How to fix static in a Guitar cable

When your guitar cable, or any audio cable, creates static, it is usually a bad solder joint within the cable.

I will show you how I fix Guitar cables instead of buying new ones.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Soldering Iron
• Solder (60/40)
• Needle nose pliers
• Side cutters
• Razor blade (optional)

1. 
   Threaded connector

   Remove the connector housing. Most connectors a threaded.

2. 
   Pry back clamps

   Remove the cable stress clamp in order to remove the cable. Do not remove the threaded connector housing from the cable.

3. 
   Broken wires

   Inspect the soldered connections. In this case, the wires from the cable have broken off the connector. Movement of the cable makes and breaks the electrical connection, causing static.

4. 
   Pry back cable clamp

   Cut and remove the entire cable from the connector. First pry back the crimped cable clamp with your needle nose pliers. Most audio, or "coaxial" cables, have 2 conductors. Once removed, you must prepare the cable to resoldered back onto the cable connectors

5. 
   Bend cable to expose conductor

   Each conductor in a coaxial cable is surrounded by a insulator or sheathing. I gently score the outer insulator to the depth of the outer conductor with a razor blade. Be careful not to cut to deep or you will cut the outer conductor. This takes practice, but you probably have over 5 feet of guitar cord, so feel free to practice and do not cut your finger.

6. 
   Outer conductors gathered

   Pull off the outer insulator and gather the outer conductors together.

7. 
   Score and strip inner conductor

   Perform the same step for the inner conductor. Be careful!

8. 
   Prepared conductors

   Prepare the exposed conductors to be soldered by twisting them to form one large conductor. The inner conductor is to perfect length for 2 reasons:
   1.) To not touch the outer conductor
   2.) To reach the inner conductor solder point (as show ahead)

9. 

   Here I have trimmed the conductors to the proper length to solder onto the solder pads.

10. 
    Squeeze clamps closed

    Place the cable back into the cable clamp and compress the clamps with your needle nose pliers. This holds the conductors in place for soldering.

11. 
    Solder conductors

    Now solder each conductor to the outer and inner solder pads. Soldering takes practice. Allow your iron to get hot and heat up both the solder pad and the conductor. Once hot, slowly feed solder into connection. Be careful, the whole connector will get hot.

12. 
    Screw on connector housing

    Once the connector has cooled, connect the connector cover, plug in your cable and see if you have fixed it!

Tips & Warnings

• Soldering takes practice and is fun
• Your cord is long enough to make mistakes. Cut it and try again
• I use solder to repair many other electronics, so try and get good at it
• You don't necessarily need a razor blade. You can sometime strip wire with your side cutters if they are sharp enough. Mine are not sharp enough
• All of these tools can be bought at your local Radio Shack
• Solder and soldering irons get very hot. Do not burn yourself. I have done it too many time.
• Be careful when stripping wire with a razor blade. Do not cut yourself

Resources

• $7.84: An affordable Guitar/Instrument cable
• $16.98: An affordable Soldering Iron wikth solder included