Instrument cables

I use (cringe) Monster cables for all front of the amp work. While they are arguably no better/worse than any of the of the boutique cables, they do have a lifetime warranty, so GC has to replace them on demand ;^}
 
I found this interesting. From a premierguitar article:

Btw I do use lava blue demon cables-they are not expensive (compared to the big boys) but they are built really solid in the USA.

The Capacitance Wars and the “Sweet Spot”
Capacitance, measured in picofarads (pF), began emerging as a buzzword in the late ’90s, and rightly so. It’s probably the single most influential property that affects the sound of a cable. Bill Lawrence—who began designing pickups and guitars for the likes of Fender, Gibson, Peavey, and others in the 1950s, and who pioneered solderless cables—explains why. “The higher the capacitance of a cable, the less highs reach the amplifier. High-capacitance cables shift the resonance towards the lower frequencies, which dramatically alters tone. For example, Jimi Hendrix used a coiled cord with 3,000 pF [of capacitance]. This was the secret of Jimi’s tone: Shifting the resonance frequency below 2,000 Hz on his Strats has a similar effect to a midrange boost. When he recorded and needed a typical Strat sound for some tracks, Jimi switched to a short, low-capacitance cable.” (This also brings up a valuable corollary: The longer the cable, the greater the capacitance—which is why shorter cables always sound brighter.)

Among most manufacturers today, the consensus “sweet spot” for capacitance is between 20 and 30 pF per foot—a fraction of what Hendrix and his contemporaries had to wrangle. The reasoning comes from years of measurement, customer feedback, and plain old trial-and-error. “As I’ve designed my own cables, I’ve found that it’s really a balancing act,” says Lava Cable founder and CEO Mark Stoddard. “If you think of your guitar cable as a pipe—the lower the capacitance, the bigger the pipe—two things happen if you go too low: Your highs are out there longer, so the note won’t drop off in time and the guitar will sound shrill to most people. The other risk—and I learned this the hard way—is that the cable tends to be more microphonic. That’s literally because you can hear more.”
 
+1,000 for Death Valley, I have tried just about every cable, including Lava, and Death Valley, for the money is by far the best. I didn't notice any tone coloration when using 15ft or less, noise level was the lowest from the ones I tested and the quality is badass, hand built no doubt about it. Owner is a great person who will make them to length which I love. I also make my own cables, but he does such a great job for little price imho that I have been using him to custom my cables lol.
 
I own or have tried just about every cable out there. The really high end cables sound pretty similar, but there is a big sound difference between the lower end cables and I include Monster in with that segment.

I love and own 3 Lava Soar cables, but I've had to return one of them because of the braided cabling coming away from the end, but I have to say my favorite is the Mogami PLATINUM. The Mogami sounds just as good as the Lava and yet it will never have any of the issues the Lava cables do plus it has the Neutrik ® Silent Plug which is killer and works perfectly.

The only way you will know what you like is to try them all for yourself and come to your own conclusions.
 
Planet Waves do the trick for me. Seem really well built. Lifetime guarantee. Can't really go wrong with that. Pretty cheap too!
 
It's nice to find a reasoned discussion about this. The two themes that ring true for me are "bullet proof", and that above a certain cable quality you run into diminishing returns. The comment about too little capacitance making the signal overly bright is interesting, but I wonder how important it is when most of us are chopping the high and low ends of our signals.

I run magnetic and piezo separately, and mix them in the Axe-FX, which needs a stereo cable. So I make my own using a decent quality mic cable, with Neutriks at both ends. One's a right angled plug, which sits nicely against the guitar body when the cable passes behind the strap.
 
I use Proel with Neutrik jacks for my instrument. I A/B with it against a Planet Waves with both a guitar and bass. WOW, what a difference in the low frequencies,

Proel | Esoteric Series

My patch and cab cables are home made from George L. I just buy a reel of cable and the connecters. Cut the end straight, shove in the cable to the jack and tighten a grub screw. Hey presto!

George L's Prepackaged Cables

I buy them from Soundsgreat Music

Welcome to Sounds Great Music
 
Matt Steele said:
The only way you will know what you like is to try them all for yourself and come to your own conclusions.
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That'll not tell you WHY you like one or another. The much better way is to take a note of how much total capacitance you like your cable to provide (when you find one you like, multiply the cable's length by the cable's pF/f) and then you can go shopping different lenghts and brands and have them all sound the way you like ;)

Roland said:
The comment about too little capacitance making the signal overly bright is interesting, but I wonder how important it is when most of us are chopping the high and low ends of our signals.
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It is VERY important. It's not just about more or less top end. It's an extremely resonant filter, so you shift a great, big peak around the upper midrange area. It's not the highs, but that resonant peak shifting from e.g. 3 to 4kHz. BIG difference 8) The effect does depend on pickups etc though (active pickups not being affected by cable at all).
 
Whatever is in the For Sale bin. I'm not a Pro, so I'm not sure I could really tell the difference.
 
FYI... Not trying to diss the Planet Waves users here but... The Planet Waves cable I have is junk. It's a very nice looking cable, but it's not even close to the audio quality of my higher end cables. There is a HUGE difference in the audio quality. Not recommended what so ever.
 
Trazan said:
How would you describe this difference in "audio quality"?
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Easy. One literally sounds as if you put a blanket over your speakers and the other does not. It's really that drastic.

It's funny actually when I realized how drastic the sound can be simply from cables. On another forum a member put up two different recordings and asked people to guess what changed in the signal chain. People were guessing crazy things? Different pickups? etc... and when he let the cat out of the bag that the only difference was the cables he was using, people were stunned, (since it was such a drastic difference). So was I. At first, I didn't believe it until I ordered one of the cables he suggested. It was the difference between night and day.

Just found the link to the thread discussing this very issue for you guys.

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/backline/692621-blind-shootout-will-stun-you.html

Here's the reveal post...

Well... one more vote, but I'm not going to be an jerk and make you guys wait any longer

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ermz
Pickup selector Neck - Both - Bridge? Altering the input impedance of the DI?
If you're thinking that the tone is as drastic as a pickup change on your monitoring system, that's pretty impressive, and even more-so a reason to take heed to what's going on.

When you change cable it also alters impedance, in a very positive way in this case.

What's interesting is that your second answer was partially correct, but not the intended direct result of the thing in the chain that was swapped!

Actually, when I changed cable in my rack, there was about twice as much high end coming from my headphones; I almost shit myself. I'm about to pop the Opals on and hear the difference with them (and I was using Mogami Cable for them!)

Derpsicle is the winner here; these are all with different cable...

...so any asshole who tells you that cable changes don't make a difference is deaf or so old that they have no hearing capacity left

Here are the results:

a. Lava Soar Instrument Cable/Gepco X-Band XLR or TRS Cable for the entire rig
b. Lava Soar Instrument Cable/generic XLR cable
c. Monster Rock 500 Instrument Cable/generic XLR cable

If anyone would like to direct Monster Cable company to this shootout, perhaps they can try to bribe me with a cash ransom to have this thread deleted before everyone who wants to buy their cables see it

Anyone who is interested in purchasing the cable, it is quite affordable in my mind, and available from www.lavacable.com

The owner, Mark Stoddard, is one hell of a businessman when it comes to customer service, and a very nice fellow.

The moral of this story, is getting better cables; They matter a lot, and in A/B phase reversed reamp tests, speaker cable matters too in the lows and highs especially. I did those tests a week or two ago, but can't share the files because the DIs used were unreleased material

Here is another post by a really good up and coming producer in the same thread after the reveal...

Jesus. TBH I'm partially offended that cables are able to make that much difference. Especially if overpriced units like Monster cables pull such horrible results.

The difference is enormous. Compared to A, C sounds like someone has cocked a wah mid-way in the signal chain and left it there.
 
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Matt Steele said:
Easy. One literally sounds as if you put a blanket over your speakers and the other does not. It's really that drastic.
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Then that cable has more capacitance than you desire (or it is faulty). However, one can not say that one cable sounds better than another in this context. It's completely dependant on guitar, amp, preferences etc etc. What you find bad might be perfect for the other guy.

Again, it's just capacitance. Get a cheap (not crap) one with the same capacitance as your expensive one. They'll sound the same ;)
 
Trazan said:
Then that cable has more capacitance than you desire (or it is faulty). However, one can not say that one cable sounds better than another in this context. It's completely dependant on guitar, amp, preferences etc etc. What you find bad might be perfect for the other guy.

Again, it's just capacitance. Get a cheap (not crap) one with the same capacitance as your expensive one. They'll sound the same ;)
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They not only sound completely different and more/less congested, but they "feel" completely different. If you like the dull and congested sound of cheap cables, great.

As I already stated, don't take my word for it. Buy or try out all the different cables you can and find out what works best for you. I did.
 
Matt Steele said:
I own or have tried just about every cable out there. The really high end cables sound pretty similar, but there is a big sound difference between the lower end cables and I include Monster in with that segment.

I love and own 3 Lava Soar cables, but I've had to return one of them because of the braided cabling coming away from the end, but I have to say my favorite is the Mogami PLATINUM. The Mogami sounds just as good as the Lava and yet it will never have any of the issues the Lava cables do plus it has the Neutrik ® Silent Plug which is killer and works perfectly.

The only way you will know what you like is to try them all for yourself and come to your own conclusions.
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This isn't a response against you personally, this is to add another side to an experience with that Lovely owner of Lava Cables, I mean that sarcastically.

I tried Lava cables as well. I had him make me one for my wireless unit, he told me he would have it made in a few days prior to me ordering when I asked him about any wait time, it took him 2 weeks to put it in the mail!!!!!! I wrote him about it, and he acted as if he was in a haze, very un-professional. But then, I get the cable and it doesn't work correctly. So I write him, and he sends me another which took 1 month to arrive, "my goodness that dude was slow on all accounts" and the 2nd one did not work correctly, so I told him, I will send you both of these junk cables back, I want a refund, he was mouthy about it with major attitude, the guy is a clown, and my point I suppose is, if you're lucky to get one that works then he's great "if you catch him in a mood to actually ship your cable quicker than umm 2 weeks or a month" then great for you, but YMMV greatly with that guy, i'd rather purchase cheap Guitar center cables than ever deal with his meat head mentality. You want custom length or custom cables, go Death Valley, Irv has been around a long time, and is a true gentleman who will not "string you along like the lava guy"
 
it depends what you are aiming for. low capacitance isn't necessarily "better" than high, or vice versa.
modern hd sounds are what thing, but if you are trying to sound like hank marvin you may want to use something more like what was being using back in the day. some cables made today are intended to be more "retro" in their sound -- personal preference plays a big part in this.
not difficult to understand that.
 
Once I gathered a bunch of cables to test myself what are the differences. I also tested some cables built by myself. The test aimed sound and noise. To my surprising there was more that 12dB difference in noise between the worse and the best cable. The cable that I built for myself a few years ago was the worse on both, highest noise and the most tone-sucking. For guitars I kept the Vovox, but my bass player preferred Elixir. These two had the lowest noise.
 
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