Where on earth can I buy high impedance cable ?

Reeces_Pieces

Whilst bored from not being able to play guitar I want to make my own leads, however trying to buy the cable 'off the reel' seems to be impossible! I've looked into it and found mogami make one of the best but can't seem to get it just as the cable like they promote on the home page =/ I can find neutrik connectors but the cable side of things is driving me mad! May someone please help me so I can make my own, not interested in buying the cable as whole. Ideally would be great if sourced in the uk, many thanks!

ThePrettyDamned

There is an eBay store that sells van damme pro like £1.20 per metre.

Reeces_Pieces

Is van dammed pro very good? Thanks for getting back

Reeces_Pieces

Sorry van damme pro* my phone auto correct

BilliBob

beware ebay Neutrik connectors, most of them are copies.
Try Studiospares or Thomann.

Reeces_Pieces

Thank you!

EdGrip

Do you mean low capacitance?

My favourite cable so far, by some margin, is Sommer "The Spirit" XXL. It's good-looking, low-capacitance, tough as nails, and has a very unwieldy name - great for tone, as I'm sure I don't need to tell you.

You can buy it from Thomann by the metre, but it's actually cheaper to buy the 20m read-made cable and cut it up. If you buy it from Thomann, you might as well buy some of their white Neutrik jacks, because I don't think you can get them anywhere else and they're sexy as fuck.

ThePrettyDamned

Reeces_Pieces;344272" said:

Is van dammed pro very good? Thanks for getting back

As good as any other cable, assuming you have a buffer in the chain somewhere, or are using active pickups. It's not the lowest capacitance in the world, but that doesn't matter much once you've buffered the signal.

Of course, if you have a dozen true bypass pedals and no buffer, you probably want a buffer before you upgrade your cables

Fez

I wasn't very impressed with the Van Dam cable I got from Hot Rox next time I will get the Sommer stuff.

Reeces_Pieces

What do you mean by buffer the chain sorry? I'll look into sommer as well when I was looking into cables mogami seemed to be the rage and they always talked of high impedance, though low capacitance works to I'm looking to make another lead 2/3 metres and 3 short pedal cables, just want to have the best so it lasts and hopefully get the most natural sound I can

ThePrettyDamned

Well, cables have capacitance - enough of it reduces treble content.

It's worth noting, it can't fundamentally alter the sound - it's just allowing a small electrical current to pass.

Anyway, van damme is very easy to work with, looks great, coils up nicely, is cheap, and doesn't sap a shit ton of treble from your signal.

A buffer - basically, this converts the signal it recieves into one that won't be affected by cable capacitance. Think of it as "preserving" what it gets. So running a 50 foot coil cable to a buffer will preserve a slightly deadened tone (think hendrix - or a prs sweet switch).

A shorter, lower capacitance cable will suck away less treble. A buffer after this will preserve that sound - it's why patch cables matter a lot less than the cable from pedal board to amp, and guitar to pedal board.

Some effects pedals have a buffer. Some have good buffers (such as the visual sound series, cornish pedals, klones and the like). Some are not so great (boss ones get some stick for leaky bypass or losing a touch of volume - both can be sorted by having another buffer in front apparently )

Van damme is low capacitance enough that it's only going to really bother you when it's getting quite long.

Remember, a lot of cable reviews online are coloured by price, bias, numbers and bullshit. It transfers an electrical signal, nothing else. It can't give a "colourful midrange" and a "sweetness" or a "tight low end" - it can only remove content, and that's mostly treble as far as I know.

if you use active pickups, you don't need a buffer at all. They drive long cables fine, so buffers are meaningless. As are expensive low capacitance cables.

I'd buy cable (personally) based on ease of use and how well it behaves when coiling it up, as well as how resilient it is to being stepped on and van damme pro has not let me down.

A 2 or 3 metre lead will not suck any tone if followed by a buffered pedal - I'd only really start noticing loss after 3 metres, and quite slight. Coily cables are the worst - because they're so bloody long! However, some people like the slightly attenuated treble, and my mate uses one for bass because it basically stops it sounding harsh (no pedals, just long Coily cable into amp).

Reeces_Pieces

Ok, thank you for taking the time to explain that to me I now get it I think, I'm not sure if my rat 2 pedal has a buffer or not but I'll look into it! Planning on potentially getting more pedals so can always look into it further there to Thank you again

ICBM

No, the Rat 2 is not buffered, it's true bypass.

As a rough rule of thumb, *most* pedals which have a very positive, clicking mechanical switch like the Rat are not buffered - they're either 'true bypass' or 'half bypass'. *Most* pedals which have a soft, non-clicking switch - either a similar metal one or a large flat metal or plastic rocker which operates a much smaller switch underneath - are buffered. (There are exceptions to both these though, so don't always assume.)

NB, 'true' bypass is not always as good as the name implies. It does bypass the pedal circuit completely, but it leaves the guitar signal at the mercy of the loading of following pedals and cables, so you can actually get *more* tone suck than with even a poorly buffered pedal.

Also some manufacturers deliberately obfuscate or flat-out lie about the difference between true bypass and half bypass - which uses the same type of switch, but does not fully disconnect the circuit and so suck tone worst of all. These pedals will also pass signal in bypass with no battery or power connected, which is a commonly believed but incorrect test for true bypass.

All of this can make the quality of the cable somewhat or completely irrelevant...

paulmapp8306

http://www.studiospares.com/cables+connectors/cable-guitar-/icat/cabguitarcable

The Sommer stuff is good, as is VD.  My personaly favourite is the Klotz cable even though its cheaper.

John_BlackWolf

Maplins

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/van-damme-pro-grade-classic-xke-instrument-cable-black-priced-per-metre-n98jt

richardhomer

It's probably worth pointing out that classic guitar sounds are a combination of the player, their guitar (and how it is set up), their cables/pedal chain, their amp, cab, speakers, mic/mic placement, room, desk, recording medium and any effects/eq added afterwards.

The influence of a cable in that lot is probably fairly negligible. And the capacitance of the cable is 'part' of the tone. We're not looking for flat responses/hi fi qualities in a guitar set up.

ICBM

richardhomer said:

It's probably worth pointing out that classic guitar sounds are a combination of the player, their guitar (and how it is set up), their cables/pedal chain, their amp, cab, speakers, mic/mic placement, room, desk, recording medium and any effects/eq added afterwards.

The influence of a cable in that lot is probably fairly negligible. And the capacitance of the cable is 'part' of the tone. We're not looking for flat responses/hi fi qualities in a guitar set up.

Very true.

If you put together a 'Jimi Hendrix rig' using modern true-bypass clones of the vintage pedals he used and modern 'high quality' guitar cables, it's unusably shrill with a Strat and a Marshall Super Lead, because his actual rig contained two very tone-sucking pedals (the wah and the Uni-Vibe - Fuzz Faces were always true bypass because they leak fuzz into the bypass otherwise) and about 120' of high-capacitance cable… four coily cables are about that long if you stretch them out. The treble roll-off must have been enormous.

It's even debatable whether the amps of his day like the Marshall had the oversized bright caps they do - which makes them extremely brash at low volume, not at all smooth or full-sounding - because they were necessary to compensate for the tone suck of the standard cables of that time.