Twin Lead Wire

[bloxstompboxes]

Whenever I think of twin lead wire I always think of the old fashioned 300ohm, I think it was, antenna wire. But I don't know what else to call it. Anyway, since I have been building my first lot of pedals for my first pedal board, I have been looking for some wire to replace what I used on my power supply since some of them are too short and there are not enough wires for all the pedals. I originally used 18awg speaker wire which I know was overkill and it was a pain in the ass to solder to the plugs. It was all I had at the time. So I keep meaning to post here if anyone knows of a source for the wire I have been wanting to use. You know what I am talking about... wall wart wire. 24 awg twin lead/two lead wire. Well, last night I was at the in-laws and happened to mention that I had sold a couple more pedals. My father-in-law disappears for a minute and comes back with this:



It's what appears to be a 100ft roll of 24awg twin lead wire! I didn't even mention to him that I needed some. Turns out, he just got a new garage door opener and the installers reused the wire that was already there and gave him what came with the new one. Ain't in-laws great?!! I know they annoy us sometimes but mine have been way better than most I here about. Anyway, I may never use it all as it is. I might separate it or use it for the positive and ground wire for some pedals. Still, I would like to know if anyone knows of a source to get stuff like this as I haven't seen it on the usual sites we buy from.

[davent]

Googling 24awg zip cord gets the hits. eg.

http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/wrb-24/24-awg-red/black-auto-zip-cord/1.html

[duck_arse]

down here we would call similar (depending on size) "twin flex", "figure 8", "speaker cable", or "mains flex". or "bell wire" if it's really thin.

[bloxstompboxes]

Thanks Dave. They have some good deals on hookup wire too. Duck, I seem to remember hearing the term bell wire before. Thanks to both of you.

[canman]

Funny enough, I just used some of this stuff too, left over from a garage door opener install!  (I didn't use it for pedals, actually used it to build an auto top off for my reef tank...but still, cool coincidence  )

[GibsonGM]

Bell wire, and the thinner stuff is often just called "phone wire", as it's in phone cords...all over the place.  I use pcs. of that with my breadboard, and will wire up stuff with it once in a while.  Good stuff to have around! 

[PRR]

> twin lead --- 300 ohm

Dating yourself there.

> what else to call it

As Dave and Duck say: 'zip-cord' in the US, 'flex' in the UK (and affiliated areas); though 'flex' covers many types. (I'm reading old-old Wireless Worlds and 'flex' is usually silk-wrap.)

'Bell wire' is very often two separate wires twisted together. Fine for many uses but not good for plugs where the action will untwist the pair. There is also bell-wire which is inside a plastic sheath, like thermostat wire which has more (5 or 9) conductors. The problem with these "fixed in-the-wall install" cables is they are often solid conductors and won't take constant abuse; you supposed-to run the wire once, maybe fix it once or thrice, and then abandon it cuz the new furnace or bell needs different wires.

The garage-door wire is a good find and an excellent score. Must be a good opener-- solid conductor would work and be a penny cheaper.

#24 zip is commonly sold for speakers. It isn't real good for that (38 feet round-trip {19' cable} makes One Ohm which is a LOT of loss for a 4-8 Ohm speaker), and somewhat fragile, but fine for many uses.

Conversely, #14 THHN house-wire and PEX tubing is good for doing-up a tractor.

[bloxstompboxes]

> twin lead --- 300 ohm

Dating yourself there.

Hey! I'm only 37... almost 38. Lol. Yeah, we had to use what we called splitters back in the day when we rented a VCP to watch movies. They would change a twin lead 300ohm wire to 75ohm coax. Now that I think about it. they weren't really splitters at all.

[bloxstompboxes]

Shit. It is solid core wire. I didn't strip any of it until yesterday and was relying on my eyes to see what it was. Now that I have stripped some of it and have found it's not what I thought, I went ahead and ordered some of that zip cord. 25ft should be more than enough. I also ordered a few 100ft spools of their hookup wire. I probably should have went for the smaller rolls to start out, but they are only like $5.25 a roll so I figured why not.