I think that sums it up nicely. This can be especially true in a tube amp build.It's not about neatness vs. sloppiness. It's about how long the wires are and what they are next to.
stompbox wiring... messy vs. neat
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Paul Marossy
- Breadboard Brother
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dai h.
- Solder Soldier
yeah, awareness. See some stuff like that with amps. A sort of superficial neatness, where it looks neat on the surface (esp. to noobs) but has problems with hum or whatever. I find a lot of "beauty contest" remarks worthless such as implying some amp or effect, whatever is going to be poor because it has ribbon cable, or pCBs, etc., etc.
I've had some good laughs from the "what a great build" comments when someone posts a photo of a pedal with anally neat wiring. 
I agree with Soulsonic about twisting signal wires with a ground wire.
Apart from weakening the wire, hard right angle bends also weaken the insulation. This is why many manufacturers of insulated wire specify a minimum bending radius. This is usually no big deal in pedals, but it's a major consideration in valve (tube) amps where voltages are often pushing the limits of insulation. Sadly, the most ridiculous wiring often seems to be in amplifiers.
I agree with Soulsonic about twisting signal wires with a ground wire.
Apart from weakening the wire, hard right angle bends also weaken the insulation. This is why many manufacturers of insulated wire specify a minimum bending radius. This is usually no big deal in pedals, but it's a major consideration in valve (tube) amps where voltages are often pushing the limits of insulation. Sadly, the most ridiculous wiring often seems to be in amplifiers.
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chicago_mike
- Tube Twister
Just dont twist B+ and audio wires together. And for shielding, you can alwyas put audio wires in brass tubing and solder that to ground.
More for amps than pedals though.
More for amps than pedals though.
Skyline FX 2013
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JiM
- Diode Debunker
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That post got lost in the server "crash", i'm re-doing a lighter version.[/i]
What about wire wrapping ?
I've seen it used for vintage digital stuff only (and at school, too !), and a senior technician said to me that the EMI characteristics are indeed very good "as long as your wiring looks like a plate of spaghetti" !
If the wiring is "neat", you end up with lots of long lines acting as antennas, parallel busses getting crosstalk because of inter-wire capacitance ... On the contrary, messy wiring uses the most direct (i.e. shortest) path, mostly perpendicular crossing, and EMI radiation evens out across the board.
If properly done, you can expect several tens of MHz operating frequency, and a very good resistance to mechanical vibration (even for airborne systems standards !)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire_wrap
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EPFL_CRAY-II_2.jpg (messy wiring inside a Cray-II supercomputer)
http://www.stevechamberlin.com/cpu/2009 ... ap-photos/
What about wire wrapping ?
I've seen it used for vintage digital stuff only (and at school, too !), and a senior technician said to me that the EMI characteristics are indeed very good "as long as your wiring looks like a plate of spaghetti" !
If the wiring is "neat", you end up with lots of long lines acting as antennas, parallel busses getting crosstalk because of inter-wire capacitance ... On the contrary, messy wiring uses the most direct (i.e. shortest) path, mostly perpendicular crossing, and EMI radiation evens out across the board.
If properly done, you can expect several tens of MHz operating frequency, and a very good resistance to mechanical vibration (even for airborne systems standards !)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire_wrap
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EPFL_CRAY-II_2.jpg (messy wiring inside a Cray-II supercomputer)
http://www.stevechamberlin.com/cpu/2009 ... ap-photos/
I only give negative feedback.