The Best Guitar Cable Jump on any gear forum and you’re bound to see debates about “the best guitar cable”. There are myriad claims, “information” and people will fight to the virtual death over issues like capacitance, tone suck, conductive plating, directional current, tone, presence and the ever important cryogenically frozen reverse oxidized double spec phase inverted technology! Needless to say, it can be overwhelming.
Instrument Cables: One end goes in the guitar jack. The other goes into your amp or first pedal in the chain etc. These cables are unbalanced (as opposed to a 3 conductor balanced mic cable) and generally have two conductors. The center conductor is surrounded by the ground. This shields from EMF (electric and magnetic fields) and RF (radio frequencies).
Patch Cables: These work on the exact same two conductor principle as an instrument cable but they are designed to be small and compact. The idea behind these is to connect a chain of pedals while keeping things neat. Many brands of patch cables have a very thin insulator (the rubber stuff on the outside). This is simply because they aren’t going to be experiencing much movement and don’t need to be durable like a guitar cable that’s getting dragged around and stepped on.
Speaker Cables: These are an entirely different cable. They are not shielded like an instrument cable, are a larger gauge than a guitar cable and they are designed to carry much more current. How much current you ask? Well, I could tell you a story of the time I licked the end of a monitor cable in hopes of discovering if any signal was coming through.
What are the best patch cables for my pedal board? Glad you asked! There are hundreds of different brands and styles out there and it gets a little overwhelming. Here are the benchmarks of a good patch cable. • They pass signal • They are easy to position and manipulate • They are durable – This is relative to the application. If you’re not using a pedal board invest in quality / thick soldered patch cables. They are going to get beat up. If you are using a pedal board try to find the smallest option possible that meets the above requirements.
What speaker cable should I buy? Buy something durable that you like the look and feel of. You want it to hold up under situations like an amp falling over on it, roadies using it to hoist equipment, securing a loose axle on the tour trailer etc. Just get something tough that you like. Salvage sells custom speaker cables with a cool vintage vibe. It’s just some high quality wire I found that we solder high quality jacks to. It looks cool, it feels good and it lasts. If you like it, buy it.
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