I'm of the school that there's little to no difference sound wise between cables. The bigger difference I find is that more expensive cables tend to be more robust and last longer and for that reason I think it's worth spending a little more for a guitar cable. For stuff that stays plugged in and doesn't move around a lot like patch cords and the like -- there's no reason to spend a fortune on cabling. Obviously YMMV
Guitar Cable Revelation (For Me Anyway)
- Thread starter Robert H.
- Start date
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Ben Harmless
Poster Extraordinaire
Given their primary business, it's weird to me that Roland makes cables that are actually quite above average. I have a pile of their mic cables, because they're heavy duty, with high-quality connectors, and I feel like I can trust them - plus the show up on Guitar's Center's "Daily Pick" from time to time. Similarly, I tend to get Ernie Ball instrument cables in neat colors via Musician's Friend's "Stupid Deal of the Day." They have braided jackets, and I haven't looked at specs, but they certainly aren't hurting my tone any. I might give a Roland instrument cable a shot the next time I yank too hard on by Ernie Ball and throw it on the pile of things that I intend to solder back together but never seem to get around to...
chris m.
Doctor of Teleocity
Capacitance affects tone for longer cables, attenuating higher frequencies, especially the one going from your guitar to your amp or pedal board. But if you have even just a single buffered pedal on your board then the cable going from the pedal board to your amp is no longer a significant concern with regard to loss of highs due to cable capacitance.
People who favor bright, single coil guitars sometimes prefer the free low pass filter provided by a higher capacitance cable.
I also bought one of the "World's Best Cables" off of Amazon and like it a lot. I also had really good performance from low capacitance cables made by Spectraflex for over a decade. As others have noted the eventual failure point is typically where the cable is soldered to the jack.
People who favor bright, single coil guitars sometimes prefer the free low pass filter provided by a higher capacitance cable.
I also bought one of the "World's Best Cables" off of Amazon and like it a lot. I also had really good performance from low capacitance cables made by Spectraflex for over a decade. As others have noted the eventual failure point is typically where the cable is soldered to the jack.
Wire sure is directional.
XOXO,
Ken Fischer
Trainwreck Amplificators
Ken (RIP) was a smart guy. I read several interviews with him and even met him at a guitar show in the 80s. He claimed wire was made directional by the way it was drawn through the sizing die during manufacture. He said he could hear the difference.
I have often thought this was just a little 'inside joke' on his part to generate mystique about Trainwrecks and the advanced hypotheses of their iconoclastic creator. I'm pretty sure he knew better, but all he was doing was the same thing as Eddie Van Halen, Roger Mayer, and many others in the music biz have done over the years to throw copyists off their trail.
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the deal with the red & black is the way the cable is shielded. on a traditional cable the shield is also the guitar's signal return path. on the "directional" cable the guitar signal is on 2 wires and the shield is a different piece.... it does not carry any of the guitar signal. it is grounded at the black end, and not the at the red end... this is the way shielding is supposed to work... it intercepts the "cross talk" from extraneous signals and dumps them to ground instead mixing with the guitar signal. with the black plug at the amp, the proper shield path to ground is made. if you reverse it, it still works but you lose the benefit of the shield
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Blrfl
Friend of Leo's
I looked it up. The red end has some kind of silent disconnect feature. Mogami's cable is regular coax like most everything else.
Same. Only time I could ever tell a noticeable difference was with a free cable thrown in with a super cheap Chinese guitar kit; thinnest guitar cable I've ever seen. And even thin I couldnt tell a difference in tone, it was just a super noisy cable.
chris m.
Doctor of Teleocity
Take your guitar and plug it straight into your amp with a 3 or 5 foot cable. Then, without changing any settings, switch to a 20' cable. If your cables are not low capacitance, I think you'll probably hear an audible reduction in highs, unless your hearing is already damaged to the point where you can't hear those frequencies anymore. This is not that uncommon since you lose the high frequencies first....
If you use a 15' or shorter cable to your pedal board, and your pedal has at least one buffered pedal, ideally near the beginning of the pedal chain, then yes, you probably won't hear any significant difference between a generic cable and a low-capacitance cable. For example, a Boss TU-2 as the first pedal on your board (or first behind fuzz and wah) would do the trick.
thats because the capacitive charge in the cable and any induction will ground out through the shield at the amp, and not be sent through the signal chain. breaking the connection at the guitar will still make some noise, just not as much. that is my understanding of it when I researched it
as chris m. says above, the longer the cable, more capacitive effect it will have. there was a vid on the net long ago where a guy plugged in different length cables and you could really hear the difference. I noticed it particularly when I went wireless.... it's much brighter
Blrfl
Friend of Leo's
How much of what frequencies make it through the cable is measurable with a network analyzer. I used to have access to one and used it to tune some antennas I owned but never thought to check out any guitar cables.
tubeToaster
Tele-Meister
I’ve been wanting one for a while. I remember back in the early ‘70s they were cheap.
Fender 0990823001 Jimi Hendrix Voodoo Child Cable - Straight to Right Angle - 30 foot Purple
30' Coiled Guitar Patch Cable with 1 Angled and 1 Straight Connector - Purple
www.sweetwater.com 
arlum
Friend of Leo's
My favorite cables are made / were made by Vovox and yes .... they were directional and it made a difference.
Frisco 57
Tele-Afflicted
A bunch of years ago Monster Cables were the big deal, and Monster offering a lifetime guarantee on their cables. I bought two 10 footers and a 20 footer from GC.
Over time one of the 10' stated going bad so I emailed Monster for a repair or a replacement. The person insisted I needed the original sales receipt for warrantee replacement which was of coarse long gone. Oh GREAT!
That faulty 10 footer is now a home repaired 7 footer and still in use! I've still got the other 10 footer and the seldom used 20 footer, they're nice quality cables but, "Lifetime warrantee replacement?!" Yeah right, NOT!
Over time one of the 10' stated going bad so I emailed Monster for a repair or a replacement. The person insisted I needed the original sales receipt for warrantee replacement which was of coarse long gone. Oh GREAT!
That faulty 10 footer is now a home repaired 7 footer and still in use! I've still got the other 10 footer and the seldom used 20 footer, they're nice quality cables but, "Lifetime warrantee replacement?!" Yeah right, NOT!
not that it means much but I guess a guy could measure the capacitance with a Z-meter. maybe next time I'm bored I check a few
11 Gauge
Doctor of Teleocity
I typically have at least one Boss pedal on my one pedalboard, but the other pedalboard is typically all true bypass.
I typically use the all true bypass pedalboard with my Origin 20, so I'm probably turning the tilt control up a bit more than I realize.
I usually have either an OD-3 or a SD-1 on the other pedalboard, and that commonly gets used with either a SR or VR. It's become such a standard thing for me that I never realize that I'm probably turning the treble down a bit more on the amps because of it.
Vox and Ernie Ball make some good sounding and durable curly cue ones that I been using and been very happy with for a coupla years now. I gets ‘em off a SW and MF.
This has nothing to do with GAS and the relative value of the myriad of possible cable purchases on the internet today, but it's my cable story, and I feel like telling it.
When I was about 14 I had an old tube amp that the neighbor gave me. My buddy's big brother redid it (He must of been bored) so I never could remember what brand it was, but maybe it was a Kent, it was plywood for sure. I had that and a grey molded cable and my first electric, an Aim(e)s telecaster at my grandparent's house, while visiting them, in Columbus Nebraska.
I took my birthday or Christmas money or something and trotted down to Columbus Music and purchased a Whirlwind 1/2 coily:1/2 straight cable because I saw them in an ad in Guitar Player magazine, and didn't realize how silly the idea was, trotted back to my Grandparents house and plugged in my old guitar into my old amp with my new cable. It made such a big difference, I could hardly believe it.
It was like I had a new amp, it was so much louder.
I've been a strong believer in fat cables and tiny tube amps ever since.
1 cable, 1 guitar 1 amp = all the tonez + nowhere to hide.
When I was about 14 I had an old tube amp that the neighbor gave me. My buddy's big brother redid it (He must of been bored) so I never could remember what brand it was, but maybe it was a Kent, it was plywood for sure. I had that and a grey molded cable and my first electric, an Aim(e)s telecaster at my grandparent's house, while visiting them, in Columbus Nebraska.
I took my birthday or Christmas money or something and trotted down to Columbus Music and purchased a Whirlwind 1/2 coily:1/2 straight cable because I saw them in an ad in Guitar Player magazine, and didn't realize how silly the idea was, trotted back to my Grandparents house and plugged in my old guitar into my old amp with my new cable. It made such a big difference, I could hardly believe it.
It was like I had a new amp, it was so much louder.
I've been a strong believer in fat cables and tiny tube amps ever since.
1 cable, 1 guitar 1 amp = all the tonez + nowhere to hide.
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I bought that same Vox cable, but unfortunately it shorted out.
