I’ve mainly used the same three spools of wire I got sometimes in the later 80s, JAN surplus, white PTFE silver plated solid, in 18, 22, and 24 g. The 18 is almost gone, but I still have the “bass” speaker wire runs, about 30 feet each, that are braided from 6 length each, so if I got desperate, and wanted to unbraid it, I‘d be set for life. (My last stereo set up was tri-wired to the separate drivers. My current set up is run off the old midrange wires, just a twisted pair of the 22g. After I freak friends out with the rediculous bass that is coming from a 4.5 inch cone in a transmission line enclosure, I point to the thin wires connected to it, which often elicits more “whoas!“ than the tiny speaker.)
I used to use the 22 in pedals, (veroboard, so often there was a lot of wire in them), but I’ve been using 24g the past few years, and am much happier working with that.
From my perspective, solid wire breaks happen when the wire is nicked during insulation strip off. And as much as I love the PTFE insulation, it is much harder to strip. So you need good strippers, and making sure that the wire is not angled, but perpendicular to the cutters when you pull is also important. For larger projects, I use one of those auto strippers, where you set a stop for how much insulation gets pulled, and a pair of clamps grab the wire and pull it (at a perferct right angle), but that seems like overkill for the amount of wires in a pedal. With vinyl and other soft insulated larger gauge wires, I tend to use the wire cutter part of a small pair of needle nose, just pinching the insulation a bit and pulling; it rips off pretty cleanly, and I’m not getting close enough to the wire to mar it.
