To twist or not to twist?

[slimtriggers]

So, lately I've been twisting up the leads in my builds in an effort (mostly futile) to clean up the wiring.  I've read that twisting leads is not so good for wires carrying signal, but I haven't actually heard any ill effects of it.  Still sounds the same to me.

Should I not be twisting leads to pots, switches, ins/outs etc?  Should I only twist power and ground wires?  Any suggestions?

[jkokura]

Not I said the Jacob.

Except for battery clips.

Jacob

[gtr2]

http://www.muzique.com/news/spaghetti-wiring/

I've done it different ways.  For high gain builds like the chunk chunk I would not twist.

You really could say that running wires right next to the grounded enclosure would cause the same problems right?  I honestly don't think about it to much and I haven't had issues either way.

Josh

[k.rock!]

Don't twist audio wires. You want to keep those as short and "straight" as possible to ensure a cleaner signal. Of course, doing the contrary would probably not affect your tone in a HUGE way but keep in mind that the longer your wires, the more impedance you introduce to your signal.

Power and ground definitely should be twisted. These have opposite electrical fields which can cause hum, so by twisting them together you help your pedal be a little bit quieter. Also, try to route them away from your signal lines so that any hum introduced by the power wires are not transferred to your audio wires.


All of this crap sounds really theoretical and stuff and maybe some will say that it doesn't make a difference, but definitely use your ears. If you build a pedal and you hear noise, try twisting power/gnd and move them away from audio lines and see for yourself


Hope this helps!

-Kaleb

[slimtriggers]

Thanks for the replies.  Really good info!  I guess I'll stop twisting those wires now!  I'll work on making them shorter instead

[night-B]

I heard of people twisted ground wire around signal wire for a light "shielding".
I heard that making right angles in the wire can act as an antenna for RF...
There's so many school 

[bigmufffuzzwizz]

Sometimes I do the twist, sometimes not, but in fuzz pedals I have to say its hard for me to distinguish a small amount of added noise. I have always wondered about shielded wire though.