bit neurotic perhaps.

After a while though, and when having had different setups, you simply have most of the cables you'll ever need.

And if not, I would pay a visit to Hieber Lindberg to which I officially have a love-hate-relationship. It is the last remaining larger all purpose music shop in Munich, and the brick and mortar business is certainly tough, but damn are they bad at what they do.

Anyway, sometimes there is a need for a larger batch.

I decided to construct a live jam setup that is centered around the Zoom F6. For some annoying reason, the inputs are laid out as XLR and not combo jack inputs. With that, I'm in need of six TRS 6.3mm to XLR male cables.

Also, my longer headphone cable extension needed a new locking jack.

That's enough cable to get out the soldering iron.

Here's the math: A 3m cable with Neutrik XLR and 6.3mm TRS is 10EUR for the plugs and jacks alone. Sommer Cable SC Club microphone cable is another 1.30EUR/meter. The same cable directly from Sommer comes with Rean plugs for around 27EUR.

In all honesty, If I were to calculate an hourly rate against this, the deal would look way worse. But as things stand, it's an evening on the couch and 60EUR saved. That's alright.