What cables are you using?

[jps]

...they puked on my shoes and asked for a ride home.

Related to anyone we know here?

[JakeK]

Turns out the Wah pedal was the culprit. Didn't think they were as big of tone suckers as they are. Thanks to Dan for the suggestion and thanks to all for the feedback.

[jps]

Wah pedals, by nature, do drastic things to a guitar's tone. This one is pretty cool, I think.

http://www.ehx.com/products/crying-tone

[Folkie]

Jake,

Even though you've found the kink in your system, as it were, I would highly recommend Live Wire cables, as I've had nothing but good experiences with them. Like the much more expensive Monster and Mugami cables, they come with a lifetime warranty, but they're very affordable.

I discovered Live Wires when I bought my Janglebox JB2. I was having major problems fitting my cables into the input jack: lots of static and popping sounds. Steve Lasko told me to use a needle nose pliars to loosen the washer on the outside of the jack, but I was reluctant to do that. So I tried a Live Wire cable, which immediately fit snugly into the jack and, presto, no more noise! Since then, I've sworn by Live Wires. So far I've never needed to replace one, although the lifetime warranty is reassuring. As for differences in tone between different cables, if they exist, my ears aren't fine enough to hear them.

Robert

[sloop_john_b]

Wah pedals, by nature, do drastic things to a guitar's tone.

And not one of them a positive.

[johnallg]

Jake, can you solder?

http://procablesnsound.com/items/bulk-c ... detail.htm
http://procablesnsound.com/items/G-H-Co ... s/list.htm

Canare GS-6 is low capacitance cable that doesn't alter the high notes.

[bartyclue]

I use these. http://www.evidenceaudio.com/ on stage and in the studio. Can I tell a difference? Absolutely. Plus the more expensive cable is so much more durable than a cheaply built one.

[cjj]

I use these. http://www.evidenceaudio.com/ on stage and in the studio. Can I tell a difference? Absolutely. Plus the more expensive cable is so much more durable than a cheaply built one.

I'm glad you're happy with those, they're probably decent cables.

Now, looking at their website, we can see there's definitely a smattering of snake oil and pseudo-science there. For instance, the description of their "Reveal™" cable:

An extentsion of your pick-up windings plugged straight into your amplifier. Flexible, fast and lightweight.
Well, OK, pretty much any cable is that, or else you won't get any signal to your amp. And realistically, the wire used for your pickups may not really be the best transmission line to use for propagating a signal over some distance (I'll spare you the Mega-Techno-Nerd™ discussion on transmission lines ).

IGL SPiral Served Shield: Parallel conductor geometry minimizes strand interaction compared with braided shields
Ooh, that sounds good! But what does it mean? Well a spiral wrapped shield means that the shield wires are wrapped in a spiral and therefore they lie parallel to each other in a small section instead of overlapping like a braided shield will. Is this good? Well, it does tend to make a cable more flexible because the strands don't "interact" by having to slide over each other. It's also good because it's a lot cheaper to manufacture than a braided shield. And it's easier to assemble because it unwraps easily and doesn't have to be unbraided (so it cuts assembly costs).

Is there anything wrong with it? Well, at low frequencies such as audio, not really. It's absolutely no good for higher frequencies because it adds inductance to the cable and has far less shield effectiveness than a braid (at high frequencies). The shield also tends to "open up" when the cable is flexed (hey, that's because the strands don't interact!). It's hard to know what the added inductance will do without actual values (inductance per foot), but it will raise the impedance of the cable somewhat, probably not a huge deal at audio frequencies. It also has less tensile strength than a braided shield and so, the cable can be damaged more easily if it's pulled too hard. But, it can survive tight kinks better, which tend to shred a braided shield. Incidentally, the correct terminology is "serve shield," which means "spiral wrapped," "Spiral Served" isn't really correct.

Organic Insulation: Cotton wraps the condcutor with a lower dielectric constant than polymers, to preserve micro-dynamics and resolution of detail
Well, OK, it's true that cotton will have a lower dielectric constant than polymers, and this will lower the cable impedance (and maybe offset the higher impedance caused by the spiral wrapped shield). So this is good, right? Well, maybe. The biggest problem will probably be that the dielectric constant isn't going to be terribly constant. Humidity will be absorbed and change it, and then it'll dry out and change back. Don't let the ends fall into water! Unless of course they completely seal the cable ends. Will this be a big deal? Probably not, but still.

There's a fair amount more, but that's enough for now.

Anyway, yeah, they're probably fine cables, and probably work just great. Are they a lot better than other cables? Probably not. Obviously, people are happy with them, and that's great. I just posted this to point out some of the marketing hype these cable companies use...

[johnallg]

Good job debunking the "enhanced" descriptions, CJ.

The main factors to watch for with cables is quality of construction and capacitance per foot.

[jps]

Right on, CJ! I heard a real oops moment, by none other than Noel Lee of Monster Cable back in '87 at the first Stereophile Hi-Fi Show. Let's just say that Noel really put his foot in his mouth (or, better really, up his..........) when he was explaining some of his propriety technology to a guy at the show.

[gibsonlp]

Excellent explanation CJ!
I am glad you talked about microphonic issues as this is one big factor that not many people notice.
My rick-o-sound box has a big microphonic problem, when I have it plugged I can't step on it or move the cable too fast or it will "click" and "pop" in the amp.
I bought a long Canare GS6 cable a few years ago with with Neutrik plugs (silent plugs for the instrument end, regular, gold plated for the other end) and I am not looking back.

However - I am still looking for a way to build me a nice microphonic free rick-o-sound box... Is there any way to have a TRS connector on a coax? (that is - 2 leads with 1 shield coaxing them) or would it kill the whole coax idea and create cross talks between both leads?

[Seans]

I like the idea of the Evidence cables and looking on ebay they seem to do diy packages.

Gil, I'm in permanent Riko sound, simply one stereo lead and two mono leads carefully joined and heat shrunk together and I've had no problems whatsoever, no ''box of (no)tricks'' to get in the way etc and if I want two pups to one channel I just plug in the mono jack on the bass.

[blueflamerick]

I think it's snake oil too, unless you're using those cheapo cables that come with Chinese guitars. You might as well just coil up some tin foil and run it from your guitar to amp.

That said, I've been using Mogami cables for a few years, but only because I found 2 25 ft long cables in the $5 bargain bin at Guitar Center.

[johnallg]

Excellent explanation CJ!
I am glad you talked about microphonic issues as this is one big factor that not many people notice.
My rick-o-sound box has a big microphonic problem, when I have it plugged I can't step on it or move the cable too fast or it will "click" and "pop" in the amp.
I bought a long Canare GS6 cable a few years ago with with Neutrik plugs (silent plugs for the instrument end, regular, gold plated for the other end) and I am not looking back.

However - I am still looking for a way to build me a nice microphonic free rick-o-sound box... Is there any way to have a TRS connector on a coax? (that is - 2 leads with 1 shield coaxing them) or would it kill the whole coax idea and create cross talks between both leads?

Gil, I built a ROS box using Canare L-4E6S Star-Quad wire (mic cable - two twisted pairs twisted together then full braid shield) and used the twisted pairs as one lead with ground on the shield. This was the "stereo" cable, wired directly into the box at that end. Just keep it short as the L-4E6S Star-Quad has quite a bit more capacitance per foot than the GS-6.

[gibsonlp]

Thanks guys.

John - that's what I thought to do, I still have some spare L-4E6S that I could use for that.

Sean - I am not sure I follow you, are you saying that you simply have a stereo plug welded to 2 different coax cables? isn't it a bit heavy? can you upload a picture?
Thanks.