IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE, READ THIS!

FractalAudio said:
If you are one of those who refuses to read manuals or search for information at least read this:

99% OF THE TIME THE PROBLEM IS A CABLE OR CONNECTOR.

I used to have this on a sign in my office at my old job. Whenever a salesman or tech would come into my office all panicked I would point to the sign.

One day a sales technician came into my office and said "The System 5000 down at NOAA has failed. You gotta fly down there and fix it". I pointed to the sign. He says "No, they checked all the cables and connectors and they're sure something failed. They're getting telemetry errors". I pointed to the sign again.

A couple hours he comes back all sheepish and says "Uh, yeah, turns out someone ran over the deck cable with a forklift and didn't tell anyone. They replaced the cable and it's working fine now".
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Was installing an automated storage/refrigerator today with coworkers. The specialist wasn’t able to (program) get some barrier sensors to work. I suggested she swap the two cables….
 
I'll never forget this one outdoor gig where the PA wasn't putting out any sound on one side. I immediately suggested switching the cables where they plugged into the amp, (you know, to see if the sound switched to the other side) but all I got was, "We got this." The 2 "more knowledgeable" band members proceeded to dick around with the mixer settings, EQ's, etc. for 20 minutes, while the crowd gathered around, waiting for us to start.

I tried once again to interject my suggestion to no avail, but they eventually figured out it was indeed a bad cable. Some people...
 
I couldn't agree more.

I am a bit of a cable fanatic and try all kinds of cables and connectors - readymade and bulk.
I would also go an extra step to say that even the direction of the cable impacts the tone quite a bit. Depends on how the cable is manufactured and how electrons flow.

I have tested most brands of cables over the years - BTPA, Mogami, Canare, Lava, Sommer, Bullet, Klotz, Van Damme, etc., to name a few. Even a 70cm cable connected to your wireless pack can make a difference which was very surprising when I first noticed. I was shocked on how different the tone can be swapping out just a 70cm cable.
Just last week, I had major issues with my live tone where everything sounded over saturated and distorted with a new set of Sommer patch cables. My chain was Digitech Drop->FreqOut->FM9. I came back home and swapped the cable direction of the cables and viola.

This may not be so prominent with real amps but in the digital world cables make a huge difference.
 
I’m skeptical of the cable direction making a difference. It’s a conductor with some tiny capacitance is all, and it is unconcerned about polarity. Could have had bad connections at the plugs. Or jacks. Reconnecting most likely is what cleared whatever issue you were having. I agree on all other points though.
 
skolacki said:
I’m skeptical of the cable direction making a difference. It’s a conductor with some tiny capacitance is all, and it is unconcerned about polarity. Could have had bad connections at the plugs. Or jacks. Reconnecting most likely is what cleared whatever issue you were having. I agree on all other points though.
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I've been doing this for 15+ years and I have tested 100+ cables.
Some cables are more neutral than others but there is definitely a difference.

Try it yourself. Record the guitar tones to compare.
 
rlennyr said:
I've been doing this for 15+ years and I have tested 100+ cables.
Some cables are more neutral than others but there is definitely a difference.

Try it yourself. Record the guitar tones to compare.
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If the grounded shield is soldered to only one end. Otherwise it's nonsense. You do know that the signal goes both ways, right?
Cables really only make a difference in high impedance circuits.
 
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skolacki said:
I’m skeptical of the cable direction making a difference. It’s a conductor with some tiny capacitance is all, and it is unconcerned about polarity. Could have had bad connections at the plugs. Or jacks. Reconnecting most likely is what cleared whatever issue you were having. I agree on all other points though.
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I’m with you. Audio signals are AC current. Even if there were a preferred signal direction in a cable, your signal would be flowing in the wrong direction exactly half of the time, whichever direction you chose.
 
Greg Ferguson said:
Correct. You can not argue with physics.
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I can actually hear the difference when I plug in my Planet Waves cable (it was a gift) the wrong way. It has a telescoping shield from the amp end, surrounding hot and ground signal wires. The idea is that your guitar gound doesn't ride down the shield braid and pick up noise, which injects itself into the guitar's sound via the ground connection's resistance. It is a little less noisy in noise-prone environments when used properly. In a less noisy environment it makes far less difference.
 
Was at rehearsal a couple of weeks ago, walked a few feet to adjust something on the mixer, returned to my rig, and no sound. Checked all my cables, volume pedal - everything plugged in and set properly. Total mystery? Noticed after some more fruitless investigation that my cable was in suspiciously close proximity to my volume knob, with a small loop that had not been there prior to my circuitous trip to the mixer. And yup, the volume was at zero. The cable had managed to wrap around the volume knob and crank it all the way down through simple friction and at the risk of anthropomorphizing, a perverse sense of humor. Moral of the story, even when it's not the cable, it's the cable.
 
Joe Bfstplk said:
I can actually hear the difference when I plug in my Planet Waves cable (it was a gift) the wrong way. It has a telescoping shield from the amp end, surrounding hot and ground signal wires. The idea is that your guitar gound doesn't ride down the shield braid and pick up noise, which injects itself into the guitar's sound via the ground connection's resistance. It is a little less noisy in noise-prone environments when used properly. In a less noisy environment it makes far less difference.
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I’ve wondered about whether it would make a difference because any connection to ground should help it seems, but making it go to the end of the wire and back kind of negates the benefit it seems.
 
playmusic said:
Was at rehearsal a couple of weeks ago, walked a few feet to adjust something on the mixer, returned to my rig, and no sound. Checked all my cables, volume pedal - everything plugged in and set properly. Total mystery? Noticed after some more fruitless investigation that my cable was in suspiciously close proximity to my volume knob, with a small loop that had not been there prior to my circuitous trip to the mixer. And yup, the volume was at zero. The cable had managed to wrap around the volume knob and crank it all the way down through simple friction and at the risk of anthropomorphizing, a perverse sense of humor. Moral of the story, even when it's not the cable, it's the cable.
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Darn boa constrictor cables always attacking things…. Back when long coiled cables were the thing they’d always grab our pedals and drag them across the stage, or get tangled with something. It was like a Spinal Tap show.
 
Greg Ferguson said:
I’ve wondered about whether it would make a difference because any connection to ground should help it seems, but making it go to the end of the wire and back kind of negates the benefit it seems.
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That's the "backwards" connection.

The shield drains noise to the input ground while shielding the instrument ground from it. The guitar circuit technically includes the cable. Any noise picked up on the ground injects itself into the signal, as the amplifier amplifies the signal across its ground and hot at the input, and the guitar'sground rides on the resistance of the cable. From the amp input's pov, the ground noise picked up in the cable shielding of a standard coaxial cable is in series with the guitar signal....
 
2204JCM said:
If the grounded shield is soldered to only one end. Otherwise it's nonsense. You do know that the signal goes both ways, right?
Cables really only make a difference in high impedance circuits.
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Current flows in both directions no doubt. The way a cable is manufactured makes the difference. The resonant frequency changes.

Like I said I've done this for 15+ years and I can say this with 300% conviction that there is a difference.
You can record it and hear the samples yourselves.
You may not hear much of a difference in the analog world but you will definitely hear the difference in the digital world. You would either notice that some low mids are missing or there is over saturation along with other artifacts.

There is a theory that the direction of the winds in the shielding of the cable can have an effect on the capacitance of the cable, and some will talk about the direction in which the wire was drawn before it was twisted together.
 
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rlennyr said:
Current flows in both directions no doubt. The way a cable is manufactured makes the difference. The resonant frequency changes.

Like I said I've done this for 15+ years and I can say this with 300% conviction that there is a difference.
You can record it and hear the samples yourselves.
You may not hear much of a difference in the analog world but you will definitely hear the difference in the digital world. You would either notice that some low mids are missing or there is over saturation along with other artifacts.
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I'd be interested in hearing some comparison clips, well controlled, so the only difference is cable direction.

I'd also like to understand the scientific basis for the difference, the physics that makes that difference happen.

It also seems unlikely that the audio and instrument worlds would have missed this all these years, with all the attention that gets paid to cultivating awesome tones.
 
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