Okay so I’m preaching to the converted here I’m sure but I have just discovered that cables make a more significant difference than I realised. I already knew that a good cable is worth the investment, that’s why I’ve had a pair of Monster cables for 10 years now. At the time I ran guitar to wah, wah to amp. When I started gigging and building big pedalboards I just bought cheap patch cables but never really noticed. I had switched to a gigging amp and since then I never didn’t use the board with the cheap patch cables in it.
Since buying a katana for my bedroom I’ve been plugging straight in with a Monster cable. Again I didn’t think anything of it, superb tone. I put a couple of pedals down the other night just to mess around and wired them in with my cheap patch cables and because I was going directly from my pure monster cable signal to the signal with the cheap patch cables in the same environment with the same guitar I suddenly noticed a significant degredation in tone. I mean significant!
When end I got my PRS SE I noticed how less lively the other guitars I swore by sounded in comparison, the PRS sounded alive and has a beautiful tone. With cheap patch cables it sounds dull and dead. The difference isn’t noticeable on my other guitars but on the PRS it brings the tone down to the level of the other guitars! My other guitars are dark sounding but the PRS extremely bright so I suspect the cables affect the treble frequencies the most.
I knew I was sacrificing tone with the cheap patch cables when I was gigging but as I needed so many I couldn’t afford it and when I AB’d it the difference was noticeable but not much. With this rig though the difference is quite something!
Note: I tried each pedal individually just using monster cables to rule out tone suck from one of the pedals. It’s definitely the cables!!
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Please note, just because instrument cables make a difference - because the guitar is an unbuffered source, and the cable capacitance is large enough to be in the range which affects the sound when the pickups have to drive it - it does *not* follow that speaker and mains cables also do . The electrical conditions are totally different.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Do you have a buffer on the board? If so is it a high quality one?
Have you tried plugging straight into your amp using one of the “cheap” patch cables? You might find that it will sound even better than your monster cable due to the shorter length of wire.
Something interesting I discovered a while back is that *plugs* have quite significant capacitance, some types much worse than others. In a short patch cable this can be larger than the cable capacitance. Annoyingly - given that they're the best in most other ways - Neutrik NP2Cs are the worst I found.
The chap at Vertex pedals has reported the same thing. (Yes I know about all the other stuff related to this brand - it doesn't mean it's wrong.)
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I think with pedals boards the problem is often poor contact between the jacks and sockets, cheap patch cables often aren't that high in capacitance generally being made of thin conductors with a lot of insulation between the core conductor and shield, a better made cable with larger core conductor and the same insulation would actually have more pf per metre
Most of the problems I see on boards with solderless patch cables (or conectionless patch cables).
This is assume is due to their higher resistance, especially if not constructed "properly".
I try to keep my signal path as short as I can, I don't really use much effects. Also been using Mogami gold cables for nearly 10 years now without a single problem. Clear and reliable tone night after night.
My guess would be that the Neutrik is particularly bad because the centre conductor is larger diameter than normal, the outer metal sleeve is thicker (that's why they're strong) and the insulator is thinner.
You'll always sound *brighter* with the shortest distance from the guitar to the amp, which is not necessarily the same thing .
Hendrix used about 120' of high-capacitance cable - four curly cables, which are about 30' long if you pull them out straight - and three pedals, only one of which was true bypass... and he sounded quite good.
In fact if you connect a Strat to a cranked Super Lead with a short low-capacitance cable, it will sound so bright and shrill it will make your eyes water .
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Jack-Jack-PRO-Patch-Cable-30cm-Pack-of-6/GCH
The signal path was Guitar > Boss TU3 > Morley Dragon 2 Wah > Amp with a 30cm cheap patch cable between the boss and the Morley. Maybe its psychosomatic? I could definitely tell a difference. I think i'm going to order a few higher quality patch cables and see if it does make a difference or if its just the result of me adding an extra 2m of cable over going direct to the amp.
Im building a small pedalboard which will comprise of a Boss TU3, Xotic EP Booster, Morley wah and Line6 M5 - I think I'll always notice a difference over plugging in direct because of this.
Non of the above is a surprise at all, I think it's just important to realise that your signal path is only as good as the weakest link. If thats a particular pedal you can't do without then fair enough (I had to sell my Whammy DT because the tone suck was beyond acceptable to me) but don't let your weakest link be something as simple as a patch cable or guitar lead!
If you're really interested in testing this sort of thing properly, you need to get a true bypass loop-switching unit so you can directly A/B things on the fly - it's amazing what then makes no difference at all which made an "obvious" difference when you just unplugged things and swapped them . (Or more rarely, the other way round.) You can very quickly test cables by putting the suspect cable in the loop and switching it in and out of the circuit.
The bypass in the Whammy is notoriously bad and you don't need to have 'magic ears' to hear that one.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
im starting to suspect it’s psychosomatic... however the overall message that you should use decent cables still stands
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A digital wireless is far closer, since there will be much less alteration of the audio signal - essentially none, as long as the A/D and D/A converters are good. This is its own problem, since the result tends to be very shrill - so many digital wireless units have 'cable simulation' built in.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein