What brand cable do you use?

[razoredge]

Which is what ? special copper or ? steel woven braid ?

why not fiber optic cables?

seriously I dont know, I just know 110 make my elbows hurt when I become a conductor and that my guitar cable makes horrible noises when its unpluged at the wrong end.

I heard people talk about poor quality wire in guitars themselves. I have no idea whats poor and whats good. It all looks amazingly light to me.

 

[schenkadere]

So a $39 Vox Class A is going to be inferior in tone reproduction to a $178 Zaolla Silverline Artist...in a loud, live setting? I don't know...according to that Guitar Player magazine, there isn't much of a difference for that price. Reading the descriptions in that article is ridiculous....as if it's a wine or beer tasting...a cord with a smoky flavor? What a bunch of pretentious bullshit.

 

[Meedleyx10]

Cable-tone is just as subjective as any kind of tone (also dependent on context), so I wouldn't agree with a blanket statement about one well-built cable being inferior to another well-built cable, but I do agree 110% about the differences being clear and noticeable. I don't see what's pretentious about that.

 

[schenkadere]

Cable-tone is just as subjective as any kind of tone (also dependent on context), so I wouldn't agree with a blanket statement about one well-built cable being inferior to another well-built cable, but I do agree 110% about the differences being clear and noticeable. I don't see what's pretentious about that.

"This cord dishes out a slightly smoky flavor, which is great for rockers seeking more buttery tones."

What, is he going to eat the fucking thing?


"The sumptuous blend of shimmer and warmth provides instant gratification, and it makes dense chords sound open and glorious."

And then the heavens opened.


"the LaGrange is a muscular-sounding cable..."

Maybe he'd like to date it.

Pretentious.

There is some good info in that article, but all that nonsense is over the top.

 

[CantoX]

I used like 4 diff. cables in my lifetimes as a guitarist and every single one of them had different tone qualities.

Proell cable = all around okay sound but a bit noisy
Fender California Cable = Shot the gain down to like zero and had almost not treble response
Fender Vintage Voltage = Boosted the gain but it's noisy and it seems as if it cuts sustain a little
Horizon speaker cable = Lowered the gain and made the tone more trebly

I think I'm going to go for an 18ft Dimarzio Cable for under $30 and try it out.

 

[Kenneth R.]

lmao at that article

Steve, here are some considerations:

SHAPE: A wider cable will have lower impedence. A shorter cable will have lower impedence. Think of impedence as something that really doesn't like electricity to flow through it. Impedence dampens the signal (weakens).

PURITY: Another consideration is the quality of the conductor itself. The material used can affect the sound too. Gold is more conductive than copper, for example. In engineering, we quantify this as conductance, which is related to the aforementioned impedence inversely.

There's also SHIELDING, which is the insulating rubber around the conductor. If your cable has inside it two wires side by side (one negative one positive, or one positive one grounded, etc) then you may have a problem with interference as it can act like an antenna at certain lengths (see shape). If it acts like an antenna, it interferes with other devices and other devices could interfere with it, messing up your signal. The most common is cell phone chirping and radio stations picking up on your wire. If it's coaxial (the two wires share an axis, with one as a cylinder shape around the other one) then you have a lot less interference given off. You also have to deal with more surface area on the conducting wires (especially the outer cylinder one) because of an effect of conductance called skin-depth. Imagine your wire is a river. If you observe any river, no matter how thin, wide, deep, or so on, you'll definitely notice that along the extreme edges (the shorelines) the water doesn't move as fast. It's a similar effect.

CONTACTS are what I'll label next, the actual soldering joints at the end of the wires. These should be strong to resist breakage and done with the right technique to ensure good conductance. Also under this category I'll put the quality of the tips. A lot of higher end cables have gold plated tips, most cheaper ones are nickel or some other less costly conductor.

and lastly, the obvious workmanship. Quality control and standards for margin of error, and such.

Fiber Optic and other high frequency wave guides really wouldn't help much cause the music spectrum is around 20hz to 20khz, while those babies operate in the Ghz (million vs thousand) frequency range.

 

[razoredge]

Isnt Ohm resistance ? This stuff can be checked with a multimeter.

I think all guitar cables are and have been coax

heavier gauge wire and sheilding sounds like the easy answer. Which is what my Whirlwind has.

Schenk - that is some sickingly funny shit, alot of that going on these days. Thats the beauty of my curly chord, as I run back and forth toward the amp and out, I get a wah effect.........

 

[Kenneth R.]

Ohm is resistance yes. Impedence is Z and includes the resistance and other factors.

 

[HackerX]

Biggest issue from my experience with any cable (as in, not just guitar cables) is the the quality of the join between the wire and the plug. If a cable is going to break, that tends to be where it happens. Also why higher quality cables tend to give some consideration to this area, such as protecting it from movement (e.g. a hard covering), or some system to enable better movement at the ends (e.g. The plastic flexi ends you see on cables)

Hence my 'fixed' fender cable, with both the ends wrapped in elec tape underneath the metal sheath.

 

[Kenneth R.]

Of course! There's also further quality items like that which I didn't touch on before - like flexibility, coilability (I'm making up that word), durability, and the ever important TRS connection (technically most are just TS, no stereo Ring)- what keeps the cable jack IN the guitar/amp and keeps it from falling out.

 

[CantoX]

I just bought this Horizon Studio Series cable.. it's pretty good. I think I'm going to keep it. It was only $20 for a 20ft cable too !

I also bought some Ultex Jazz III picks.. wow.. i've found a new favorite pick ! It's like a Jazz III but lots more grip on them ! Really like it !

Also, I tried a Mesa Boogie amplifier for the first time today.. it was an express edition.. I'm not impressed to say the least..

 

[razoredge]

Hey... Lets derail this to wireless... I actually dont even know if they are still used, I dont pay attention. I never tried one, they must effect tone... no ?

 

[TomAwesome]

Throughout my rig I have Planet Waves, DiMarzio, Evidence, and George L's. Based on my experience with them, my opinion is:

Evidence > DiMarzio > Planet Waves > George L's

I'm not entirely sure whether or not PW and GL should be switched, as I haven't done any direct comparison between the two. They're all good, though. As far as good cable that won't break the bank, I'd go DiMarzio. The fact that they're braided makes them a little bit of a pain as the cable between guitar and the pedal board or amp, though, so that's why I use PW there.

Hey... Lets derail this to wireless... I actually dont even know if they are still used, I dont pay attention. I never tried one, they must effect tone... no ?

They do tend to degrade tone, and they're a hell of a lot more expensive than cables. Some of them are pretty good, though. There are some digital wireless units now. I've heard that the X2 digital wireless systems (recently acquired by Line 6) are really fantastic, and the prices aren't too bad, either. I plan to get the X2 with the "pedal" receiver at some point.