Cable Length

Defender

I'm about to buy a Planet Waves American Stage cable but can't decide the lenght. I need "right to right" but that one has either 10' or 20'. Would there be a signal difference between these two? I need it for both gigging and recording.

thermionic

Phillip J. McNight made an interesting YouTube video a couple of days ago asking why so many manufacturers sell 18 foot cables. His explanation was that 18 foot is about the longest you can get away with before treble loss becomes noticeable. He demoed 18 & 25 foot cables and even on my iMac speakers the difference was clear. It was also convincing how the buffer in a humble Boss pedal fixes the treble loss - as long as the cable from the guitar to the pedal is 18 feet or less.

ICBM

Buy both anyway - regardless of having a lifetime warranty, a warranty doesn't fix a broken cable at a gig. If you get one of each you can have the choice.

There is an audible difference, but it's pretty subtle. The physical length you need on stage is more important - 10' can be surprisingly short if you want to move around a bit, especially if you do as you should and run the lead through your guitar strap... that takes out up to a couple of feet of 'usable' length.

Defender

Thank you both for your comments.

munckee

ICBM said:

Buy both anyway - regardless of having a lifetime warranty, a warranty doesn't fix a broken cable at a gig. If you get one of each you can have the choice.

There is an audible difference, but it's pretty subtle. The physical length you need on stage is more important - 10' can be surprisingly short if you want to move around a bit, especially if you do as you should and run the lead through your guitar strap... that takes out up to a couple of feet of 'usable' length.

After my first jam I bought 15 foot as 10 is not long enough outside of the house.  

guitarfishbay

Cable length matters if you use passive pickups, active pickups are buffered at source so don’t really get impacted in the same way.

For live use you need to think in terms of practicality. For recording I use a 2m cable. The longer the cable the more treble and signal you lose.

thegummy

Am I the only one who deliberately uses a longer cable to warm up the signal?

Keefy

thegummy said:

Am I the only one who deliberately uses a longer cable to warm up the signal?

Yes. Yes you are.

Keefy

Defender said:

I'm about to buy a Planet Waves American Stage cable but can't decide the lenght. I need "right to right" but that one has either 10' or 20'. Would there be a signal difference between these two? I need it for both gigging and recording.

ICBM said:

Buy both anyway - regardless of having a lifetime warranty, a warranty doesn't fix a broken cable at a gig. If you get one of each you can have the choice.

As well as getting both, buy another one when you have a few bob spare. You can never have too many spare cables. I label mine with the length so that I can (a) quickly select the right cable for the job, and (b) pounce on thieving band members who 'accidentally' put my cables in their bags.

ArchtopDave

Keefy said:

Defender said:

I'm about to buy a Planet Waves American Stage cable but can't decide the lenght. I need "right to right" but that one has either 10' or 20'. Would there be a signal difference between these two? I need it for both gigging and recording.

ICBM said:

Buy both anyway - regardless of having a lifetime warranty, a warranty doesn't fix a broken cable at a gig. If you get one of each you can have the choice.

As well as getting both, buy another one when you have a few bob spare. You can never have too many spare cables. I label mine with the length so that I can (a) quickly select the right cable for the job, and (b) pounce on thieving band members who 'accidentally' put my cables in their bags.

When you've got some money spare, buy a wireless system for gigging.

ESBlonde

In the home 10ft will suffice for most people. On a stage the cable goes down to the ground (3ft) along the floor (4ft) and back up to the amp (3ft) If you want to be stood more than 4ft from the amp input socket you need either a longer lead or a buffered pedal by your feet or both.

Of course if you go radio for stage you can select an artificial cable length to simulate tone change/loss.

The old chesnut, Jimi had several long coiled leads joined together and the amp a little brighter....

crunchman

Personally, I'd steer clear of Planet Waves leads.  I've had too many go bad on me.  The lifetime warranty isn't as good as it sounds, as you won't be able to find the receipt when it breaks.  It will almost certainly break at a bad time.

There is someone on here who does decent cables (I think he has a thread in the Made in the UK section), or you can get good ones direct from Award-Session at a decent price.

ICBM

Keefy said:

thegummy said:

Am I the only one who deliberately uses a longer cable to warm up the signal?

Yes. Yes you are.

No, you're not .

crunchman said:

Personally, I'd steer clear of Planet Waves leads.  I've had too many go bad on me.  The lifetime warranty isn't as good as it sounds, as you won't be able to find the receipt when it breaks.  It will almost certainly break at a bad time.

A while ago I would have fully backed you up on that - the original PW cables were the most unreliable I've ever come across - but I haven't seen a dead one for a long time now, so I'm sure they've fixed whatever the problem was.

Definitely avoid the ones they used to do with the odd 'concertina' bits on the plugs too - they damage jacks.

crunchman

ICBM said:

Keefy said:

thegummy said:

Am I the only one who deliberately uses a longer cable to warm up the signal?

Yes. Yes you are.

No, you're not .

crunchman said:

Personally, I'd steer clear of Planet Waves leads.  I've had too many go bad on me.  The lifetime warranty isn't as good as it sounds, as you won't be able to find the receipt when it breaks.  It will almost certainly break at a bad time.

A while ago I would have fully backed you up on that - the original PW cables were the most unreliable I've ever come across - but I haven't seen a dead one for a long time now, so I'm sure they've fixed whatever the problem was.

Definitely avoid the ones they used to do with the odd 'concertina' bits on the plugs too - they damage jacks.

The original ones put me off for life.  Not going to take the risk.

I need a right angled cable or two.  Trying to decide if I can be bothered to make my own, or just buy some.

Sassafras

Make your own.
You can have whatever length you like.
My preference is 15ft cables. Long enough to let me move around a bit, not long enough to trip me up or trample underfoot.

Wonky

ArchtopDave said:

Keefy said:

Defender said:

I'm about to buy a Planet Waves American Stage cable but can't decide the lenght. I need "right to right" but that one has either 10' or 20'. Would there be a signal difference between these two? I need it for both gigging and recording.

ICBM said:

Buy both anyway - regardless of having a lifetime warranty, a warranty doesn't fix a broken cable at a gig. If you get one of each you can have the choice.

As well as getting both, buy another one when you have a few bob spare. You can never have too many spare cables. I label mine with the length so that I can (a) quickly select the right cable for the job, and (b) pounce on thieving band members who 'accidentally' put my cables in their bags.

When you've got some money spare, buy a wireless system for gigging.

I'm pretty sure my Line 6 G75 (I think it is) has something in a menu somewhere about pretending it has a longer cable plugged in or something!  I was thinking why you'd want it to do this, but reading what others have said it's to purposely warm the tone up.
Who'd have thought it!

LastMantra

Is it Santana that uses a 50' cable? (Sure it's mentioned on a Rig Rundown)

Kittyfrisk

Wonky said:

ArchtopDave said:

Keefy said:

Defender said:

I'm about to buy a Planet Waves American Stage cable but can't decide the lenght. I need "right to right" but that one has either 10' or 20'. Would there be a signal difference between these two? I need it for both gigging and recording.

ICBM said:

Buy both anyway - regardless of having a lifetime warranty, a warranty doesn't fix a broken cable at a gig. If you get one of each you can have the choice.

As well as getting both, buy another one when you have a few bob spare. You can never have too many spare cables. I label mine with the length so that I can (a) quickly select the right cable for the job, and (b) pounce on thieving band members who 'accidentally' put my cables in their bags.

When you've got some money spare, buy a wireless system for gigging.

I'm pretty sure my Line 6 G75 (I think it is) has something in a menu somewhere about pretending it has a longer cable plugged in or something!  I was thinking why you'd want it to do this, but reading what others have said it's to purposely warm the tone up.
Who'd have thought it!

Resisting resistance is futile.

ICBM

Wonky said:

I'm pretty sure my Line 6 G75 (I think it is) has something in a menu somewhere about pretending it has a longer cable plugged in or something!  I was thinking why you'd want it to do this, but reading what others have said it's to purposely warm the tone up.

Who'd have thought it!

The capacitance of a typical cable is so much part of the classic electric guitar tone that without it the sound can be unnaturally shrill, so they use a small capacitor to duplicate it.

thegummy

Wonky said:

I'm pretty sure my Line 6 G75 (I think it is) has something in a menu somewhere about pretending it has a longer cable plugged in or something!  I was thinking why you'd want it to do this, but reading what others have said it's to purposely warm the tone up.
Who'd have thought it!

I bought a very short cable for home usage based on the theory of it having as little signal loss as possible but it turned out to sound brighter than I was used to with my old longer cables (or at least seemed to be to me at the time) so I went back to longer ones and the sound seemed to go back to normal

LastMantra said:

Is it Santana that uses a 50' cable? (Sure it's mentioned on a Rig Rundown)

Wow that's pretty long. I'm sure I remember seeing people on Rig Rundown using curly cables specifically for the extra length, thus warmth, they provide.

ICBM said:

The capacitance of a typical cable is so much part of the classic electric guitar tone that without it the sound can be unnaturally shrill, so they use a small capacitor to duplicate it.

Just remembered I was going to ask you something - I saw in the guitar shop earlier that Fender have some new cables out available in curly and straight in some lovely pastel Vintera type colours - any idea if those have more reliable connectors than the tweed CS ones?

skunkwerx

Go to designacable, get some van damme ones with neutrik jacks, specify your length, your colour and away you go. Job done.