Difference between speaker cable and instrument cable

[Mistercharlie]

Two related questions:

1 What's the difference between the speaker cable and jacks in my amp, and the cable I use to plug my guitar into the amp?

2 Where can I find a male-female speaker cable to hook my Champ up to the 12-inch speaker in my Princeton Reverb?

 

[BryMelvin]

The guage primarily. Te guitar cable is usually one conductor and a shield. It is too light gauge to use as a speaker cable for almost any guitar amp. Speaker cable is two conductor and a shield is uneccessary.

You can make the cable easily enough with 14 gauge zip cord and a phone jack and inline plug.
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/S16QQF1.5

 

[24 track]

guitar cable is designed to be shielded to remove interference as where Speaker cable is designed to handle electrical current to drive the speakers that is why 14 guage Zip cable can be used for speaker wire

 

[Oldgitplayer]

If you try and push say 50 watts of power through guitar or mic cable it could just melt. Speaker cable is designed for big amplified power, and guitar and mic cable is designed for pre-amp low power.

 

[Greenstreet]

Never, never use a guitar cable as a speaker cable.

They're two very different cables, with two very different geometries, and they're not interchangeable.

An instrument cable is only designed to carry a few thousandths of an amphere. A speaker is pulling a lot more juice.

A guitar cable used as a speaker cable will create unwanted capacitance due to the unequal hot wire (center conductor) and the ground wire (shield).

This creates an impedance mismatch between the amp and the speaker.

The impedance mismatch strains the amp, heats up the tubes and the transformer, and can do all types of damage to the transformer and other components in the amp.

People always mention how much the "pioneers" got right with the original amp and instrument designs, and they did, but using the same type of connector for both speaker cables and instrument cables is something they got wrong.

When I'm making cables, I always use a piece of red heat-shrink on speaker cables so they don't get mixed up with instrument cables.

 

[milocj]

Just to add a little bit, using a speaker cable from your guitar to amp will usually him like crazy and you'll know its the wrong cable immediately.

The jacks may or may not be the same. Most, if not all, modern amps use switching jacks on the input and main speaker output. The better old amps did the same. These reduce noise on the input when there isn't something plugged into an unused jack and can help prevent transformer damage if I speaker is accidentally unplugged. Your adaptor can be found at most guitar/audio stores and sometimes even at a place like Best Buy or Target...places that sell a lot of mp3 players and TVs/sound bars.

 

[ricknbaker]

You could damage your amp if you use an instrument cable as a speaker cable. And a speaker cable used in your guitar will hum like crazy.

In Germany, I guess Conrad might have the cable you need.

 

[Mistercharlie]

Conrad is a good idea. Can I use the same jacks though. Could I, for instance, pull the jacks from a busted patch cable and wire them onto a speaker cable?

Also, what about using two-core mains power cable? I've used it for hi-fi speaker in the past (!).

 

[zook]

Conrad is a good idea. Can I use the same jacks though. Could I, for instance, pull the jacks from a busted patch cable and wire them onto a speaker cable?

Also, what about using two-core mains power cable? I've used it for hi-fi speaker in the past (!).

Jacks can be used with either cable.

 

[daddyplaysbass]

I have a few cables I lost track of. Is there a way to "test" a cable to determine if it's an instrument or speaker cable? Volt/Ohm meter?

 

[jimash]

Guitar cables wrap the shielding, which also serves as the negative signal carrier, around the positive conductor. This works for the guitar , reducing noise.
However, in a speaker cable, there is considerable power going trough and the wrap around of the shielding causes higher impedance, heat buildup, and phasing issues between the two conductors at the speaker.
Basically blows up your amp eventually.

The test is to open a plug and look the cable. Two identical wires of different colors inside running parallel for the length of the wire is speaker wire.

 

[24 track]

I have seen the current from the back of a power amp actually drive a light bulb as a load, the average guitar cable is not capable of of this requirement and will or could burn out your ampvery rapidly

rule of thumb : Just Say No

 

[Mistercharlie]

The test is to open a plug and look the cable. Two identical wires of different colors inside running parallel for the length of the wire is speaker wire.

So two-core mains power cable is good then.

 

[PinewoodRo]

European two-core mains cable will work fine

 

[Anode100]

Never, never use a guitar cable as a speaker cable.

They're two very different cables, with two very different geometries, and they're not interchangeable.

An instrument cable is only designed to carry a few thousandths of an amphere. A speaker is pulling a lot more juice.

A guitar cable used as a speaker cable will create unwanted capacitance due to the unequal hot wire (center conductor) and the ground wire (shield).

This creates an impedance mismatch between the amp and the speaker.

The impedance mismatch strains the amp, heats up the tubes and the transformer, and can do all types of damage to the transformer and other components in the amp.

People always mention how much the "pioneers" got right with the original amp and instrument designs, and they did, but using the same type of connector for both speaker cables and instrument cables is something they got wrong.

When I'm making cables, I always use a piece of red heat-shrink on speaker cables so they don't get mixed up with instrument cables.

What's the word for a piece of wire designed for 'x' current tries to handle '2x' current, it becomes a fuse. Briefly...

 

[jimash]

So two-core mains power cable is good then.

Actually yes. We call it "Lamp cord". In any case the rules apply. Two conductors of equal length. The thicker the better. Mains power cable securely done up is fine.

And I like to designate the one with the barely perceptible ridges as "negative".

 

[reddesert]

Everyone is correct that there is a difference and that you shouldn't interchange them. However, if you mix them up for a few minutes, don't freak out. It actually takes a fair amount of power to damage an instrument cable. For example, the current rating of a 20 AWG wire is about 3 amps (this is a rough number because it depends on several other factors like the number of strands and the fact that it's inside an insulating jacket so can't dump as much heat). This means you're unlikely to burn it up with a small guitar amp right away, but you could with a cranked bass amp.