Repair / Solder an Instrument Cable to a Connector

Repairing an instrument cable can be an easy task, and it saves up additional costs for getting a brand new cable. In this tutorial, let's follow the steps in repairing a faulty cable.

1. Get the necessary tools ready. Soldering tool, Wire Cutter/Scissors and a instrument cable connector.

2. Component view of the mono cable connector. If your old cable connector isn't reusable, you can get easily find this spare part in any instrument retailers / workshops. There're various types of connectors, view http://www.cardinalproaudio.com/main/instrume.htm to find what you really need.

3. An old faulty instrument cable. In our case, this is an instrument cable for acoustic guitar.

4. Cut a new end on the cable.

5. Slot in the connector screw nut onto the cable before the soldering process.

6. Strip of the outer most layer of the cable. Here we can see the exposed outer copper shield.

7. Twist the copper shield in one direction.

8. Strip off the inner sub-shield exposing the copper conductor. This is where your instrument sends signal to amplifiers.

9. Twist the copper conductor.

10. Tint the wires with solder.

11. A typical mono instrument cable will have two pins. One for the outer copper shield and one for the inner copper conductor. Solder the wires onto its respective pins.

12. Once you're done with the soldering, simply fix up the rest of the connector and there you have a repaired instrument cable ready to go again.