Anyone use Whirlwind Guitar cables?

[mantis]

So decades ago my Uncle Lou Turned me on to what he felt where the best cables in the industry. His reasons where 2, One they never failed gig after gig practice after practice and 2 they sounded clearer then anything else he's used.
So back in those days I used Whirlwind cables and thought nothing else of it.
Fast forward to tonight , I took out one of my Whirlwind cables from my stock pile of madness and WOW, I heard some clarity my rig has been missing lately. I've been using Planet Waves and Live Wire from Guitar center. I don't see them anywhere else so I assume Guitar Center has some either In house brand or rights to that product line.
Well I gotta tell you I did a shootout between the 3 cables and I was kinda disappointed in the results but let the truth be told.
The Planet waves Stage series came in last place. It was the foggiest sounding cable out of the 3. The Live Wire sounded much clearer. I had to switch them back and forth a few times to believe my ears but there it was, the cable I wanted to outfit my entire rig with was the worse sounding cable, go figure.
I put the Live wire back in and man it just sound so many better. Much more top end, tighter bottom end and a nice punchy mid range. NO this cable isn't making the rig sound better, just more as it should be.
The Whirlwind The Leader series just took the Live wire sound and polished it up. It was the clearest most robust sounding cable out of the 3.
Now I want to go buy a 10 foot Mogami Cable and see if it can best the Whirlwind. I also am shocked in the Planet waves as it's built really nice, very nice quality which to me is much better then the live wire but I guess looks are not everything. To me I could care less what brand the cable is or what it looks like, I'm totally interested in tone and preserving it. The Planet waves don't do that, they actually squash your tone and I hate even saying that.

 

[mantis]

Re: Anyone use Whirlwind Guitar cables?

Ok so I continued my cable testing yesterday and I picked up some Mogami Gold 10 foot straight and 90* angle cables. I wanted to get 2 of them for a more fair test so I can replace the first cable from the guitar to the Tuner and the last cable that goes from the OUTPUT of the Sentry noise gate to the front of my amp.

I tested 3 different cables vs each other which where Live Wire , Whirlwind and the new ones Mogami Gold.
To be fair on some level I played for a few hours through the Mogami cables to get them to run in a bit since they where fresh out of the package brand new. The Whirlwinds and Live wires have been played a lot so they have had electricity running through them.
After I few hours I took a break then came back to start swapped out pairs. All 3 cables where very quite and didn't seem to be darker more then the other after a few swaps. Then what I noticed was the Live wire was just a tad brighter but not in the sense retaining top end clarity but lacking in bass. The Whirlwind and Mogami both seemed to be a tad tighter in the bottom end.
So after awhile I stopped testing the Live wires which by the way for the money are fantastic and yesterday when I was buying the Mogami's I noticed they have an Elite model now. Higher end cables with the same ends that the Mogami's have. Pretty damn nice and they where cheaper then the Mogami's. I might pickup a set of them as they would probably be a more fair comparison.
The Whirlwind and Mogami are so close to each other I can't really tell which is a better cable. Both are running a total of 20 feet of their cable and I can't tell them apart. I tried back and forth they sound like the same cable.
This to me shows me that the Whirlwind cables are very good cables. Mogami Gold's are an industry leasing cable which tons of professional artist only use them. The Mogami's cost a bit more then the Whirlwinds and in the light making the Whirlwind a better cable value wise. You don't lose any noiseless or sound quality swapping out between the 2. You do with the Live wires but they are even cheaper then the Whirlwinds and they are better IMO then the Planet waves. I still hate that as I really loved the build quality of them. Their pedal board kit's are fantastic but they make things cloudy. I actually pulled most of them out of my board and I'm currently using the Live wire Patch cables I have. Funny they don't sound dark like the Planet waves do. Again I hate that. Now I gotta research custom build yourself petal board cables as I don't want to buy pre mades. I like making my own custom lengths. I saw George L's so I might give them a run. I'll have to do some research first. Maybe Mogami Offers a pedal kit but I haven't seen one or even Whirlwind, yeah thats my start.

 

[Farkus]

Re: Anyone use Whirlwind Guitar cables?

I have used whirlwind cables for years. My uncle turned me on to them as well. ;-)

They are fantastic and I've had some of them going on 15 years and they still sound great.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Anyone use Whirlwind Guitar cables?

I'm not entirely sure, but I think most of my 6 foot and 10 foot cables are Horizon, and patch cables and 1/4" snakes are definitely Hosa. I may have a Whirlwind somewhere, but I think that's a mic cable. I've got one guitar cable that's got a cloth braid instead of the rubber housing, but can't recall the brand (either Rapco or Horizon), and it's in a box somewhere. I've also got a 25-footer somewhere, but I think that's also Horizon.

I haven't done any sort of comparisons between brands, mostly because the ones of the same length are also the same brand, and I do not have two identical lengths from different brands.
I get sound and dial in a tone I like with EQ and knobs, and I'm ok with that.


However, you may also want to look at the cables more closely: what gauge are they? How many strands? Are they all pure copper or alloys? What is their exact impedance from tip to tip? What about their cores?

Gold-plated contacts will conduct better than chrome/nickel-plated, especially new gold-plated vs old chrome/nickel-plated. The quality of the plating is also a factor, though that relates more to longevity than anything.
I don't think there's going to be much material degradation in the copper wires themselves simply from 60Hz AC passing through them unless you're talking about permanent installations and power fluctuations. However, the plugs themselves will degrade over time from external influence - body oils, environmental changes, plating wear from being inserted and removed and stuffed into a bag where they rub against other metal parts, etc.

 

[mantis]

Re: Anyone use Whirlwind Guitar cables?

I was looking at core gauge and noticed that the Live Wire Elite's where 18g. That in theory should have the ability to send a signal further without signal loss then the 20-24 gauge of most other brands.
The Whirlwind and Mogami I believe use 20g where the Live wire I have is an advantage series which are 24g on the center conductor.
What still surprises me is the Stage series from Planet waves. The center core is 22g and should should sound better then the cheaper Live Wire Advantage series but it doesn't. I wanted to outfit my entire rig with Planet waves Stage series because I really like the Pedal board build your own cables. But they roll off the high end and I hate that.

 

[Darg1911]

Re: Anyone use Whirlwind Guitar cables?

Most cables may be using smaller conductors for two reasons I can think of. First, resistance isn't typically an issue so a larger gauge center conductor isn't necessary. Second, I think that the capacitance is due to the center conductor and the shields relationship to each other in terms of proximity and conductor size with larger the conductors contributing to higher capacitance. The dielectric plays a role as well. I'm not an expert on this stuff though so, I could be off. One thing I do know is that Canare uses a 18 awg center conductor. It's not a low cap cable by any means. It's double the capacitance of some of the low cap cables. Point being, that 18 guage center conductor isn't the end all be all and if I'm right about the conductor size and capacitance relationship, the larger center conductor may even be a disadvantage.

 

[cvansickle]

Re: Anyone use Whirlwind Guitar cables?

I used Whirlwind Leader cables for many years, and only had one cable out of over 20 ever go bad (and this one was a regular cable, not a Leader). I retired them a few years back when I upgraded my rig to Sommer cables, but I still have all the Whirlwinds in a box somewhere. They were great, but the Sommers are better.

 

[mantis]

Re: Anyone use Whirlwind Guitar cables?

Most cables may be using smaller conductors for two reasons I can think of. First, resistance isn't typically an issue so a larger gauge center conductor isn't necessary. Second, I think that the capacitance is due to the center conductor and the shields relationship to each other in terms of proximity and conductor size with larger the conductors contributing to higher capacitance. The dielectric plays a role as well. I'm not an expert on this stuff though so, I could be off. One thing I do know is that Canare uses a 18 awg center conductor. It's not a low cap cable by any means. It's double the capacitance of some of the low cap cables. Point being, that 18 guage center conductor isn't the end all be all and if I'm right about the conductor size and capacitance relationship, the larger center conductor may even be a disadvantage.

I'm hoping your wrong but I picked up 2 10ft Straight / Angle Live Wire Elite cables and I'm gonna put them in my effects loop and see how they do.
I have Mogami Golds to VS them against as well as the Advantage series from Live wire to do a pretty good shootout. I have 5 pedals in the loop ( Volume 250k,Chorus, Delay, Reverb and Sonic Maximizer).

 

[DeadandBuried]

Re: Anyone use Whirlwind Guitar cables?

I have one 21ft Whirlwind cable that I use for guitar into pedals if doing rehearsals (live I use a wireless system) and its good. Alot of the tone and brightness comes from how long the cable is cos the longer it is the more top end it takes off. Can be good and bad.

I mainly use Mogami cables (use a couple of Planet Waves ones), and found they're the clearest noise free sounding cables I've had. Also make sure you coil up cables properly as that prolongs the life of them too. Makes me sick when I see people bunching them up or folding them in half and stuffing them in their guitar bag!