does the selection of wire effect the noise?

[kaj-fp]

does the selection of wire effect the unwanted noise ( hummmm and sisssss) I use a good stiff wire but the insulation is a bit thin.
Do enyone have experience on this matter??

Kaj.

[DutchMarco]

Kaj, the insulation is merely to keep you from having shorts when 2 wires touch. Or from getting shocks yourself should you decide to poke around inside with your bare fingers with power on.

If you want to prevent hum or hiss, or perhaps radio reception, you could use shielded wire, which is like coax. Ground the shield on one end only, and make sure that the shield and signal line don't touch.

Using rigid or flexible (solid core or stranded) wire is a matter of preference, there are places where the tendency of solid core wire to stay where it's put are desirable; and sometimes you want to easily drag a wire around a bend or something, so you would use stranded wire. Just make sure you have the right gauge.

[Ballz]

" - this is your captain speaking, we are now approaching the Hype airport of Magical Mojo land".....

This thread could easily ignite - let´s just hope the Audiofools don´t see it ...if they do, you will have 110 replies - pros and cons and all sorts of speculation in between about the benefits of this and that wire type...0,03dB better S/N ratio etc .. seen the Ebay auctions for old wiring harnesses with "mojo" cloth wire?

Just make sure the insulation is good enuff to protect against flashovers (where B+ rail is close to chassis potential etc) and - just like Marco said - that it can handle the current. Use heavier wire for filament wiring, and shielded wire where appropriate. I usually avoid stiff/single-strand wire in combos, due to its tendency to vibrate and break at the solder points. Also, be careful not to nick a stiff wire when stripping it.

Cheers /Rick

[Coco]

In my amps, I use combinations of both. Typically solid to tubes, stranded to tone controls, power and output transformer; shielded to inputs and other sensitive parts.
Solid is nice when inserting into tube socket pins and it stays in place.

Agree with Dutch Marco; get the size right. It matters.

I have used Teflon and PVC and cloth insulated wires.
Teflon is nice because of the hi temp capabilities but really hard to strip;
Cloth is nice because of the hi temp and wearing capabilities, but somewhat hard to work with;
PVC is easy to work with, but you have to be careful when soldering that you don't melt the insulation.

Sound wise? Equal. Ballz is so right!

[KingCrimson]

Coco,

I noticed that your normal inputs have shielded wire going to V1, but I was wondering why you didn't use shielded from your TMB input to V1 as well?

s2, in another related thread on my TMB screeching said the following in order to stop my radio interference on the TMB side. I figured this would almost be common practice, except for the 68k resistor maybe:

You need to put a 68K resistor on the tube socket where the wire from the input jack is. It is called a grid stopper, and it will kill the RF you are getting without really altering your tone. That wire should also be shielded if it isn't already.

[Coco]

I noticed that your normal inputs have shielded wire going to V1, but I was wondering why you didn't use shielded from your TMB input to V1 as well?

Good observation. Up to now, it hasn't been necessary to shield this one but wouldn't hurt to do it.

Do you have tube shields on those 12AX7s?

[KingCrimson]

Good observation. Up to now, it hasn't been necessary to shield this one but wouldn't hurt to do it.

Do you have tube shields on those 12AX7s?

Yes, I do. But I've seen a thread on here somewhere that almost concludes that these don't even matter all that much. If you have another opinion, I sure would like to know.

[DutchMarco]

Well, it might help protect the tubes from being physically broken by cables, pedals etc. being thrown in the combo cab. I've ordered some red ones, at leasy the firm socket shield will keep the tubes from moving about too much.

I've also read that to improve your sound, you should remove those shields. It affects the electrons zipping around inside or so it was said. Iirc it acted like a cathode, pushing electrons away from the anode inside the shield.

[zaphod_phil]

I think people worry far too much about wire. In the original 18W amps, Marshall used just about anything that came to hand, including flat parallel zip cord (aka lamp cord) for the heaters. I kind of like that anarchistic approach as well, and use whatever I can most easily get hold of. As most of the wires aren't all that long in an 18W, I don't even bother about the guage. Just use some pretty colors and that's pretty much it. However, for the buss, it has got to be some huge, fat, big-ass stuff. Apart from that, your wire doesn't affect the tone, Your transformers, tubes, caps and resistors are far more important - and in that order.

[KingCrimson]

I think people worry far too much about wire.

Phil, so do you think the whole shielded wire in certain applications or areas is overrated?

[zaphod_phil]

Phil, so do you think the whole shielded wire in certain applications or areas is overrated?

Not really. It performs a useful function, especially in higher gain preamps, like the TMBs. It's generally a good idea to use shielded wire at least for the input jacks, and then possibly gain/volume pots.

[novemberrain]

Back around '80 or so I tore into my Traynor Bass Master YBA-1 with the intent to get a more agressive tone, more like a Marshall doncha know? This was also my first experiment with cascaded preamp stages and I got that entirely wrong at the time but I digress... what I really wanted was for the amp to run "dimed" with both channels jumpered and yeah, it was freakin' loud but remember, this was the '80s. In any case it was a noisy baaastard "dimed" and I had some oscillation problems. I "borrowed" some beautiful shielded Teflon wire Ampex had sent us for mod kits for tape machines and used about a foot of it cut into little bits to shield the signal path right through the tone stack, guess what? Not only was the amp eerily quiet with the shielded wire in place, the shielding eliminated the oscillation problems!

[DrFrankencopter]

Just thought I'd chime in here. I have noticed that certain types of shielded wire are succeptible to microphonics. This is apparently a result of the triboelectric effect. You've probably encountered this before with some cables, you can tap on the insulation and hear the 'thumping'. At any rate, I've noticed it in microphone lines with foil shields, and have never run into this situation with braided shields. So, in anything that I build, I stick to braids...tougher to strip, and keep neat, but worth it especially in a combo amp that'll be subject to vibration from the speaker motion.

Cheers,

Kris

[kaj-fp]

Thank you all for your replyes, it`s allmoust as I expected, but it is nice to get it confirmed by all you other "experts"
greetings from Kaj!!

[LarryN]

Great, informative thread. I was told recently that solid-core sounds better, by Bill Krinard, developer of the Two Rock amps. I'll have to ask him about some of the oscillation problems and tone stack considerations. In the real sense, he certainly is from the land of Magic Mojo.

[zaphod_phil]

...I was told recently that solid-core sounds better, by Bill Krinard, developer of the Two Rock amps.

With all respect to Bill, that is absolute audiofool baloney.

[LarryN]

With all respect to Bill, that is absolute audiofool baloney.

Maybe you just can't hear it!

[zaphod_phil]

And neither would anyone else I suspect, in a blind A/B test, including Bill himself! Also there is no electronics engineering basis to that silly idea.

[bitsandvolts]

And neither would anyone else I suspect, in a blind A/B test, including Bill himself! Also there is no electronics engineering basis to that silly idea.

+1, I gotta agree with Phil on this one. In my experience, albeit not in amp building, wire gets you from point A to point B, nothing else. As long as the conductor material of the actual wire is a good conductor, it really shouldn't matter a hoot.

-Frank

[s2]

I'm gonna chime in on the solid core stuff. It is way easier to work with, but I have had a lot of problems with it breaking on me. Once it is soldered, you can't move it. Think of it as a paperclip which everyone knows will break if you move it back and forth a few times. Now imagine that paperclip made of copper...

I recently switched to heavy strand Teflon wire and have the same problem. Now, I'm using fine strand Teflon and don't have any troubles. Sure, it is harder to work with, but a little tinning solves it.

I still use the heavy strand in production units (at least until I use it up), because I solder it and leave it. It is in prototyping and experimenting where it breaks on me right and left.