Until recently, I had not considered trying out some of the more expensive guitar cables. I now realize that good cables do make a difference in what you hear coming out of your favorite amp. What are some other brands of "tried and true" guitar cables you folks can attest to? I put up a pic of my Timber Rattler Tele guitar which just fits with my recent cable purchase that I am very happy with.
Good cables make a difference.
- Thread starter strat54
- Start date
Bad cables make a difference. Once out of that realm (which certainly doesn't require $55 for a 10' cable?) the rest is marketing, confirmation bias, fear, etc. IMO.
So what are some brands of cables that you use? What is the "best bang for the buck"?
Jazzcaster21
Tele-Holic
Asterope Cables were life and tone changing for me.
They are expensive ($80 for 10ft) but so worth it. I had spent the majority of my playing career using middle of the road cables (I spent no more than $20 tops) until I finally realized that I needed to up my gear game. In addition to getting an isolated power supply for my pedal board, I also got 2 10ft Asteropes and never looked back.
https://www.asterope.com
They are expensive ($80 for 10ft) but so worth it. I had spent the majority of my playing career using middle of the road cables (I spent no more than $20 tops) until I finally realized that I needed to up my gear game. In addition to getting an isolated power supply for my pedal board, I also got 2 10ft Asteropes and never looked back.
https://www.asterope.com
Conquest. Boss. Roland.
I use Vovox cables but I think they're out of production. They were pretty pricey. It's rare that I find them as NOS for sale.
Thanks for the info. I will check the Asteropes out.
Vegetable Man
Tele-Meister
Make and repair your own. Bulk cable or cutting off/replacing ends is cheaper and you will know it was done correctly.
I get custom-made cables from red.com
JL_LI
Poster Extraordinaire
The best bang for the buck are cables that are well shielded to block RF and have ends that don’t fail if you trip or step on them. Anything that costs more than average should have great long term reliability. I’ve found that Mogami Gold cables are worth what they cost. The Music Zoo gave me a PRS cable with my CS ‘69 Stratocaster and in my experience, is of equivalent quality to Mogami Gold. Cheap costs less for reasons that go beyond marketing. Confirmation bias after a week or a month is meaningless. Confirmation bias after years isn’t bias. It’s confirmation of quality.
northernguitar
Poster Extraordinaire
Good cables don't need to cost an arm and a leg. There's as much snake oil in cable advertising as there was in gold-tipped RCA cables.
Jazzcaster21
Tele-Holic
If you get them please let me know what you think.Thanks for the info. I will check the Asteropes out.
Cables are one of the few things where "you get what you pay for" is very true.
I got some cheapies off Amazon and one of them failed in a month.
Would have been better off to save up my milk money and get one good one.
Live and learn. If you're lucky.
I got some cheapies off Amazon and one of them failed in a month.
Would have been better off to save up my milk money and get one good one.
Live and learn. If you're lucky.
This has always been a polarizing discussion...do the cables really matter?
The answer is a resounding yes, they do matter, but as has been said already, it only matters that you don't use bad cables. Can you hear a difference in a blind side-by-side test between a $120 cable and a $30 cable? Sure, a little, but not drastically so and if you weren't doing a direct comparison the cheaper cable would not have been objectionable to your ears. The only exception might be if you are strickly a finger-style acoustic player where that note seperation is more vital.
I have many different brands in the arsenal that get used and I don't remember a single time that I was disgusted by any tonal change between them. What has been more important to me is how they feel....do they drape well, coil up, overly stiff, etc.
I seem to grab the Ernie Ball, Fender Custom Shop, or the Mogami cables that I built the most, but I also use some very inexpensive cables by southcreek audio quite often...especially between the pedal board and amp. Monster and Pignose cables for speaker cabs.
For the money, the greatest bang for the buck for home use is the Southcreek Audio or building your own with Mogami cable.
In full disclosure, I have a new Rattlesnake cable sitting in my PO Box as I write this and maybe it changes my mind today, but I don't expect that will be the case. I expect it to be a good sounding cable that may be a little stiff, but durable enough to use playing out without worry which is why I ordered it.
The answer is a resounding yes, they do matter, but as has been said already, it only matters that you don't use bad cables. Can you hear a difference in a blind side-by-side test between a $120 cable and a $30 cable? Sure, a little, but not drastically so and if you weren't doing a direct comparison the cheaper cable would not have been objectionable to your ears. The only exception might be if you are strickly a finger-style acoustic player where that note seperation is more vital.
I have many different brands in the arsenal that get used and I don't remember a single time that I was disgusted by any tonal change between them. What has been more important to me is how they feel....do they drape well, coil up, overly stiff, etc.
I seem to grab the Ernie Ball, Fender Custom Shop, or the Mogami cables that I built the most, but I also use some very inexpensive cables by southcreek audio quite often...especially between the pedal board and amp. Monster and Pignose cables for speaker cabs.
For the money, the greatest bang for the buck for home use is the Southcreek Audio or building your own with Mogami cable.
In full disclosure, I have a new Rattlesnake cable sitting in my PO Box as I write this and maybe it changes my mind today, but I don't expect that will be the case. I expect it to be a good sounding cable that may be a little stiff, but durable enough to use playing out without worry which is why I ordered it.
radtz
Tele-Holic
Please send me your old ones. I could use a perfectly good cable or two.I just suck it up and buy a new Mogami Gold cable every year or so whether I need it or not
The cable for 2022 just arrived from Sweetwater a week ago
Timbresmith1
Friend of Leo's
The cables I bought 20 years ago are so good I haven’t needed to replace them.
douellette
TDPRI Member
I like Mogami Gold. I've had one issue out of several cables, and it was replaced at point of sale with no questions asked. If I don't ever have to buy new cables again, it's well worth the investment up front. Also, they sound better to me.
Definitely one of the reasons I buy Mogami and I get them from Sweetwater.
Never had an issue returning anything.
Sweetwater once cross shipped a brand new American Standard Tele when the one I bought came with a slight blemish in the finish. They said: "Just send one of them back". Been doing business with them ever since...
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