Does anyone have any recommendations for where to buy jacks and cables of various colours to make DIY patch cables?
Taydar only seem to do some style of 1/4" jack (not sure of the quality?) for $0.20 each but everywhere else seems very expensive.
I’d like patch cables in several colours to aid with patching but so far I can only find black cable in any decent quantity.
Any help is appreciated 
20chars abcde
Hi Adam, I cannot help you on coloured cables but here is what I do.
I get a 6m of guitar cable £3.76 (free postage & I buy 3 at a time so it works out at 57p/m and cut it to patch cable sizes with a bit of coloured heat shrink on both ends.
Plugs from ebay - the ‘gold’ effect ones are good (IMO) so about 50p a go.
the black plastic ones are cr@p ! - the tread strips easily and when you unplug them the sleeve come off.
hope that helps
John
IMHO, making patchcables is not worth it. Coloured patch cables are available for dirt cheap (I get mine here: the sssnake SK369M-06 Patchcable – Thomann Nederland). You can’t beat those prices if you factor in the effort to make them.
“Exclusively made for thomann” it says, so not available from US suppliers.
Nearest equivalent I can find here is this:
at more than twice the price (though for 8 cables rather than 6). Actually the 3 foot version
is slightly cheaper than the 1.5 foot one.
Yeah that’s usually bollocks for these low-end products. I know at least one other major European music store which sells the exact same cables, also “exclusively made” for them (eg https://www.bax-shop.nl/pro-audio-patchkabels/devine-patch6363-rb-50cm-patchkabel-6-3-mm-mono-6-pack-50-cm).
My point is, you can find them for pretty cheap 
My point is, I haven’t found them anywhere near as cheap in the US.
The plugs look a bit different. Not that your synth will notice, of course.
I will say that your synth is only as strong as its patch cables. If you can spend just a ‘little’ more you will be infinitely happier. I went down the “bargain from ebay” route and they were useless. In fact, they were WORSE than useless because I thought I was having problems with my modules and it turned out the problem were in the cables themselves.
Yeah and packaging will differ too, but it’s all the same stuff under the hood, probably coming from the same Chinese factory.
I’m surprised they aren’t available in the US. I had a look at guitar centre, the only us music store I know, but could only find the trs version Livewire TRS-TRS Straight-Straight Patch Cable 8-Pack 17 in. | Guitar Center
This is what i do for cheapo patch cables. The price per cable works out to be $2.12 £1.61. 1 meter each, they come with extra shielding that binds them together that you can just remove. Different colors to boot.
They are intended as cables for mixers, but its the same thing, just packaged differently. Just be a bit careful removing the hose, and you’ll be good to go.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IACDT5I/
Mentioned in the “Cheap Component Search” thread that almost always gets lost in a pile of other threads.
I took the liberty of moving that topic to the FAQ category.
