Is there any difference in using braided, twisted, or solid wire?  What gauge is best?

I heard braided is good against interferance.. Don't suppose there is much of that in an effect pedal tho.. hmm?

Thanks

Ok, and I assume 24# on SmallBear's site refers to 24 gauge?

I'm pretty sure it's Belden wire.  Mouser has it.

Scott

At theoretical level, since the electrons move around the outside of the conductor, and the resistance of wire (due to the skin effect - how deep into the wire the electrons can travel..) is based on the ratio of wire the wire's diameter and the frequency of the signal... Where, skin effect is the inverse of the impendence - inductance really - of the wire itself... So, the more surface area the better... and stranded wire has more surface area than solid, the thicker the better..... Now, if you are moving a lot of electrons in one direction - heavy current - you would notice the inductance of the wire as heat... small wire - lots of heat, thick wire - less heat... all due to the depth of the electron's path as well as the amount of surface area of the conductor.....

As I said, this is theoretical, in reality for audio signals the impendence of wire is basically 0... However, in practice... I noticed that when I used really skinny solid wire - the sound I got from effects was very lo-fi - crud basically. And, in general, I have liked the tone better with using bigger and bigger - stranded (more surface area for the electrons) - wire and much shorter wire lengths. Now, I generally use 22 and 20 gauge wire on effects and 18 gauge wire where it makes sense (guitars...), and I am really happy with the tone.

One has to argue that the component leads are quite small in diameter, and are solid. However, generally the component leads are very short. If you breadboard a TS808 and never trim the leads, then compare a careful build using stranded wire (20,22,24 gauge...) you will hear the difference. Of course, solder-less connections and the breadboard itself are also contributors to bad tone as well....

So, in general, I can't say definitively if bigger wire is better (between 20-24 gauge wire...), but I can say that I don't like the sound of builds where I used solid wire and the wire lengths were more than 1"... stranded wire seems to work better for longer wire lengths (around 2-3").... And, Although harder to work with, 20 and 22 gauge wire is what I use; it's also very rugged...

That's my 2 cents.... YMMVIMOFWIW yada yada yada....  

I use a good wire and very flex ( OLD FLOPPY DISK wire or any IDE computer device wire )

is very wasy to solder and great results .......

cheers