Leads...

Here's some pics and a few words about the different leads that I use. They all have their advantages. None of them are better or worse than the others, but some are a better choice in some situations. Sometimes, and this is a good life lesson you can have for free, you have no choice at all. 

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Gibson-Style Braided

So as you can see the Gibson-Style braided (looking forward to getting my cease-and-desist from Gibson) features a 22 gauge cloth insulated lead with a braided ground that also shields the lead wire. To me, this is probably the most attractive wire when used properly and provides very good shielding to the lead wire. A few drawbacks are that the grounding sleeve is exposed, there's only one conductor, and it's probably the most difficult to install. 

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Fender-Style Cloth

Here's the vintage cloth covered wire that Fender and a few other builders used up until the late 60s. This looks nice, is easy to use and works as advertised. It's not shielded on it's own. I guess that's why all those Fenders from the 50s and 60s sound so bad. Depending on the pickup, the black lead is usually the start of the coil and also the ground wire for the pickup. On a Tele bridge or neck the black would usually ground the baseplate or cover respectively. A strat pickup for example doesn't have anything that's grounded so the black is usually the coil start and the white or yellow is the coil end. 

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Modern 2-Conductor/4-Conductor

I'm doing these two together because they're basically the same thing except, you guessed it, the 4-conductor has two more wires. I wouldn't call this wire attractive, but it's probably the most utilitarian with an isolated ground and full shielding. The only thing that would make use difficult is that the individual lead wires are 28 gauge and pretty small if you've got sausage fingers and BIG FAT HANDS.