Are These the PERFECT Patch Cables? Ultra Compact, Premium Quality, and Surprisingly Affordable!19/4/2021
Looking for the holy grail of slimline, ultra compact, space-saving patch cables? Check out the brand new 'High Performance' series by EBS! In this video, we take a sneak peak at my new studio pedalboard and discuss which guitar patch cables I'm using (and why). If you're looking to build a new pedalboard (or simply upgrade an existing one) this video is for you! Products FeaturedCheck out more info on EBS High Performance series here: https://bit.ly/32xPtmd EBS HP 10cm - https://amzn.to/3dtHSvq EBS HP 18cm - https://amzn.to/3echAx0 EBS HP 28cm - https://amzn.to/32qz3w7 EBS HP 58cm - https://amzn.to/3tzzuQO Video TranscriptHey! You’re here in the studio with Luke from GuitarIQ.com. In today's video, I’m going to unveil a sneak peek of the work in progress that is my brand new studio pedalboard. And we're going to check out what might just be some of the best slimline, ultra compact, space-saving patch cables going around. So if that sounds interesting, then please click on that like button to let me know (and to help out the all-powerful youtube algorithm). And with that, let’s jump into the video!
So here we have the first iteration of the brand new pedalboard that I'm building for my studio. As I mentioned, this is a bit of a work in progress. So the plan is to swap some of these pedals out and to switch a few things around, but this gives you the basic idea of the board. If you do want a full walkthrough of this pedalboard, then let me know in the comments below and I'll certainly film one once the board is finished and finalized. In the context of this video, though, we’re not really focused so much on the specific pedals themselves as we are the one thing that is connecting them all together. And by that, I of course mean: the patch cables. The specific patch cables I'm using for this pedalboard build are the new High Performance cables by EBS. Now, I’ve used EBS cables in the past as part of different pedalboard builds. I've always been really impressed with them and when it came to putting together this studio board, I was talking to the team over EBS and they very kindly offered to send me some of their brand new and updated High Performance cables for 2021—just to test out as part of this pedalboard build and, more importantly, to give you some feedback on using these cables and what I think of them. For those of you who aren't familiar with EBS, they’ve been around for a long time. They build heads, and combos, and cabinets, and pedals, and other accessories, predominantly for bass players but there's certainly a crossover for guitar players with some of their products also. One of those products is of course their patch cables. Their patch cables are available in three different product lines. They offer their Original series, which are their most cost effective patch cables. Then they have their Premium Gold series, which are their most compact and space-saving option. And then they have their top-tier High Performance cables that you can see used here. One of the new tweaks they've introduced to their High Performance cables (as of the start of 2021) is that the connectors of these cables are now 30% smaller than they were previously. So their High Performance cables are now much more similar in size to their Premium Gold series, for example. (Which, as I mentioned, is the most compact option that they offer.) And that certainly makes these new High Performance cables an even more attractive option for those who are wanting a super high-quality cable in a super small form factor. So, I’m personally of the opinion that when you're building a pedalboard, there’s no point spending a lot of money on some really nice sounding pedals, and a nice pedalboard to house everything, and a good power supply to make it all work, if you skimp on the quality of your patch cables. But that begs the question: What is a ‘good quality’ patch cable? What does that mean? And what does that look like? Now, I’ve put together a lot of pedalboards over the years. I've used lots of different types of cables, of all different shapes and sizes, from different brands. I’ve tried my hand at making my own cables. I’ve had high-end cables custom built for me for certain projects. So I certainly get that it can be confusing—there are a lot of options out there, a lot of brands, a lot of different price points, and a lot of opinions about what the “best sounding” cable is. (Which is really a matter of personal preference anyway.) So for those audiophiles out there, who want to dive into the stats and specs of these cables (and want to compare things like the design and the components used, and the type of shielding, and the capacitance rating, and such and so forth) I’ll certainly link to their website where you can find some additional information on that sort of stuff. But for me personally, when I'm shopping for cables or recommending cables to other people, I like to keep things pretty simple. In my opinion, you can't go too far wrong if you stick with a high-quality cable, that’s proven itself to be reliable, from an established brand, with a great reputation, that offers a solid warranty behind their products. Now, admittedly, there are a lot of different brands out there that make great quality products—that tick all those boxes and will definitely give you results that you're happy with. That said, where I really feel that EBS are differentiating themselves from a lot of the competition, and certainly the reason that I've started using EBS cables more and more in my own pedalboard builds, is because of their differences in design and usability. Now, for me, that means a couple of different things. EBS cables (right from their Original series through to their High Performance series) come in a number of different cable lengths. So not just in the ‘standard' patch cable length, but they come in 10cm, 18cm, 28cm, and 58cm variations. And, for me, that offers enough flexibility to pretty much put together any kind of pedalboard layout or design you have in mind—without resorting to building your own custom length cables or having custom cables built for you. The second (and most obvious) part of their design is just how slimline and compact their cables are. The reason I wanted to show you this pedalboard is because it's a deceptively complex setup. It’s not a massive pedalboard but there is a lot going on. I have 12 different stomp boxes here, I have a dedicated buffer, there’s a volume pedal, there’s a programmable loop switcher, and a tap tempo. Some of these pedals are running in parallel, some of them are plugged into the switcher down here, and everything is being patched into a patch bay at the back of the pedalboard. So, in short, there’s a lot of cables here! And I just don't think a pedalboard like this would have been possible if I wasn't using these ultra slimline cables by EBS. If you just take this loop switcher here, for example, we have an ‘input’ and an ‘output’ and then we have six individual loops. So, essentially, in the back of this switcher we have 14 different connections! And wiring something like this up on a pedalboard of this size just wouldn't have been possible with standard straight or right angled plugs (or even the more compact ‘pancake’ connectors that I've used on pedalboards in the past). Now, even if the pedalboard you're planning to use doesn't have some complex signal chain routing, and even if you're not using a compact programmable switcher like this one, I’ve certainly run into situations in the past where on smaller pedalboard builds these ultra slimline connectors have certainly saved me a lot of time and frustration. More and more, I'm encountering pedals that have multiple inputs and outputs. Maybe it's something like this buffer, maybe it's a stereo pedal, maybe it's got its own effects loop, or maybe it simply just has an expression pedal output. And where you have multiple connections within a close proximity, it can be really difficult with standard patch cables to get things to behave and to position things in the way that you want. And that leads me to probably the biggest endorsement I can give EBS cables. Having used these cables (and their Premium Gold cables in the past), I can certainly say that even if they hadn't sent me their High Performance cables to use as part of this pedalboard build, I certainly would have been using EBS cables anyway. Just because they're the best cables that I've found thus far to give me: 1) the quality I want, with 2) the compact form factor and usability that I'm looking for. So if you're looking for a high quality, ultra compact, pre-made cable, that means you don't have to build your own cables (or pay someone else to build custom cables for you), then I definitely recommend checking out either the Premium Gold series or these new High Performance cables by EBS—and I think you might just be pleasantly surprised. So that's my look at the brand new and updated High Performance cables by EBS. Well, that’s it for this video, I hope that you found it helpful. As always, please leave any questions, comments, thoughts, or feedback you might have in the comments section below. And for those of you wanting to check out a bit more information on the range of EBS cables, I will certainly link to their website in the description as well. If you're interested in checking out a full walkthrough of my studio pedalboard (once it's finished and finalized, of course) then please subscribe to the channel and click that bell icon to be notified of any future updates. And lastly, if you find yourself in a bit of a rut with your guitar playing and you're needing a bit more inspiration, then I would encourage you to head over to GuitarIQ.com to check out some of the books and educational resources I've prepared for you over there. That’s it from me, thanks for watching and I will see you in the next video! Comments are closed.
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