Fender Ribbon Cables

[mhuss]

I'm working on a Fender Blues Deluxe Reissue. (reissue? really?) Anyway, some of the wires of one of the ribbon cables that connect the main board to the tube PCB have broken off, so I need to reconnect these. The question - how do you strip one of these ribbon cables to expose bare wire? The only thing I can think of is very fiddly, cutting the ribbon end into into separate wires and stripping each individually.

I imagine they must have a dedicated fixture at Fender, or have them manufactured stripped and tinned, but that doesn't help the poor repair person...

[Jon Snell]

You have a choice;
Separate each wire about 3/8" ends and strip each leg separately.
Purchase a ribbon stripping tool of the correct size (out of the qiestion for the averave shop) or
Replace the cable with lengths of hook up wire of a suitable length, ore stripped and tinned.

These wires don't break on their own, they usually break due to mishandling.

[Mick Bailey]

Where these have been broken I've done it the long way using a scalpel. I have ribbon strippers, but they don't fit the wider pitch of Fender cables. Whenever I get these amps I run a bead of high temperature hot-melt along the PCB/cable junction as a precaution (so long as the cables are already in good condition). You never know how many times the cables have been flexed during previous repairs. I also suspect that the copper work-hardens in combos due to vibration and this makes the ends more fragile. Similar to how a soldered wire in automotive applications will fracture adjacent to the solder, yet a crimped connection will be OK.

[Delta362]

I typically place the ribbon on a block of wood. I take a razor blade and score the insulation on both sides for the length I want stripped. Next I slice down the length to be stripped on each side of the wires. Then I take small needle nose and pull the insulation from between the wires, in the direction of the length of the wire. It comes out clean for me.

[mhuss]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm just afraid fiddling around with the broken end will cause problems with the other end! I'll give it a shot.