Guitar cables

[cashcow]

Do you have any preferences as far as manufacturers go? Does the length of the cable effect the sound?

 

[jacco]

Yes, I use Vovox.
Length doesn't make an audible difference if the cable is high quality is my experience.

 

[UmpaHimself]

People always say that length makes a difference. I have never heard it but then again I am always hearing new things in my tone and tinkering. Any cable will produce sound, some better than others. It's always about weighing the cost to value for you personally. I spend about $45-$70 on a cable depending on what it is. I like it good, but it doesn't have to be the best $300 cable out there.

I like to buy from this guy. Makes great stuff. http://www.deathvalleycablecompany.com

 

[Dave_Mc]

Length makes a difference as the capacitance increases proportional to length. I suppose if you have sufficiently low capacitance cables you might not hear a difference, or if you're running a buffer or something like that, but it does technically make a difference.

I just use award session ones with van damme cable and neutrik jacks (they're about ?10-?15 for a 10ft one). I think it's worthwhile not using the bargain basement stuff, both from a tonal and noise point of view, but once you get above that into the decent quality ones I'm not sure it makes much difference. Or at least not anywhere near enough to justify the often massive increases in price. :lol: EDIT: I should also say that cost doesn't necessarily mean better, either- those ones I use are cheaper than the planet waves one I replaced with them, and better.

 

[felixcatus]

Do you have any preferences as far as manufacturers go?

Klotz (the name has a nice ring to it :wink: ).

 

[cashcow]

Klozt and Vovox are a little pricy. Any suggestions for American made? Is anything made in America anymore?

 

[Dave_Mc]

Yeah klotz is pretty nice, and not that dear in Europe (dearer in the USA). Bit rigid, though.

Van damme seems nice, too, and sommer, and neither is that expensive. I suspect they're better value in Europe as well, though.

I imagine there are people who'll custom make cables with name-brand cable in the USA (there are in Europe), obviously I'm not familiar with them, though. Maybe try some of the bigger USA-centric forums, like Harmony Central, TGP, UG and places like that?

 

[cashcow]

Sweetwater has the following

Planet Waves
Pro Co
Hosa
Fender
Monster
Mogami
Asterope

 

[jacco]

Mogami is very good

 

[marcusnieman]

Monster Cable
Planet Waves

 

[Dave_Mc]

Monster gets a bad rep, I think. Not sure there's anything wrong with them, just they get the rep of being very dear for little benefit over the bog standard stuff (I think- don't quote me on that!). I haven't tried them.

Don't much like Planet Waves, I didn't think mine sounded that good (noticed a noticeable improvement when I switched the the Van Dammes mentioned above), they were noisy and I think they have the rep on online forums of not being that reliable (though mine didn't actually break).

Haven't tried the others.

 

[jacco]

+1 on both comments

 

[marcusnieman]

Truth be told, I'm usually playing a strat in bar gigs with neon bar signs.... any cable noise is easily devoured by the pickup racket being made by the lights...... guess it doesn't matter that much to me.

 

[cashcow]

These might be for you, as well as myself :wink:

https://reverb.com/shop/merch?utm_source=premierguitar&utm_medium=display

 

[Dave_Mc]

Truth be told, I'm usually playing a strat in bar gigs with neon bar signs.... any cable noise is easily devoured by the pickup racket being made by the lights...... guess it doesn't matter that much to me.

Yeah :lol: I only play at home and I noticed weird random radio stations stopped coming from my amp when I stopped using the PW cables... :lol:

 

[Peter Mac]

Hi guys,

I've been through a few cables over the last 35 years and I keep on staying with only 3 brands of cable and 2 brands of plug. I keep replacing them because other musos steal them.

CABLE : Shielded jacket, single core - not for speaker boxes.
Canare 005 : Japan - optic+copper core - not too expensive, either VHQ
Klotz : Another high quality cable, German I think
Belden : USA - the Industry standard for over 40 years

PLUGS: 1/4" (6.5mm) Jack
Switchcraft : USA
Neutrik : Japan

Both these plugs are excellent. I've used Switchcraft only for touring, but lately (12 years) I've opted for the Nuetrilk. Black jacket and very sturdy.

Keep in mind that your cable/plug is just as important to the signal chain as your pickups. Why spend $400.00 on pickups only to lose the signal strength with a crappy chinese $10.00 cable.

Signal does deteriorate over the length of cable so the better the cable, the better the signal. I have 3 Canare/Neutrik set-ups : 12 foot (orange); 24 foot (blue) and 30 foot (white) and the signal strength is the same regardless of length. Canare jackets come in different colours other than black also.
Have fun
Peter

 

[rtblues]

Spectraflex "Fatso-Flex" are the ones I've settled on after others, even very expensive ones, failed. Love this cable! Noticeable tone improvement, and
very well made.

 

[Thomass12]

Length makes a difference as the capacitance increases proportional to length. I suppose if you have sufficiently low capacitance cables you might not hear a difference, or if you're running a buffer or something like that, but it does technically make a difference.

I just use award session ones with van damme cable and neutrik jacks (they're about ?10-?15 for a 10ft one). I think it's worthwhile not using the bargain basement stuff, both from a tonal and noise point of view rachat de credit immobilier, but once you get above that into the decent quality ones I'm not sure it makes much difference. Or at least not anywhere near enough to justify the often massive increases in price. :lol: EDIT: I should also say that cost doesn't necessarily mean better, either- those ones I use are cheaper than the planet waves one I replaced with them, and better.

You're absolutely right. You should never use cheap stuff if you want to have good sound.