George L cables

E

esandes

New member
I bought a new cable, used it for a few minutes then the cable started shorting in and out intermittently. I hope the pickups and amp are ok.

Not impressed. $55.

Two out of three of my monster rock cables are dead. Those were expensive too.

Are Dimarzio cables good? I need soldered ends.

Steve Vai has $200 cables from Dimarzio. Silver solder.

Discuss.
 
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George Ls have a set screw that makes contact with the ground or sheild of the cable

Dont over tighten that screw

If it contacts the ground and the center conductor
It shorts and makes no sound

Loosen the screw , and remove the cable from the jack

Clip off one half inch ,12 mm of the cable

Do not strip the cable

Shove it back into the jack and retighten the screw
 
Yes, George L's should be easy to fix with no soldering. I have one, too, and this happens every year or so. Monster cables usually have a lifetime warranty, don't they?
 
esandes said:
I bought a new cable, used it for a few minutes then the cable started shorting in and out intermittently. I hope the pickups and amp are ok.
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Have you ever had a faulty cable harm the pickups or amp? I sure haven’t.

The best cable I own is a DiMarzio braided. Got it over 20 years ago, still works like a charm. It has the clearest sound of any cable I’ve used, as well.
 
I traded it in for one of these...
http://accessories.yorkville.com/cab...nt/studio_one/

The specs are decent.

Mincer, if they do have a lifetime warranty I bought the cables from a shop no longer in business. I wonder if the factory can replace them. They sound really good.

I wonder about the differences between the monster rock, dimarzio vai and the cable I just bought.
 
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George L cables have quite low capacitance and don’t load down your guitar’s signal. However, getting that set screw adjusted so that it contacts the shield (ground) and not the conductor (signal) can be a bit finicky. Over years, I’ve had a couple George L plugs delaminate and that’s not good.

spending $200 on a guitar cable… would you like to buy a bridge? I’ve got a great one right over here …. You can solder your own or get Performance Audio to make one custom. Mogami 2524 cable is fine. Neutriks plugs are great - if you put a Neutrik “silent plug” on one end so it goes quiet whenever you pull the plug out of your guitar.
 
esandes said:
I traded it in for one of these...
http://accessories.yorkville.com/cab...nt/studio_one/

The specs are decent.

Mincer, if they do have a lifetime warranty I bought the cables from a shop no longer in business. I wonder if the factory can replace them. They sound really good.

I wonder about the differences between the monster rock, dimarzio vai and the cable I just bought.
Click to expand...

Send them a message, or even, contact them on social media. Post a pic of it. I bet they will make it right.
 
Little Pigbacon said:
I bought a George L's sample pack once. They ended up in the trash.
Click to expand...

They are generally as good as the connections the end user makes. I like them, but I do have to re-tighten them (and in some cases fix) them every year. Their regular instrument cables are great but are tangle prone.
 
Semi-relatedly, I'm frustrated with cables as well.

I recently got a Planet Waves Am Stage cable with a right angle plug. Brand new, the signal was EXTREMELY quiet and dark. Did some reading, and found there was probably an issue with one of the plugs. Figured out which one, crimped the shield connector tighter, and it was full volume. Decided to clip the end and resolder it, and it's doing the same damn thing again. That's what I get for not just buying another of the DiMarzio braided cable that's still kicking after 20 years.
 
It is really frustrating when a patch cable goes bad on stage, and you realize it could be any one of 10 small cables. No time to diagnose, you just bypass the whole thing (specially if the pedals are zip-tied to the board, and there is no way to unplug the pedals without getting the pedal off the board).
 
10yrs or so ago I bought 4 PW american stage cables, all straight end jacks. That time they relatively new in the market. Till date none have gone bad. If the recent ones are going bad then that's a shame, they are covered under lifetime warranty but still sucks.

For patch cables & everyday home use instrument cable, I bought a lower priced long length planet waves classic instrument cable & got around 20 or more amphenol plugs from element14, hacked the cable to various desired length of the patch cables & solder the plugs on them. So far my patch cables haven't failed on me but the instrument cable did after 5yrs or so due to rough use at home, fixing it was simple though.

I key thing when making patch cables is to not make them so short that there is unwanted continuous stress due to bending of the cable from pedal placement. This becomes more important with the solderless ones cause they will fail quicker due to it.
 
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