Musician's, tell me about your preference in cords/cables please?

[scottmandue]

Starting to jam with a few friends so I am breaking out the old guitars, cables and amps.

And getting that good old scratchy sound and intermittent working thing going on.

I am a tech so when I ohm them out they look OK and inspecting them the solder joints look good.

So should I toss the old cable and get new ones?

Questions for the musicians out there.

How long does an instrument cable last?

What is your favorite brand of cable (top of the line of cheapest you can find?)

What about the connectors in the guitar and amp, do you ever change them out? If so what brand or source for those connectors?

Thanks in advance!

[Cajundaddy]

Most of my guitar and mic cables I hand soldered in the 70s with 500' of Belden cable and Switchcraft ends. I do need to have a repair session as about 1/2 dozen are now damaged. Modern standard duty cables are reasonably cheap at about $1/ft and I do have a few of those which work fine. I have no use for gold plated/low oxygen/superconductive high $$$ stuff. I'll reserve that for the "golden ears" set.

[flipper35]

Are the jacks just loose maybe?

[Aragorn]

Usually buzz and humms come from either a bad pot or jack on the guitar in my experience. If I let a guitar sit for too long I usually have to replace a pot or jack when I start to play it again.

If the cables are bad I usually get no signal at all.

May want to check the guitars also.

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by Cajundaddy

Most of my guitar and mic cables I hand soldered in the 70s with 500' of Belden cable and Switchcraft ends.

DOH! As a tech I should have thought!

And +1 on the jacks.

Where do you guys get your cable jacks & plugs? Allied, Digikey, mouser?

[Stonestreet]

Yeah, I've had noisy pots before. They can be cleaned. In 20 years of playing, I've only ever had to replace a jack once. It was on a 90's japanese strat.

As far as cables go, I've had luck with the planet waves brand.

Best of luck,

Marc

[ramonesfreak]

I use either a LAVA Soar solid core cable, about $65 for 6 feet. These are nice but I do have trouble adjusting to solid core cables. The lack of flex is very annoying

Or I use bullet coil classic cables. I have 2 of these that I have has since 2004 when the came out. Both are now starting to develop problems but I have beat the hell out of them. I will replace. These are my favorite for many reasons

[Cajundaddy]

Originally Posted by scottmandue

DOH! As a tech I should have thought!

And +1 on the jacks.

Where do you guys get your cable jacks & plugs? Allied, Digikey, mouser?

I have no idea what the best source is now... Amazon?? Back in 1978 there was a huge $$ savings by doing it myself and I knew if I did it right, they would last long time. These days with automation and Chinese children soldering cables in Shanghai the price advantage is gone. DIY still is a pretty big quality assurance and it sharpened my soldering skills for future repairs.

Amazon.com: Switchcraft 280 1/4" Straight Phone Plug: Electronics

Amazon.com: GLS Audio 20 Foot Guitar Instrument Cable - 1/4 Inch TS to 1/4 Inch TS 20 FT Brown Yellow Tweed Cloth Jacket - 20 Feet Pro Guitar Cord 20' Phono 6.3mm Cord - SINGLE: Musical Instruments

[rusnak]

If you have a Guitar Center nearby, ask them about the warranty on Live Wire XLR cord.

They've replace mine when one of my guys cut it with a boxcutter.

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by flipper35

Are the jacks just loose maybe?

I have a hand nut driver in the exact size for the jacks sitting on my living room table... and a Korg tuner... and a small tin full of guitar picks... yeah I'm weird.

I have been know to put a drop of thread lock on jack that have a problem staying put.

[imcarthur]

I sell instrument cables, speaker cables, XLRs etc. I know musicians sneer at cables that cost more than $15 but I have proven to many that they do make your instrument sound better – every time you pick it up. At NAMM, we use an Orange amp, an Orange speaker & a $700 Fender guitar. The majority of musicians that compare ours with a Monster, a Mogami & several other brands admit that ours sounds better & “gives them a better feel of the instrument.” Many still refuse to spend more than $15 though.

I am not selling here, just sayin’ . . .



Ian

PS Vovox is the brand. Pelican special applies if you really want one. But they are more than $15. Oh . . . and they need a break in to sound their best.

[stuartj]

MY name is Stuart and I am a cable Nazi.

There are good cables and bad cables. Some people say they can hear the differences between good cables, I cant. But as I can certainly hear the difference between a good one and a bad one. And then we go down the slippery slope of signal path, true bypass, faux true by pass, buffers, capacitance...

If you use them a lot they have to be reliable. I make my own with Mogami cable and the heavy duty Neautrik straight and r/a Neutrik plugs, they have a great cable clamping system and the solder connections dont break. For pedals, the solderless Lava cables and the small right angle connectors are convenient to config for tight spaces and reliable.

Stay away from curly cables no matter how cool they look, and keep everything as short as possible. Once you you reach about 20 ft of cable, you enter the next set of problems mentioned above.

Hey Stonestreet- this weekend I need to change a guitar jack which has gone crackly, the swithcraft part is sitting on my desk to remind me. Its an early 90s JPN strat, lol.



Stuart

[stuartj]

[nostatic]

Almost all of the ones I'm using now I got from here:

EWI GBND Guitar Cables

[ledhedsymbols]

Originally Posted by Stonestreet

Yeah, I've had noisy pots before. They can be cleaned. In 20 years of playing, I've only ever had to replace a jack once. It was on a 90's japanese strat.

As far as cables go, I've had luck with the planet waves brand.

Best of luck,

Marc

I use some stuff called De-Oxit on my antique radio pots, band switches, etc. Give it a little spritz and exercise the control and it usually does the job. Highly flammable though, so make sure it's good and dry before you use the gear.

[Nostril Cheese]

I buy cable in bulk and make my own. I tend to re-flow the solder joints every year or so. Cable issues in my experience are usually a bad jack or pot.

Ian, how exactly does a cable "break in"?

[Rick Lee]

I also started making my own. You can get Mogami instrument cable for $.44/ft and good plugs for $2 each. I have less than $10 into a cable that would run almost $100 from Mogami and I do notice a difference in sound.

[imcarthur]

Originally Posted by Nostril Cheese

Ian, how exactly does a cable "break in"?

Plug it in & use it. Does it sound better after you have used it for a week or two? No? That's cool. Yes? That's even cooler.

Ian

[targa911S]

Originally Posted by Nostril Cheese

I buy cable in bulk and make my own. I tend to re-flow the solder joints every year or so. Cable issues in my experience are usually a bad jack or pot.

Ian, how exactly does a cable "break in"?

you step on it 100 times...come on man...

[targa911S]

I have been using a 15' monster cable for about a year now. Hell I can't hear any difference. Hell I can't hear much anyway. I don't like the way it won't lay down for me it just wants to coil up no matter how many times I step on it. I like a 15' for small stages/clubs and 30' for big stages. They all fail in the end, so I just buy what appears to be good quality when they are on sale. For jacks and stuff I use Stewmac and I like switchcraft.