Each Death Valley Cable takes 56 separate steps

Wire inside plugs is triple-insulated by
hand; no automated machines are used

DVCC's most popular cable: A 20-foot guitar cable with one straight 1/4" TS plug and one angle 1/4" TS plug. All cables can be ordered in any length from inches to hundreds of feet (although 12 feet is the optimal length for Hi-Z cable).

You have a 1957 all-original hand-wired Strat and a great hand-wired tube

Just a few of the steps to assemble one DVCC super cable; note shield and center wires are hand twisted before assembly and tinned, eliminating stray wire "hairs." Even wires in expensive cables are not twisted or tinned. Plus, we're the only ones who meticulously cut and apply three tiny layers of shrink-tube insulation inside EACH jack (see pictures 5, 6 and 7 above).

amp. What do you use to connect the two? Don't trust the most critical part of your signal path to a cheesy mass-produced cable, made with $1 jacks and $2 worth of bulk cable.

Entirely handmade!
Now, you have a choice: Death Valley Cable Company makes guitar cables entirely by hand. Each cable takes 56 separate manufacturing steps to complete. Just like point-to-point wiring in a coveted vintage guitar amp, NOTHING beats handmade.

Only the finest materials
Every Death Valley Cable is made from the best components money can buy: G & H Show-Saver plugs and 20-gauge custom CBI cable. Time tested for long life and designed to provide the strongest, interference-free signal possible. No wacky jacks or faddish cable materials.

Our cables have perfectly soldered connections, with any exposed wire always tinned and then hand-insulated — THREE layers in the straight plugs (see photos to left). The middle layer is heat-shrink tubing, making wire shifting and shorts next to impossible. We flow solder backwards under the cable insulation to prevent furring.

Lead-tin solder used
There is a well-intentioned movement to remove lead from solder. After much soul-searching and experiments, we have decided to stick with lead-tin solder for the foreseeable future. Our cables seek to duplicate a vintage sound from vintage materials. Plus, substitute solders just don't work as well.

SOLID copper cores
DV cables use ONLY G & H Show-Saver plugs because they have a solid copper core and are the best-designed 1/4-inch TS plug in the world.

Except for silver (which is prohibitively expensive for most people), copper is the best conductor PERIOD. Nothing else even comes close — not steel, plated steel or some "secret" alloy." Look at any plug on the market. G & H is the ONLY ONE with a copper core.

Sure, some may have cool-looking plugs and ingenious wire-locking schemes, but they don't conduct electricity as well. The whole point of a plug is to conduct electricity efficiently, not lock the cable more securely or look trendy. Don't be fooled by claims that copper or gold plating works better. Nothing beats solid copper for the best signal transmission possible.

Takes a licking and keeps on ticking
But that's not the only reason that we use G & H plugs: They take a licking and keep on ticking. For a feature-by-feature comparison with other plugs, see the chart. But here's what the chart says in a nutshell: Other plugs are more cheaply made to maximize profits. G & H doesn't take manufacturing shortcuts that compromise quality. They make the best-designed, most rugged plug on the market.

CBI 20 AWG cable is state-of-the-art
Nothing insulates wire better than a thick 6mm synthetic rubber jacket. A couple millimeters of brightly colored vinyl (sound familiar?) does nothing to prevent nasty radio interference from infiltrating your cable. Or maybe you like listening to cab drivers grouse about fares in the middle of your shredding solo?

No? Didn't think so. That's why we use CBI Custom Cable (made by Belden). Just under the main insulation, it has a main conductive shield of stranded pure copper wire. For the hot center wire, a full #20 AWG of pure copper carries the signal with minimal loss, not the wimpy 24 or 26 AWG that other "big-name" cables have. Of course, the center core is stranded — not solid — for less resistance. It has a full 2.7 mm of high-grade polyethylene insulation separating the hot center from the shield.

But here's where CBI leaves the others behind: It has a semi-conductive layer between the hot wire's jacket and the spiral wrapped copper shield to virtually eliminate microphonics and extraneous noise. See, guitar pickups are coils of wire driven by a tiny TINY amount of electricity. When you introduce the same tiny signal into a cable filled with wire, you basically create another pickup!

Kills microphonics and extraneous noise dead
Ever shake a guitar cable when it's plugged into an amp and hear noises, especially a "thunk" when the cable slaps into something? Those are microphonics created by the cable acting like a pickup. And those microphonics are a HUGE problem, creating low-frequency rumbles and noise that buries mid-range and subtle bass passages.

The semi-conductive layer in the CBI cable prevents both extraneous noise and microphonics. Without it, the noise of someone dancing on the floor near your cable can be as loud as your guitar signal. But with this special layer of insulation, your cable is absolutely dead quiet. So quiet that many customers mistakenly think their new cable is dead when they first plug it into an amp or mixing board.

We twist it so you can hear the twang!
We hand twist both shield and hot wires before soldering, to stop wire furring before it starts. One microscopic metal hair can degrade your signal to almost nothing. Look at other cables. They're rarely twisted because they're made on machines. Lastly, we inspect EVERY finished cable with magnification to detect any furring. If furring is detected, we cut the plug off and redo the plug assembly.

Cable length
Yes, you can order any length cable you want between one foot and 20 feet. Just let us know by e-mail (at info@DeathValleyCableCompany.com) when you buy the cable. If you order a custom-length cable, do not assume that we have received your custom-length order until we acknowledge it.

How can I trust your cables?
You're a brand-new company
Hardly, I started making cables for myself and friends 20 years ago. Over the years, I tweaked the design and searched for the best materials, reading and researching everything I could about cable design and manufacture.

Cables I made 10 years ago — which are essentially the same design as the ones for sale here and on ebay — are still going strong. They outlasted scores of other brands. But that creates a business problem: They last so long that it's basically the last cable a customer will ever buy, so I'm running out of local customers. Friends and customers urged me to sell the cables on ebay and the Internet, so here I am.