Excess braided wire--cut to length or OK to leave?

[Ridgeback]

Greetings,
I'm doing a build with a new CS Pearly Gates HB. The vintage-style braided lead is nice and long of course. Ideally one would cut it to the exact length needed to do the install but is there any downside tone-wise or for noise or otherwise to NOT cut off the excess lead and just neatly coil / tuck it inside the control cavity (insuring that the ground wires don't touch the hot circuit)?

I'm thinking of down the road when inevitably me or someone else is pulling that pup out for their project and wishing there was more lead available. We've all had that happen where you are an inch short.

Wait, that didn't sound good...
Scott

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: Excess braided wire--cut to length or OK to leave?

I'm also paranoid about this so I leave mine long and un-cut (you started it.) I coil the excess and tape/tie it together.

 

[Darg1911]

Re: Excess braided wire--cut to length or OK to leave?

The vintage braid is high capacitance but you really are only talking a few inches extra at most. I try to leave some of the extra under the pickups in the pickup cavities so it looks neat in the control cavity. But really, nobody is going to see it so as long as you can make sure the shield doesn't touch one of the "hot" pot lugs, then it should be fine. If I do end up cutting, it's just a little bit and I make sure that there is still plenty of wire left for future installs or future buyers if I decide to sell.

 

[Ayrton]

Re: Excess braided wire--cut to length or OK to leave?

I don’t trim them, just coil the excess under the pickup

 

[Mincer]

Re: Excess braided wire--cut to length or OK to leave?

I don't trim them. This makes it easier to sell later if you ant to, or put it in another guitar.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Excess braided wire--cut to length or OK to leave?

Selling and the advertisement of 'full length cable' is the only advantage to leaving long.

If you want to cut, do it....otherwise if you leave it long pull it back into the pickup rout - the control cavity is no place to be having excess wire.

 

[Jeff_H]

Re: Excess braided wire--cut to length or OK to leave?

See, I learned something here. I've always coiled up the excess wire, taped it in the middle w/electrical tape so it looks like a small figure 8 and then tuck it behind one of the pots and the cavity wall. I never thought about tucking it up under the pickup. Brilliant.

 

[Ridgeback]

Re: Excess braided wire--cut to length or OK to leave?

Thanks all. I’ll leave it uncut.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Excess braided wire--cut to length or OK to leave?

Leave it long. It won't affect the tone at all. Some guitars don't have enough space under the pup for all the excess wire and it will interfere with the movement of the pup. There is usually plenty of room in the control cavity where it won't hurt anything. Yes the is a slight possibility of a short but if this is a possibility with your guitar, just put some shrink tubing around it (or wrap it with electrical tape...a less desirable option due to the sticky residue it leaves)

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Excess braided wire--cut to length or OK to leave?

Going off topic a bit, I also leave excess wire, but always have been a little paranoid about RF...

Isn't the coil of excess wire, the same thing as a radio antenna?

If so, is it not a problem because humbuckers reject the rf noise?

And if that is true, would it be a best practice to cut single coil leads down to minimal to avoid rf?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

 

[Gtrjunior]

Re: Excess braided wire--cut to length or OK to leave?

I’m far from a professional tech, and the tech I use when I can’t do something myself always recommends cutting the wires short.
And I get the logic....

However, two points...

1) longer wire is better for resale if you ever need to go that route.

2) we are realistically only talking about a couple of inches of cable in most cases.
I really don’t think it’s going to cause THAT much of an interference issue.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Excess braided wire--cut to length or OK to leave?

Going off topic a bit, I also leave excess wire, but always have been a little paranoid about RF...

Isn't the coil of excess wire, the same thing as a radio antenna?

If so, is it not a problem because humbuckers reject the rf noise?

And if that is true, would it be a best practice to cut single coil leads down to minimal to avoid rf?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

That’s why the lead is shielded, to reject noise.

 

[Masta' C]

Re: Excess braided wire--cut to length or OK to leave?

I generally don't trim them. As Ayrton said, you can coil the extra somewhere it won't touch other electronics

The extra bit of length doesn't make any audible difference to sound, noise, etc.