🌋 Lava Tightrope

And then, I finally took the plunge and ventured into custom cabling for my pedalboard. This wasn't an easy step for me because I never thought I would need to spend so much on patch cables when I first stepped into the pedalboard world. Now that I couldn't stand my messy pedalboard, it's time to step up my game.

Many many months ago, I already had the thought of going into custom cabling. I struggled between the Free The Tone (FTT) Solderless Kit and this Lava Tightrope Solderless Kit. On one hand, FTT is one of the best but exceeded my budget for patch cables. On the other hand, there's Lava Cables, the cheaper, yet reliable, alternative. I know Davis Guitar carries FTT, which they sell for $100+ a pack. The Tightrope was going at $65 on Carousell through this distributor for Lava Cables. Back then, he notified me that the Tightrope cables are out of stock. Me, seeing the price tag on the FTT, decided to forget about custom cabling...

Until yesterday, when the distributor notified me that the Tightrope cables were back in stock. It is now $75 but still cheap enough. And so, I agreed to get one pack without much hesitation. Here is my review on the Lava Tightrope Solderless Kit.

To be honest, after watching the official video tutorial on YouTube, it seemed like a pretty daunting task to assemble the patch cables. And it truly is. Given the choice again, I would have paid more for the FTT cables. But anyway, that's not the point. Considering many forums regard this kit as "Easy" compared to the others, I plucked up my courage and started assembly. Due to my slightly larger fingers, I had trouble skinning both the outer layer and the inner layer. The outer black one was easy, but the peeling of the inner black masking was what blew me off. 

Actually no, the hardest part was pushing the cable into the plug. That's right, my fingers screamed more when the friction burned my fingertips than when the fretboard tortures them. Try twisting a 1/4 cable head with your bare fingers; I think you get the point. After 2 long hours (Yes I took 2 hours to assemble 5 patch cables), I was left with 2 more spare plugs and zero cables. I needed a long cable more than I need more cables, so I'm fine with having 2 extra plugs.

Leftovers...

So now, I get to arrange my pedals in my own order and patch them together instead of playing Tetris to accommodate the fixed patch cables' lengths. And with that, I'm gonna sell off these low quality coloured cables to earn back my $75 (which is impossible).

Too colourful for my board!

Honestly speaking, I wished I had chosen FTT because screwing is so much easier than twisting (Don't think too far). I am very sure I'm taking that route if I were to get another chance at custom cabling! This cable post brings my pedalboard to version 2.02!!

For today's side-track topic, I'm finally ending my student life on the 20th February. It is the official last day of school for me and as much as I am sad to leave the student life, I am excited for adult life! That means more control over my finances and more time for my guitars! Sad to say until then, I might not post again because I have a final report due on Sunday and a final presentation on Wednesday, not to mention the couple of class tests in between!

Updated pedalboard, version 2.02!

Thanks for staying tune, but still, stay tuned for more!

Edwin Ang

3rd February 2016

Tags: PBv2.02