Budget Guitar Cables......

Megii

ICBM said:

Some here - http://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/article-1-4-cable-connectors-which-brand-to-choose.1116847/

I know it's Vertex Effects , but I have no reason to doubt his figures - I seem to remember finding about 40pF for a Neutrik NP2C as well, and being surprised how high it was compared to other lower-quality (physically) plugs. The reason is that the centre pin and the sleeve are both thicker than normal - which is what makes them robust physically and electrically, but means the insulation between them is thinner, and capacitance is inversely proportional to separation.

It won't make much difference on a 10' or 20' guitar cable, but it will on a 6" patch cable - the difference between a pair of low-capacitance plugs and a pair of high-capacitance plugs could be *greater* than the capacitance of the cable itself, so if you then have half a dozen or more cables on your board it will start to matter.

Aha - interesting, cheers @ICBM. Don't think it will stop me fitting Neutriks to my main guitar leads, but as you say, worth thinking about if making up patch cables.

MikeDearing

work out what cable you can afford then double money and buy one twice as good..

Sporky

Megii said:

Not saying you or anyone is wrong here @Rocker - we can only report our own experiences. It's very possibly the case that I unwittingly made a terrible choice with the cheap guitar cable I bought, and that nearly anything else I might have purchased would have been much better. I'm sure you would have heard the difference quite clearly yourself - I had a strat with some very nice handwound pickups, and which I knew to have a lovely sound with a shimmery high end. The cheap cables I made up just destroyed that shimmer, and I had only to switch back to my usual guitar cable, and all was fine again.

I should clarify my post about testing -  with the four cables I tried there was only a hair of difference, and I maintain that that could be corrected (if it even mattered) with a mere tweak of a tone control.

Other low-cost cables can indeed have a much more profound effect, and at that point I agree with ICBM that you can't fix it with the amp's tone controls.

I have some I bought for keyboard but have used for guitar in an emergency, and they do take a lot more off the top end. Similarly as the cables get longer the effect is more pronounced - I think all the ones I did the controlled test with were 3m, which isn't enormous.

Phil_aka_Pip

For me the cost doesn't necessarily indicate the sound, but it may well indicate how long the cable will last.

ESBlonde

After the recent thread on the subject I jumped in and bought a couple of Spectraflex cloth covered leads from red dog. Not cheap but defiantly built to a standard not a price. I have made literally hundreds of cables over the years, patch, mic, speaker, Multicore, jack, and yes you can make them cheaper especially if you want multiples, but for one or two I wonder if it's worth the effort these days.
Red dog were short of stock (probably because the thread here caused a run on the product) so they offered me the longer lead for the same price as the short one I'd paid for. Delivery was prompt and the two leads I've got I am very happy with. Those and the Hiscox case I bought for my 335 means I'm off the GAS zero mark for 2016.

littlethoughts

What money can get you is a lead that just lasts longer. I've had a planet waves circuit breaker pedal for over 10 years. It stopped working about 5 years ago, but you can just cut the cable an inch shorter and reattach the jack with just a screwdriver.

As for sounding different, I have a fender Koil Kord which definitely rolls off some treble...kind of like permanently having the treble on 8.

bbill335

Sorry to bump a year-old thread but I've been thinking about this lately. After having the cheapest of cheap planet waves leads die after a couple of uses, cloth-covered leads that kink and curl with a mind of their own, I dunno what's best. I have some of these Hosa leads but they feel kind of thin and flimsy.  A couple of these Lava leads would set me back nearly £35, which seems a lot to me (but that's all relative, isn't it?). Are they worth it over the Hosas? Made in US vs made in China? Does any of it matter?

english_bob

Worth mentioning that how you treat your cables is also a significant factor in how long they last. If you're going to spend a ton of money on cables you should definitely learn how to coil them properly.

HAL9000

I've heard that rather than coiling leads after use, it is better to drop one end into the bag and then gradually feed in the remaining length so that it finds its own shape rather than having a shape forced upon it.

english_bob

HAL9000 said:

I've heard that rather than coiling leads after use, it is better to drop one end into the bag and then gradually feed in the remaining length so that it finds its own shape rather than having a shape forced upon it.

Done properly, the over-under method in the video doesn't force a shape on the cable, but will end up with a more consistent, manageable result than you'd get with that method.

Doing the thing where you wrap it around your elbow on the other hand...

bbill335

english_bob said:

Worth mentioning that how you treat your cables is also a significant factor in how long they last. If you're going to spend a ton of money on cables you should definitely learn how to coil them properly.

Hey! I just learned myself a new trick, thanks!

BigMonka

I don't mind that under/over method when doing XLR cables as you can then click the two ends together, but personally with a guitar lead I find that it ends up getting knotted too easily as you try to unwind it.