Am about to purchase some cables.Am I wasting money if I buy expensive for main guitar lead but dont buy same quality( and cost) for effects etc.Thanks

The short answer, I would say is YES. Your signal chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. Get the best shielded cables you can afford for every part of the signal chain. Better safe than sorry.

+1

At least get two. One from guitar to pedals, the other from the pedals to the amp.

Thanks for replies.Plan now to get 2x Spectraflex cables (sound good on youtube demo/comparison and not too expensive).For effects send/return use George L solderless( get good reviews and bit cheaper than buying spectraflex patches)

BINGO!! There are many great cables to choose from, but personally, after finding the SPECTRAFLEX "FATSO FLEX" I quit buying other brands of cables. I haven't found anything I like better at any price. For me the fact that spectraflex built me custom cables with right angle plugs on both ends and had quick turnaround was a good start. Then I got them and the Fatso Flex just sounded amazing, especially on 7/8 string. Also, the ends are shrink sealed so that the connectors don't ever start separating.

There are a million opinions on cables, and a million favs from various folks. I've tried every cable that I've heard good things about and some are just stupid pricey. Glad I found these.

Assuming that your guitar is a regular passive type then any cables that have a direct electrical connection to it need to be good, eg well screened, low capacitance, low handling noise.
If your pedalboard is basic and none of the units are buffered then when the fx are switched to bypass both cables will have that direct connection and need to be equally high spec.
However most pedalboards contain a buffered pedal.
In that case there's no direct electrical connection for both cables as the one after the pedals is being fed from a non-inductive medium to low impedance circuit. That cable can be a lower spec as the application is far less demanding.
Pete

DiMarzio make excellent cables. In my opinion, anything more expensive than the DiMarzio cables probably won't give you the return on your investment that you may be seeking.

Make your own cables. It's silly to pay so much for cables when you can do it yourself. MUCH Cheaper...

mogami cable by the foot $0.86 per foot
http://www.performanceaudio.com/item/mogami-w2524/5598/

Nertrik Silent plugs $9 & $11
http://www.performanceaudio.com/cgi/search...rik+silent+plug

Get a $20 solder iron from Radio Shack and go at it!

The answer to your question is yes! You have to keep the same quality in the whole audio chain if you want to get a good, clean signal from your guitar to your amp. We have been discussing about cables many times and the conclusion is always that they are usually underrated but that they are fundamental in the audio chain.

That's what's great about GMC Lots of responses and suggestions! Let us know how it turns out

I think the important thing about cables is the fact that they all sound and perform little different.

I have a 18 foot braid fatsoflex and it has a nice sound, cuts a little highs but good mids and bass.

I have silver cables that are very lossless and seem to work the best for clean sparkle stuff but I don`t care for them for higher gain stuff.

I have a lava soar, monsters, coily and tons of old belden cable and switchcraft jacks I have been fixing for years.

I mostly play non master british amps, bright and middy so some treble roll off is not a bad thing.

Some of them work great in the studio and only ok with my rig. I use the soar and the standard belden cable the most.

I think the cable debate is similar to the boutique pedal debate. Something to consider - most of our guitar heroes, whose tone we seek to emulate, wouldn't have had all the options for cabling or pedals that we do today. A lot of pros still mostly use the traditional pedals by Boss, Digitech, etc but still manage to create amazing tone. I've never seen Mike Einziger worry about true-bypass on his board covered in Digitech pedals. In the same way, I've never heard of any pro players really obsessing that much about cables - in fact I saw an interview with Nuno saying that he prefers just normal, cheap cables to super expensive ones.

Food for thought anyway, before you spend heaps on cabling



This post has been edited by SixStringSamurai: Apr 20 2014, 08:24 PM

Hmmm ... not so simple as that.

1) all cabling 'back in the day' was actually very good quality usually Belden cable (even the coily cabling was good quality wire and jacks).
2) the amps and pedals our 'heroes' used had VERY high quality parts inside and were built by electronics engineers. Most of the classic great guitarists really cranked their amps - 200 watt Marshall Majors and Twin Reverbs. If they used a treble booster, which was very common because when you crank a Plexie style amp up all the way you lose treble, they're effectively employing a high quality buffer/booster/pre-amp.
3) our heroes gear - then and now - was/is maintained by trained 'techs'.

*4) I've actually worked for Mike Einziger ... the board I saw, though full of generic pedals (and plenty of boutique) is handled by his guitar tech and there's at least two very well designed buffers - front and back - in there.

A lot of the time the artist may not pay too much attention to their gear but the techs and sound guys do. Any pro pedal board has a really good buffer that's integral to it. It may not even be visible.

A stock Boss tuner has a really good buffer built in to it which is why it's a staple on many a 'pro' board. The better the buffer(s) on your board, the less important the cables (within reason).

A lot of pros will have one select pedal on their boards. Maybe a Klon, Demeter, CAE or Cornish pedal. Those pedals are known for their buffers.

This post has been edited by klasaine: Apr 20 2014, 09:34 PM

I recently got a good deal with Spectraflex, so I ordered some of their cables - will let you know how they feel when they arrive and then when my jacks for the George L patch cables will be here. Was a little short on money and I delayed the purchase a bit

Anyway, good cables are important - that's the conclusion we can all draw out of the discussions here

I was purchasing some simple Live Wire 6" cables and got talked into recabling everything with Mogami Gold cables. Those things are expensive too so it took a few months to get everything.

The salesperson did an excellent job of striking fear into me about a single cable being my weakest link. I will say that the hideous buzz I was hearing is gone, but that could have just come from 1 connection. Overall, I'm not hearing too much of a difference other than the noise - which I guess means the cables are doing their job.

This post has been edited by Spock: Apr 21 2014, 02:05 PM

My only suggestion (and this just comes from personal experience), don't get cables with a lot of 'features'

I've had the kind where you can switch out the plus, switches to mute the cable, volume knobs on the cable, you name it. I fell for all of them. And when the volume is down, or you have it muted and you're not getting any signal and you forget that you bought a cable that does that, you look dumb.

Just let a cable be a cable. Get something quality. Otherwise you'll be buying a mediocre cable that is $50 too expensive with extra stuff you'll never use.

The mogami stuff is, without question, great stuff. Very dependable and sounds great. It's not cheap though!!! you'll be happy with that I"m thinking. If you've got the money to spend, it's a great way to go

A very healthy approach in my opinion as well - I am the kind of guy who likes gear that does one or two things, but does them best! I dislike the 'all in one' idea - there's too much compromise for my taste usually. I'd rather save for something which suits my tastes and needs, even if it's expensive, rather then go cheap and regret it later on. I don't buy gear too often, so I guess that it's not such a big fuss I am on my wayto ordering some Spectraflex cables with which I want to experiment

Oh I saw this a while back. Read a lot of good things.

I saw Victor Wooten quite aggressively marketing the special MusicCord Pro power cable.It is priced at $200!?
Claims to improve the bass tone. What do you think about that? Can a power cable really make such an impact on the actual sound? I can understand good power cable removing hum or similar stuff but actually improving THE TONE?