CUTTING DOWN A TONEARM CABLE

Only thing: De-solder the plug, chop at that end to the desired length, and re-solder the plug exactly as it was.  Don't chop in the middle. Not that you would necessarily do that, but...  There would be an "ideal length" if and only if you are targeting a certain capacitance that you want to be added by virtue of cable length.

@lohanimal

Please do your math:

First ID capacitance per unit of length of your tonearm wire, than figure out how much you’re "saving" by cutting.

These minuscule fractures are completely and entirely negligible in audio so I’d rather spend sometime with beer or watching dirty videos.

Unless it’s a Litz…

I am a robot with a soldering iron in a surface Mount world

Let's think this one through. First you said you have too much length. But the only reason given has nothing to do with length. Nothing about having to coil it up, no room for yards of cable, nothing like that. Your whole "reason" seems to be some vague fear of "something to do with capacitance." That is not a need. That is a feeling.

You asked if there is any reason not to. Sure. Plenty. Phono leads are real finicky. It is real easy to make one noisy, real hard to make one quiet. You might do everything perfect, beautiful solder joints, put it back together, monster hum. No idea why or where it came from. Back you come looking for advice from the same guys who failed to warn you in the first place. Not me. Other guys.

The best reason to not do it really is there is nothing to be gained. But plenty to be lost. Whatever your lead is worth now, guess how much less it will be worth when sold as "I cut it down because of something to do with capacitance but I know what I'm doing trust me." 

Thanks. Pass. Future value: nada. 

MC your a party pooper! :-) Take the fun out of a fart. LOL

I’ve fixed a lot of hums, that’s for sure. But I don’t run 10 different kinds of Tonearms either. I’m a SME guy from way back. I ran a lot of Grados too, they were known to make noise. I fixed them all unless there was a cart winding failure. When I would inspect 90% of the time it was a very tiny frayed tube wire or a single stray just close enough to cause problems but almost impossible to see.

A sniffer will find it, if you screw up any ways.. I’ll find the schemo on how to build one.. They work great.. Can work for a noisy tubes too. What about that? Just  need to be able to check your work..