High quality cables?

Bridgehouse

I forget the accepted answer -

I'm after a couple of high quality instrument cables - preferably with a right angle connector on one end - what's the right answer?

poopot

I get all mine from here:
https://www.award-session.com/cleartone_cables.html#instrument-cables

Never had had an issue with them!.

olafgarten

Design a Cable through Amazon, you get loads of choice, if you need something more specific you can order directly through them but it costs a bit more. 

KKJale

poopot said:

I get all mine from here:
https://www.award-session.com/cleartone_cables.html#instrument-cables

Never had had an issue with them!.

Me too. Nary a problem in over 10 years. 

I always order one right-angle end, plus colour-coded jack rings so it's easy to grab the right assortment of lengths for the gig. 

lukedlb

Reference cables for me. 

richardhomer

Not sure about the quality - but certainly been around for a while:

http://www.vincecable.org/

ICBM

Make sure you *don't* get Fender Custom Shop cables unless you want to replace the plugs. I’ve got another batch of them to do for a customer... the cable itself is good, but the plugs are appalling.

They’ve even worse than Planet Waves, and I’ve seen loads of faulty ones of those too - “lifetime warranty” isn’t much use when they die at a gig.

Any properly-made cables with Neutrik or Switchcraft plugs will be fine.

meltedbuzzbox

ICBM said:

Make sure you *don't* get Fender Custom Shop cables unless you want to replace the plugs. I’ve got another batch of them to do for a customer... the cable itself is good, but the plugs are appalling.

They’ve even worse than Planet Waves, and I’ve seen loads of faulty ones of those too - “lifetime warranty” isn’t much use when they die at a gig.

Any properly-made cables with Neutrik or Switchcraft plugs will be fine.




I've been using fender custom shop cables for over 4 years. At one point they were gigged twice every week for a year solid.
They are still absolutely fine. They also have anlife time warranty I believe.

Bridgehouse

Thanks for the info folks - looks like I need to get some  of those award-session ones ordered up.

Lestratcaster

Mogami cables. Have been using them since 2011 and never had an issue with them. Clear tone all the time. Make sure you coil them up properly as well.

hywelg

I always go for low capacitance.  I once AB'd blind all my cables straight into the amp and the results were interesting. Klotz LaGrange was decent for cable you could buy by the metre. George L's were good as we're Providence and Lava.  Most cheap noname cable was dire. DAP audio and Van Damme instrument were only just acceptable. 

The very best was Van Damme Silver Series Lo-Cap but it was basically unusable. Wouldn't fit into  Neutrik jack and was like towing a ferry. 

So everything is a compromise, all the very good sounding cables were difficult to use in some manner though the Providence are great and my personal favourite.  The best from a usability point of view is a Fender cloth covered cable, it just handles beautifully but sonically it's very average and as @ICBM says, probably suspect construction.if I was going to gig with it I'd swap the ends for Neutrik. 

Megii

Sommer do some good very low capacitance cable types, and I know Design A Cable will make you up a nice guitar lead using that with Neutrik jacks.

thegummy

ICBM said:

Make sure you *don't* get Fender Custom Shop cables unless you want to replace the plugs. I’ve got another batch of them to do for a customer... the cable itself is good, but the plugs are appalling.

They’ve even worse than Planet Waves, and I’ve seen loads of faulty ones of those too - “lifetime warranty” isn’t much use when they die at a gig.

Any properly-made cables with Neutrik or Switchcraft plugs will be fine.

Interesting you should say that, the main cable I use is Fender Custom Shop and was planning on buying more. Mine has always been fine but only had it about a year. The plastic has slightly broken but not the electrical connections.

How many, roughly, have you seen that are bad?

Rocker

For years I have been repeatedly "birched" for even suggesting that cables could affect the sound output. Now it seems that some people are looking beyond the terminations and assessing the sound of the cable itself. I welcome this development, not so that I am proved right, but that players are actually listening to the sounds they make. And noting how elements in their setup can alter that sound.

UnclePsychosis

Rocker said:

For years I have been repeatedly "birched" for even suggesting that cables could affect the sound output. Now it seems that some people are looking beyond the terminations and assessing the sound of the cable itself. I welcome this development, not so that I am proved right, but that players are actually listening to the sounds they make. And noting how elements in their setup can alter that sound.

-no, you've been birched for being a troll who pretends not to understand the placebo effect or double blind testing despite them both being explained to you dozens of times and making nonsensical, unverifiable and frankly just plain wrong claims about all sorts of audiophile guff like power cables for your hifi affecting the sound.

Capacitance of guitar cables is actually a thing. You can measure the effect. 

thegummy

UnclePsychosis said:

Rocker said:

For years I have been repeatedly "birched" for even suggesting that cables could affect the sound output. Now it seems that some people are looking beyond the terminations and assessing the sound of the cable itself. I welcome this development, not so that I am proved right, but that players are actually listening to the sounds they make. And noting how elements in their setup can alter that sound.

-no, you've been birched for being a troll who pretends not to understand the placebo effect or double blind testing despite them both being explained to you dozens of times and making nonsensical, unverifiable and frankly just plain wrong claims about all sorts of audiophile guff like power cables for your hifi affecting the sound.

Capacitance of guitar cables is actually a thing. You can measure the effect. 

The old placebo effect.

It's so prominent in audio that anyone who isn't fully aware and very mindful of it can end up believing a lot of pretty wild ideas.

Any of you who do a bit of mixing might be able to relate - there have been plenty of times I've sat tweaking the EQ settings etc. thinking I hear a difference then when I blind test myself to make sure, the difference is gone. The thing is, some people who aren't aware of this will just go on to believe how much difference that actually made.

The_Ethical

Sniff... sniff... do I detect a whiff of cork? ;0

Bridgehouse

The_Ethical said:

Sniff... sniff... do I detect a whiff of cork? ;0

I'm more interested in no crackle to be honest!

Danny1969

The Fender custom shop cables I have seen and repaired are terrible in design .... cheap jacks with shit strain relief and the normal crimped tip connector failure point. Covered in heatsink with Fender printed on it. They break all the time in my experience, especially the ones which have the wires cut too short as the strain relief is basically yanking on the solder joint from new .... I saw one fail on it's second gig !! 

Wolfetone

Ever thought about  making them yourself? Soldering is a skill that every guitarist should try and learn. It'll save you a fortune and you can be self sufficient.

Bridgehouse

Wolfetone said:

Ever thought about  making them yourself? Soldering is a skill that every guitarist should try and learn. It'll save you a fortune and you can be self sufficient.

I can solder. 

I cannot, however, be arsed