If you're hearing a difference in cables, you need to rethink your pedalboard and put at least one more buffer (or buffered-bypass pedal) on it. Yes, different cables have different capacitance, but with runs below about 8 feet, the difference is totally inaudible. Anything longer than 8 feet should have a buffer driving it, which in turn makes the capacitance no longer matter.
When can you hear cable quality
- Thread starter alex1fly
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Gtrjunior
New member
I thought the same thing until I bought my board. It incorporates a Musicomlab switcher that has 2 buffers built in. One is always on the other is switchable.
It didn’t matter how I set it, the difference was there and very noticeable.
Even with short patch cables.
GuitarStv
Sock Market Trader
Buffers can really suck if you use a fuzz face.
Just put it first in your chain and stand within 8 feet of it at all times, problem solved!
PFDarkside
of the Forum
Earplugs always. And again, if it’s recorded, awesome. If not, I won’t be able to hear it.As long as you don't do this for too long right
Coma
Well-known member
LIterally the only time in 20 or so years I've ever noticed any difference is with a cheap 9 meter Thomann cable In my home rig, and I'm guessing that's more to do with cable length than quality. I don't buy any of the "superior cable bacuse XYZ and gold plated connectors" voodoo. Where money does matter is build quality, but that's about it.
For most store-bought cables, you would be hard-pressed to really tell much difference in a live situation. Where I find it to be more obvious is when you roll the volume down. If you work the volume control a lot, the difference in cables becomes a little more apparent. I have a couple of cables that sound very different when plugged in even straight from the guitar to the amp with the volume all the way up, most of them sound the same though. My favorite cables are some from the '90s that I got from a Sam Goody. Live Wire or something like that. They were cheap 25' cables and still to this day are the best sounding ones I own.
BluesMan335
New member
JB_From_Hell
Jomo's Nimions
If I A/B my cables at home, I can hear a little more presence from my old DiMarzio than the rest. I can also more clearly hear the Planet Waves mid tier cable (with the fat molded ends) is darker than the rest.
Jamming with someone, where I’m paying more attention to playing than the tone, I don’t notice any difference.
Jamming with someone, where I’m paying more attention to playing than the tone, I don’t notice any difference.
GuitarStv
Sock Market Trader
Not really.
Capacitance in a cable reduces the highs produced by a pickup. Cables also have impedance . . . which reduces the lows produced by a pickup. A treble bleed shunts some treble to the jack at full volume as the guitar volume is rolled back and reduces volume of all the other frequencies.
The treble bleed will change the character of the signal that goes into the cable to be brighter at lower volumes, but it's still going to have the highs and some lows lopped off by the cable, and this tends to be more audible when the signal from the guitar is lower.
Gtrjunior
New member
eclecticsynergy
New member
I hear more difference between cables using a PRS with a bleed cap than I do when playing a Les Paul without one.
I agree differences between cables are more readily apparent when rolling the guitar volume back.
Treble bleed keeps the tone brighter when rolled back, so there's extra treble happening for a high capacitance cable to lose.
It's not that the cables actually are behaving any differently, there's just more treble for them to mess with.
So IMO the losses are more obvious.
80's_Thrash_Metal
Slightly_Glazed_Believer
I buy good and expensive cables because the internet tells me I should.
I don't think most people can hear the difference, outside of the studio engineers and the audiophiles.
I think of it as general noisiness from a cheap cable or no noise from a quality cable.
I don't think most people can hear the difference, outside of the studio engineers and the audiophiles.
I think of it as general noisiness from a cheap cable or no noise from a quality cable.
NegativeEase
New member
A tone manssiere.
NegativeEase
New member
Exactly, if you are playing live or jammin, there is no reason to worry about ultrapremium cables and nothing EQ cant augment if you thought you needed a little more of something.
In a recording environment at the multitrack, yeah some people may hear it, but then I have to ask several questions:
- What guitarist actually needs more 8-15k in their tone? (that's where most people can hear the difference)
- If you hear a real tightness in the lower bass, do you think that is going to survive the VCAs and compression over the dither to a final mix with other instruments?
- What is your tracking sample rate and bit depth and what is your consumption format and sample/bit for that and do you think an ultra premium cable's capacitance difference makes it to that phase?
I would argue the connector quality, ultra low profile angles on a pedal board, custom lengths etc are the better reason to use the expensive stuff over the "sound"
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High impedance (passive) signal will lose high frequencies in proportion to how long the cable is. Playing passive pickups through a short cable in the studio is best case scenario; you probably won't hear much loss.
I haven't read much about it, but its conceivable that different gauge wire presents more or less resistance. A high quality thicker gauge cable might preserve tone better on a long run. Or the opposite might be true. I suspect the answer is that all well designed cables will sound identical; its possible that cheap cables could lose more signal.
Low impedance (active) pickups maintain sound quality on much longer cable runs.
I haven't read much about it, but its conceivable that different gauge wire presents more or less resistance. A high quality thicker gauge cable might preserve tone better on a long run. Or the opposite might be true. I suspect the answer is that all well designed cables will sound identical; its possible that cheap cables could lose more signal.
Low impedance (active) pickups maintain sound quality on much longer cable runs.
I believe that many cables are designed to sound a certain way. Mogami for sure. Their shortest cable sounds just like their longest cable. This is because they engineer a certain amount of capacitance into each cable. I believe that Mogami in particular actually has a bit more capacitance than your average cheap cable, this makes it so that the cable sounds less brittle, bright, or brash when you have the volume all the way up as most guitarists do. They engineer more capacitance into each shorter length of cable to match the sound of their longest one. I am pretty certain other higher-end brands are doing this as well.
If you think about it, if you buy a cheap cable and it sounds really bright, or brash, it is probably because it has little or NO capacitance in it. This makes it as clear and real as it gets. It doesn't sound good, to most players because it sounds brighter. Just my theory anyway.
If you think about it, if you buy a cheap cable and it sounds really bright, or brash, it is probably because it has little or NO capacitance in it. This makes it as clear and real as it gets. It doesn't sound good, to most players because it sounds brighter. Just my theory anyway.
