These were an unplanned purchase. Towards the end of March, I started having some new noise problems with my board; the kind that sounds like there’s a wire loose somewhere. I realised that I didn’t have any spares, so I ordered a whole pile of EBS flat patch cables in three different lengths.
Here’s how I got on with them.
They’re Expensive
Good cables are like good power supplies: they’re not cheap. But they are worth it.
Over the years, I’ve used the standard £2.99 ready-made patch cables. (They work, but they’re short). I’ve made my own using Planet Waves (now D’Addario) kits. (I recycled those to wire up my studio rack). Most recently, I’ve been using cables made from PedalPatch’s kits. (Even with a cable tester, I’ve had mixed results with these).
These EBS patch cables are quite the step-up, both in price and (so far!) in quality. They’re not in the Evidence Audio realm of expensive, but they’re certainly closer to that than the options I’ve used before.
They Sound Great
I swapped out all of the PedalPatch cables I’d previously made up, and I could hear the difference immediately. Noise problems? Gone. No more loose-cable sound. That’s a relief.
I want to say that they sound better overall, but I can’t swear to it. If you’re happy with your PedalPatch cables – or indeed, with any other kind of patch cables that you currently use – I wouldn’t buy these as an audio upgrade.
But there are other reasons to think about switching to these.
They’re Very Flexible
The cable that came with my PedalPatch kit is unusually stuff. That’s great if you want it to hold the one shape. I’m constantly swapping pedals in and out of my board, and I need cables that’ll cope with that.
These EBS flat patch cables are pretty much at the opposite end of the spectrum. I’ve found them to be incredibly flexible. It doesn’t matter where the jacks are on the pedals, these cables aren’t offering any resistance at all. They just flow really nicely.
Makes it an absolute breeze to swap pedals whenever I want.
They’re Great For Top-Jack Pedals
In recent years, it’s become fashionable to put the input and output jacks on the top edge of pedals, instead of on the sides. It’s great if you want to squeeze as many pedals as possible into the space available.
It’s a pain if your existing patch cables don’t have what they call low-profile plugs on the end. It’s also a pain if you’ve got stiff patch cables that have right-angled plugs on the end.
Very good news on this front. The EBS flat patch cables are nice and low profile. I’ve had zero trouble (so far!) with everything fitting into pedals with top jacks. And, because they’re flexible, I’ve had no trouble with them trying to push my pedals off the board either.
Final Thoughts
I’m delighted with these patch cables. I wish I’d bought them a lot sooner. They’ve been completely hassle-free (so far).
The only downside is that they’re pre-made, and therefore only come in fixed lengths. If you’re building a semi-permanent board, where you’ll route and secure all the cables properly, you might be better off going with the D’Addario kits, or just going all-in on the proper Evidence Audio stuff.
But if you need flexible patch cables for a bunch of pedals on the floor or on a temporary board, these are perfect.