are short leads critical in stompboxes?

[FLchuckles]

hi- we all know it's desirable to have short leads in amps...particularly grid wires.

how critical is it in stomp boxes? does the enclosure itself provide some "shielding" against outside signal?

thank you

[Kipper4]

As far as I know and I'm still relatively new to stomps the enclosure does indeed act as a faraday cage and helps protect the circuit from outside signals.
Yes it is important to keep leads as short as possible too.
I'm sure someone more knowledagble will be along soon and give you more of the lowdown in technical langauge.
Happy building.

[Mark Hammer]

The gains used in a great many stompboxes, the likelihood that some sort of HF clock is involved, and the risk of assorted parasitic thingies, make neat leads important in getting good behaviour from one's pedals.  Short leads are not necessarily essential for that but long leads bring their own risks.  In an amp, there is usually sufficient space to keep things apart, but pedals nearly always migrate towards stuffing more things in cramped spaces.  Too many leads running every which way in too close proximity to each other and the rest of the circuit is just beging for trouble.

So, aim for keeping things appropriately separated.  If "short" is part of that, so be it.