drz400 wrote:Fender stopped using solid for durabilty reasons
Are you sure about that? Empirical evidence would seem to dispute this claim.
Empirical evidence of what? I have worked on many amps with Solid Core that have snapped and also plenty that had cold solder joints around the solid core. Take a solid core wire and bend it until it breaks, do the same with stranded and tell me what happens... which would last longer? They used Solid core cause it was easy and back in the day cheaper and you didnt have to pre tin to avoid a loose strand. I used to be friends with someone who worked there back in the tweed days until he passed.
What are we talking here? Cryo cables made from high purity silver in solid core and stranded or are you comparing Silver stranded with Solid Copper? Since in that case I would take the Silver stranded.
Bottom line though, I doubt any of this matters in the build of a guitar amp where the speakers dont go past 5~10khz. I do like Teflon though.
I make my own wire from Cryo Silver Litz wire and wrap it myself
Last edited by drz400 on Fri Apr 13, 2007 5:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
Allynmey wrote:Solid core has also become more expensive. Probably due to the fact stranded is used more and solid is now special order by the manufacturers
drz400 wrote:Fender stopped using solid for durabilty reasons
Are you sure about that? Empirical evidence would seem to dispute this claim.
Empirical evidence of what? I have worked on many amps with Solid Core that have snapped and also plenty that had cold solder joints around the solid core. Take a solid core wire and bend it until it breaks, do the same with stranded and tell me what happens... which would last longer? They used Solid core cause it was easy and back in the day cheaper and you didnt have to pre tin to avoid a loose strand. I used to be friends with someone who worked there back in the tweed days until he passed.
I was referring to the thousands of "vintage" amps with solid-core wire that have never had a problem with wire breakage. IIRC, Fender switched around the time of the CBS takeover - there may be some pre-CBS amps with stranded wire, but I've never seen them. I cannot argue against your points - I was questioning the reason for the change. Perhaps the theoretical reliability goes up with a switch to stranded wire, but the effective reliability of a guitar amp does not seem to be materially affected. Once the wire is placed, are they bent much more? I'm curious - have you seen solid-core wire break that was NOT directly manipulated (like your bending example)?
BTW - I totally agree with your point about wire selection and freq. response. The copper wire in my computer seems to carry a LOT higher frequencies reliably.
Wife: How many amps do you need?
Me: Just one more...
mlp-mx6 wrote:
Are you sure about that? Empirical evidence would seem to dispute this claim.
Empirical evidence of what? I have worked on many amps with Solid Core that have snapped and also plenty that had cold solder joints around the solid core. Take a solid core wire and bend it until it breaks, do the same with stranded and tell me what happens... which would last longer? They used Solid core cause it was easy and back in the day cheaper and you didnt have to pre tin to avoid a loose strand. I used to be friends with someone who worked there back in the tweed days until he passed.
Once the wire is placed, are they bent much more? I'm curious - have you seen solid-core wire break that was NOT directly manipulated (like your bending example)?
BTW - I totally agree with your point about wire selection and freq. response. The copper wire in my computer seems to carry a LOT higher frequencies reliably.
Actually I have seen them broke at the tube socket for heaters and at Pots. Chassis do flex and sockets certainly do move. This really wouldnt be a concern for me though. I would use whatever sounded the best. I would thinkk that Solid would have more skin effect but there are arguments against stranded that the strands get corroded. Is it easy to find teflon solid? I wonder if Solid is more microphonic in higher gain circuits since it is rigid. I saw a Dumbel in person once and it was all solid but the wire looked like cheesey wire, not teflon for sure. Some silver solid 22 gauge with Teflon coating would be fun to try
