Yep. Three types:
- guitar: two concentric conductors: a single center wire (connected to the tip of the jack plug) with a an outer shield wire (sleeve of the jack) that's wrapped around the inner. Of course with proper insulation and protection. Commonly the center wire conducts the signal and the outer wire is connected to ground and acts as a shield against magnetic (electrical) interference from outside the cable into the inner wire (google Faraday cage). Look for wire with as low capacitance as you can find: the higher the capacitance, the more it will interfere with your guitars signal (will get duller). Resistance isn't very important,
- xlr: three conductors: two center wires with a an outer shield wire that's wrapped around the two inner wires. What is called balanced operation: In the signal source (mic, DI, Axe-FX, mixing desk) the signal is split in two, one half is reversed in phase. Those two signals are sent through the cable, both receiving the same interference resulting in the same noise. At the receiving side, one of the signals is subtracted from the other, the noise is subtracted as well and cancels itself out. The third conductor is again a shield.
These are most used for microphones for their noise cancelling ability, that's why it's called microphone cable, but have many uses other than that. Usually when low noise is required, the signals are very weak (dynamic mics) or if signal has to be transported over longer distances.
There are also balanced cables with jack plugs: those jacks have three connections (TRS: Tip, ring, sleeve) and can also be used for stereo operation, although that's not ideal. Since the two wires are not shielded from eachother, only from the outside world, they can interfere with each other within the cable. But that's usually negligable.
- Speaker cables have two wires inside, placed side-by-side, not concentric (not shielded), usually thicker to accomodate the larger current that flows through them. Speaker cable is not shielded, so usage for anything other than speakers is not recommended and can result in serious noise. Look for the lowest resistance in these. Because of the higher current the capacitance is less important than the resistance.
Actually I think guitars would benefit greatly from balanced cables, but that would require a DI built in and of course the input of the amps have to be adapted (unbalancing the signal). And sometimes you just don't want a clean sound...
