Quick question about speaker cables....

B Bent

B Bent

Vibroluxologist
I'm guessing that it's no different than any other cable, bigger gauge and high quality counts for tons. I want to have my Bandmaster head next to me on stage and a cable running to the cab that is 15-20 feet behind me. Should I be OK and not have tone loss or any other issues if I get a really high quality cable? Any other advice that you would offer to a head/cab noob?

What kind of cable would you recommend?
 
Re: Quick question about speaker cables....

I'm gonna go on the principle that is doesn't matter much with a poweramp? We run 20 or 30 feet cables to the speakers from our poweramp with no problem.
 
Re: Quick question about speaker cables....

get 12 gauge cable and dont worry about it. dont run more speaker wire than you need to so if you need 20' dont get a 50' cable
 
Re: Quick question about speaker cables....

Regular lamp cord is fine for speaker cables. A 40-watt BMR into it rated 4-ohm load is pushing less than 4 amps, well within the capabilities of 18-gauge lampcord. With the extra length, bumping it up to 16-gauge isn't a bad idea, if it'll make you feel better. It's also a good idea to use the oversized 1/4" connectors like this one or this one. They give you more room to work inside with the larger 16-gauge wire.

Speaker cables for PA systems are a different beast. PA power amps are typically much higher power. Also, any losses in PA speaker cables are expensive - meaning you've paid a lot for the power amps, and it makes no sense to burn up that expensive power as heat in speaker cable losses. Those two reasons are why 1) PA speaker cables are much larger than guitar speaker cables and 2) big PAs usually have the amp racks located as close to the speakers as possible, to minimize losses.

These issues have no bearing on a guitar amp, though. The convenience is more important than the tiny bit of power loss in the longer cable, and the amp is probably too damn loud anyway.:laughing:
 
Re: Quick question about speaker cables....

Lord Valve makes some of the highest quality cables I've ever seen. call him up and get exactly what you need. Or buy some fat lamp cord and make your own.
 
Re: Quick question about speaker cables....

home depot, walmart, lowes


But, I'd still recommend a call to Lord Valve. His cables will be shielded, lamp cord will not be. For that long a run, I'd want shielded I think.
 
Re: Quick question about speaker cables....

Jeez. Home Depot, of course. And you claim to be an Atlantan.
 
Re: Quick question about speaker cables....

B Bent said:
I'm guessing that it's no different than any other cable
Click to expand...

Speaker cable does not have the grounding shield. The grounding shield is bad for speaker cable. Grounding shield good for instrument cable. Mongo no use instrument cable for speaker cable.
 
Re: Quick question about speaker cables....

ScottF - Why would you want a shielded cable for a long run? I mean anything within reason (50 feet per se) isn't gonna make any difference anyway. Shielded cable matters when you are using low power signal stuff like from the guitar to the amp input. Amp output is pushing lots of power and any low power signal absorbed by the cable is very unlikely to be audible without it being amplified in some way. I know that you aready know this stuff, but I'm saying it in case you have another reason that I haven't considered. Just explaining my thinking on it.

BBent - One good reason to use large 1/4" jacks for the speaker cable is to keep that cable from looking like your shielded guitar cables that aren't designed to carry as much power as speaker cable is.
 
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Re: Quick question about speaker cables....

I'd like to extend this Laurel and a hardy handshake to the fellows that have answered me on this thread.
 
Re: Quick question about speaker cables....

Can I just say that since "lamp cord" is generally 18 gauge, I wouldn't recommend it.

I bought a 100 foot extension cord (intended for weed whackers or something like that) that had only two leads, instead of the three that most extension cords have. 14 or 16 gauge. It was fairly inexpensive at Lowe's.

Then I bought some heavy duty jacks at Radio Shack and made a bunch of speaker cables that work very well for me. Beat the price of commercial speaker cables by a bunch.
 
Re: Quick question about speaker cables....

When I talk about shielded, I'm not talking about making the negative lead be the shield. I was talking about a two conductor wire that was wrapped in a shielded outer casing. Have you thought about a potential interference coming from your speaker cable to another signal cable soemwhere? A 50' run would seem to open that up to some other possibilities.

The bad thing to do by using a normal guitar cable is that you're trying to run part of your signal through a braid or some other shield set up. It's a single conductor wire wrapped in a shield. Bad.

And, Scott, man, I don't know crap about crap. I look at the pretty colored wires and connect the dots man, the whole time trying to not get shocked. :)
 
Re: Quick question about speaker cables....

Scott_F said:
When I talk about shielded, I'm not talking about making the negative lead be the shield. I was talking about a two conductor wire that was wrapped in a shielded outer casing. Have you thought about a potential interference coming from your speaker cable to another signal cable soemwhere? A 50' run would seem to open that up to some other possibilities.

The bad thing to do by using a normal guitar cable is that you're trying to run part of your signal through a braid or some other shield set up. It's a single conductor wire wrapped in a shield. Bad.

And, Scott, man, I don't know crap about crap. I look at the pretty colored wires and connect the dots man, the whole time trying to not get shocked. :)
Click to expand...


Ah... Now I get it. You're talking bout a long speaker cable becoming almost a broadcast antennae just like a radio station tower. Makes sense. It would be broadcasting radio interferance and large runs would generate much more of it than shorter runs. I knew you'd have a different angle. Glad I included what I understood now so you'd zero right in on what I was missing. :bigok:
 
Re: Quick question about speaker cables....

Scott_F said:
When I talk about shielded, I'm not talking about making the negative lead be the shield. I was talking about a two conductor wire that was wrapped in a shielded outer casing. Have you thought about a potential interference coming from your speaker cable to another signal cable soemwhere? A 50' run would seem to open that up to some other possibilities.
Click to expand...

The problem with this is that the shield has to be grounded, and only at one end. So, you'd have to keep track of which end went to the amp and which went to the cabinet. PITA.

If you're really concerned about radiating noise, use a twisted speaker cable. These are usually a black/white twisted pair with a soft grey PCV jacket, but no shield. The twisted pair will self-cancel most of the noise, and radiate less than lamp cord.

But I say use lamp cord - it's cheap and readily available. If the PA guys don't want your guitar coupled into their lines, let THEM worry about shielding.:laughing:
 
Re: Quick question about speaker cables....

Gr8Scott said:
Ah... Now I get it. You're talking bout a long speaker cable becoming almost a broadcast antennae just like a radio station tower. Makes sense. It would be broadcasting radio interferance and large runs would generate much more of it than shorter runs. I knew you'd have a different angle. Glad I included what I understood now so you'd zero right in on what I was missing. :bigok:
Click to expand...

Wait, I have no idea what I'm talking about... do not listen to me... :)
 
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