Your favorite guitar cable?

Re: Your favorite guitar cable?

Monster Studio Pro 1000. Cost an arm and a leg but are clear as a bell and have lasted me at least 7-8 years without a single issue.

People think I'm crazy for buying them but they sound fantastic.

Screw 'em. It's your money and your tone.
 
Re: Your favorite guitar cable?

Monster Studio Pro 1000. Cost an arm and a leg but are clear as a bell and have lasted me at least 7-8 years without a single issue.

People think I'm crazy for buying them but they sound fantastic.

Ugh. I have a 10" or 12" (whichever length is actually available) Studio Pro 1000 cable too, but I am not impressed about it at all. Yeah, there's a heap of tone, but to me it obscured what I was trying to hear and that was as much of the acoustics of my guitar I could - without all the spices it brings with it. Plus, it's really warm with a good deal of lows. Thick cable and noise-free, but way too much eq interference for me when I'm trying to identify the seperate tones in the different parts of my rig.
 
Re: Your favorite guitar cable?

Seriously?

I've tried a test with some friends where we plugged in some George L's, some mogami cables, some planet waves, some monster cables, and some cheapo bargain basement cables. We each took turns wearing a blind fold and having someone else plug in the cable before we started playing. Other than the cheapo cable (which you could occasionally hear some static on because it hadn't been soldered properly) all of the cables sounded identical. None of us could hear anything different between them.

Have you ever done a double blind test with cables and been able to identify different brands? If so, I'm very impressed with your superhuman hearing skills.

Hahaha... I don't have superhuman hearing skills at all! It's really just a matter of time and money. When I sought out to look at instrument cables as a part of my rig, I just put time into learning some things and spending money on different cables 'til I found the one that suited me best overall.

Also, another important aspect about cables is feel. That was my most important objective along with being able to hear everything in the least eq'd manner possible short of spending $600 on a cable made by NASA. And the real reason I stopped short of something like that is that I play Heavy Metal, so it's not like I need exactly that much transparency and whatnot.

Feel was important to me because alot of times you'll need to play your electric axe acoustically and as a result you'll have a natural feel of things that way. What happens when you plug in is that some cable can 'blunt' certain aspects of the acoustics that were much easier to notice during acoustic playing. Essentially, I just want to hear everything in my rig so that it matches what I'm hearing when playing my electric guitar acoustically. The PWCP cable allows me to retain the feel and tones of my gear to the most satisfying degree compared to other cables I tried. Most other cables pre-eq'd my tone which messed with my trying to isolate certain tones and working on them individually. With some cable you end up really digging in when playing them even though most wouldn't recognize the disconnect between what their axe and guitar pick sounded like before plugging in. Ignorance is bliss and I sometimes wish I never got so interested in the idiosyncracies of tone. But, I am glad I did to some extent though I suppose.
 
Re: Your favorite guitar cable?

I even tried 2 Mogami's patch cables against 2 george L's, the mogami's sounded bassier at high volume and the george L's sounded clearer. So the mogami's went back to the store, I did like heavy duty jacks though.
 
Re: Your favorite guitar cable?

IME, Fender cables have always let me down. I stick with Spectraflex cables. Never a single problem.
 
Re: Your favorite guitar cable?

I've been using a Fender cable for years now that I got with my American Strat. Most other cables I've used have crackled out or died by now but this one has stayed strong for the last 5 years.

I'd say stick with the local brands, or planet waves or something else generally that's relatively cheap and replaceable. It starts making more and more of a difference the longer your signal path is and the more pedals you have in the way. If you don't have more than one or two pedals then any cable will do, legitimately.
 
Re: Your favorite guitar cable?

I've been a fan of Whirlwind cables since the 80s. I bought an original 18.6' Leader back in 86/87 and it's still going strong! I bought some recent Whirlwind Elites in the Toaster Cord cloth braided cable and while they are nice and sound good I don't like the way they twist and bind and I thought braided cable minimized this to a degree.

Also bought a Gotham cable from Mark @ Lava Cable and I really like it. Had a problem with the order and I guess it's the website as I ordered a black one, but got a blue cord, and I ordered 2 other Gepco cables and all the ends of all the cables came in with nickel plugs when the site itself and a couple of reminders I left via paypal message through his site's ordering page and email message that I wanted the black housing with gold plug. The idea after you order there really isn't an order conformation of what you ordered so you are left wondering, "Did my order go through?" "Will I get the correct items?" I did call him but trying to get a hold of him after several messages left was getting frustrating. After calling him I felt a little better but told him my frustration with the website and he mentioned it would be taken care of. Fast forward 3-4 months and I want to order 2 shorted Gepco cables (this time with the black/gold right angle G&H plugs (as his site still lists this as standard issue for these cables) as the last time I didn't get too pissed he overlooked that on my order and received the wrong color plugs on all 3 cables) again specifying I need the black and gold plugs but have this unsettling feeling like I will be getting wrong items again. I would think for a high end cable dealer there has to be a better way of ordering as his paypal method leaves a lot to be desired.
 
Re: Your favorite guitar cable?

I like George L's. Been using them for over 10 years and have never had to replace one. If they do get staticy it's usually just a loose end. Tighten it back up and we are good to go!
 
Re: Your favorite guitar cable?

I think I have some planet waves at home - these sound fine to me....always wondered why I have not seen any frequency response measurements from some of the cable makers (though I only checked a couple of sites). It such an easy thing to do (though I guess a bit subject on the loads at both ends) but if there was a standard at least you could compare cables and see if there really is a difference.
 
Re: Your favorite guitar cable?

Maybe, someday I'll need expensive cables, but not really now. Seems like a marginal difference in sound quality and/or shielding isn't worth the expense. I'll probably change my tune though... like I usually do.
 
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Re: Your favorite guitar cable?

The Planet Waves stuff has a nice immediate upper midrange push that really stands out for guitar, but if you compare it to other stuff you'll realize just how much low end gets cut with them. It's somewhat of a trade off given the feel and the excitement of the cable. There's no denying the midrange emphasis and clarity, it's definitely not a "slow" sounding cable by any means.

I'm looking forward to some new cables I had ordered, the Sommer Grindycop Beast for long runs and Mulder Audio X Pedal patch cables for the pedalboard. Given my luck with Mulder Audio's speaker cables (biggest difference I've ever heard with cables, period), I have a funny feeling the patch cables are going to be keepers. The Sommer sounds like it's a pretty balanced and responsive cable that's supposed to be a step up from the ELC, so I'll just have to wait and see. It's priced a lot fairer than the Vovox, Van Den Hull, and Evidence Audio stuff.
 
Re: Your favorite guitar cable?

my favorite cable is the one that doesn't crackle when I move around
it is about 15 years old and just has a store logo on it
 
Re: Your favorite guitar cable?

i really like mogami cables. when i get the cash together, i'm going to set up my entire board with mogami wire and neutrick connectors.
 
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