Cables

[pols080596]

Hey guys i am 13 and have been playing for about 2 years and since i got my first les paul ('09 Faded black studio) i have become quite the tone freak and i was wondering if you had any suggestions of any certain kind.



Keep Rockin!!
Noah

[ledlover01]

I use monster i really dont understand how it affects tone some people say it does so more power to them but i think monsters pretty reliable.

[peter679]

I've been using a custom brand called doctor souls(use there site of the same name) a bit more but they're awesome and they make custom colors etc..
Tell derrick , peter l from the hood sent ya.. maynot do anything but hey it's worth a shot (we grew up together)

[MrRhoads]

Cheap stuff is not the way to go.
Cheap stuff eat treble
I use planet waves circuit breaker and they´re goldplated

[Quill]

Hey, Noah. Nice to read that you are getting serious about your sound so early in your playing.

I played for years with "pretty good" cables and didn't really appreciate the difference that great cable can make until only recently. I've learned quite a bit more about what's available from looking at the Lava Cable website:

Lava Cable

I think I'm saving up for a Sommers Grindybeast - but check out the price of it! Idunno, I really have to convince myself that I deserve a cable that expensive first!

And if you haven't seen it, another poster going by "kernelofwisdom" started a terrific thread that compares a few different kinds:

Cord Comparison: Mogami v. PlanetWaves v. Fender v. Bargain

Have fun!

[axepilot]

Originally Posted by pols080596

Hey guys i am 13 and have been playing for about 2 years and since i got my first les paul ('09 Faded black studio) i have become quite the tone freak and i was wondering if you had any suggestions of any certain kind.



Keep Rockin!!
Noah

No offense, but don't go throwing away your money on high end cables just yet. What sort of amp are you playing? That figures in way before the "tone cable" equation does.

What are you doing with your playing? Home, studio, live?

You're just getting started. Don't buy into all of the internet "tone cable" BS. Just buy decent cables that hold together and play your heart out honing your chops. Your tastes as a player will mature with your skill and you will be better prepared to make decisions on your "tone gear".

[ryanmichael95]

I live really close to Guitar Center, so I stated using Monster Rock cables pretty much for the fact that I can drive up to GC and get them replaced at no cost if I needed to. Turns out, it doesn't matter because since I've gotten the first one, NONE have gone bad! Now I'm hooked on them, and they do make a postive contribution to my sound. I tried using a cheap-o cable recently to compare and it was unreal, the difference. Less bottom end, and the highs were toned down. Dynamics were much, much less. If you've got a good guitar w/good pups, and a good tube amp, Monsters will make a positive difference IMHO. And the lifetime warranty is nice, too.

[Quill]

It's a useful exercise to get four or six jacks of decent quality, about forty feet of shielded cable (Belden cable can be found in many electronics supply shops), some 60/40 solder and a soldering iron and try making your own. Soldering is an important skill for any guitarist who likes to plug in, and making some cables is a great way to start developing that skill. I learned a lot about the importance of clean, shiny solder joints when I first did this!

If you decide to try that, it's important not to mark the conductor at all - dings and dents are bad, and scratches are completely unacceptable, in any wire that is intended to carry any amount of current, including the very small voltages that make up the signal from your guitar. It makes sense, if you think about it: current is free negative charge that is trying to get away from itself in all directions, so of course it runs more along the outside of the conductor than through its centre - and a ding in the conductor's surface resists that flow.

And I am going to try to politely counter anyone who would discourage you from investigating high-end equipment of any kind based upon your experience and what you may or may not already have. Of course you shouldn't rush out and buy the high-end stuff - after thirty years of playing, I still can't buy a lot of this stuff - but it's important to know what the possibilities are, and as you investigate and learn more about these things, you may be able to pick and choose just a few really nice pieces. So you can hear everything and learn how to work it. You have a great guitar. One good amp and one (well, two) good cables and you are set.

What's more, your thirteen-year-old ears are probably as close to perfect as they are ever going to be. I expect you are hearing WAY more than I am, after all my years of playing loud gigs and working around power tools and so on - even though I've always taken care of my ears. Whether or not you know what to do with all that information you are taking in is a different question - and I'll bet you are working hard to sort that out, anyway.

And all that said, having fun with it all is the most important thing and worrying about whether your cord is good enough ain't much fun!

All the best!

[RichCI]

Depends on the rest of your gear and the sound you're going for. If you're playing through a little amp that doesn't sound that great to begin with, putting money into better cables would be better spent on saving up for a better amp.

Personally, I like George L's cables because they retain high frequencies better than anything else I've tried which suits my tastes. If you're going for some old school Jimmy Page or Jimi Hendrix sound, go with cheap cables - there were no fancy boutique cables back then and most of those guys were running long lengths just be able to move around large stages.

[Wolf Child]

Mogami

[Big_dawg]

i used to use van damn but with longer cables getting trodden on I was trashing them pretty quickly... Now using sommer spirit, but tougher, awesome sound but trying not to stand on it this time..!

[Sky]

Monster or Mogami

[itchybro]

Don't forget the other end of the cable and the ensuing signal processing plumbing. This stuff is the bomb. It's been on my pedal boards for the last 10 years. (If it's good enough for super anal Eric Johnson...)

Welcome To George L's

[Kaicho8888]

Well, I make my own cables..Belden coax. I have some 40 year old cable that I use all the time without any degredation. Avoid gold plating if you use to plug in and out like your guitar. They wear down quickly and, presto, you've got rust coroding the contacts. Most of it is hype. Make sure the coax is not physically crushed.

We've done test (for audio/PA systems like theaters, airports, stadiums) on all kinds of cables from cheap to expensive... a lot of the cheap ones were better than the big dollar ones...although the expensive ones are more consistent in their range of quality.

[itchybro]

Yup. I saw of these tests.

Experiments: Do Coat Hangers Sound As Good Monster Cables?

[Blues Rocker]

I agree with one poster, I wouldn't worry too much about your cable at this point. Many are overpriced and unless the whole system is top notch, I don't think it will make much difference anyway. Many rock classics were recorded with very basic cable, often the ones that came with the guitar from Fender or Gibson!

[BUDOKAI]

i use mogami, i like them better than monster

[RichCI]

Originally Posted by itchybro

Yup. I saw of these tests.

Experiments: Do Coat Hangers Sound As Good Monster Cables?

A high quality recording of smooth, trio, easy listening jazz was played (Piano, drums, bass). None of us had heard this group or CD before, therefore eliminating biases.

I think that's the problem right there. As guitar players, we are intimately familiar with how our guitars should sound and feel. In the tests described in the article, the test subjects were listening to a recording of music they weren't even vaguely familiar with, not playing musical instruments that they know like the backs of their hands. That's a big difference.

About a month ago, I bought a George L's patch cable kit and ended up with one more cable than I needed for my main rig so I swapped out a 1 foot long Rapco cable for a 6 inch George L's cable between a pedal and an amp I use at home and there was a significant difference. This was for a Blues Jr which, while a good amp, isn't exactly the best in the world. In fact, the difference was so great that even my girlfriend who was sitting on the sofa next to me said she heard the difference as well - and that's not some BS I just made up to support my point either; she heard it and, if she hadn't, she was of told me that I'm a fool for spending that kind of money on wire.

Some players hear it and some don't, either because their hearing isn't as acute or they're just not that into tone. Those players are probably the lucky ones because they don't throw around big bucks towards cables or waste their time discussing minutiae on guitar message boards about stuff that nobody else hears but themselves.

There can be a big difference between some gear and very little between others. The Rapco cable I described earlier is probably around 15 years old and was thrown in as a freebie with a rack system I bought back then. So, for all I know, the inside might be corroded a bit or who knows? I'm only vaguely familiar with the brand (I've heard of the name) and it could be either real junk or top of the line for all I know. But, what I can say with absolute certainty is that there was a significant difference after swapping in the new cable.