cables - what's hype, what's legit

Is there a difference? Absolutely. Is it worth the money? That depends.

Regular old copper is about 99% pure. 'Grade A' copper is about 99.9% pure (and still cheap - under $4 per pound).

The other 0.1% is impurities... and most of them are oxygen; that's because oxygen is actually added to the copper during refining to burn off other impurities. So you can start doing other refining processes to get rid of oxygen, which makes for purer copper. The next step up is 'very high purity' copper at 99.997% - but you can start calling it 'oxygen free' at about 99.95%. As you continue refining, you keep adding 9s - practically speaking, 99.9999% is as high as you can go.

Oh, people will market purer copper than six nines. But they probably can't prove it - testing the copper introduces impurities, and six nines is down to 1 part per million of other stuff.

Anyway, purity is only one side of the story. The other side is "grain size". Think about how a lake freezes over - ice forms here, ice forms there, eventually those little bits join up to make something that's solid. Copper cools the same way, and those bits of ice that form have microscopic boundaries. The more small pieces you started with, the more boundaries the signal will have to 'jump' across.

OFC has about 50 grains per meter. If you really want to talk 'Cadillac', you want OCC copper (Ohno Continuous Casting process). OCC copper is gradually extruded and the cooling is controlled - a single grain can be as long as about 400 feet! So the gold standard would be making cables that each contain a single crystal.

High end audio cables do just that. Look at cables by MIT or Shunyata - their top of the line speaker cables will set you back $5000-8000 per 8 foot pair. On the copper quality spectrum, those Monster cables are really pretty low-tech.

Oh, and over 20 years ago, Stereo Review magazine conducted a double-blind test using regular speaker wire, high end speaker wire, and 16 gauge lamp cord over a 30 foot length. Listeners could tell the difference between the high end and the cheap stuff... but not between the high end and the lamp cord! So measureable performance and perceived performance differ quite a bit - heavy cables are definately worth it, and high-end heavy cables are probably a waste of money.

For the other stuff...

Time Correct Windings are one way to reduce 'skinning' in a signal. IMO, this is like grain size - measureable, but unimportant in a practical sense.

Gold plated connectors - gold doesn't react (tarnish) like copper. If you keep your cables in good shape, gold plating will keep the transfer across the connection pretty darn good over the long haul. Many cables have gold plating, even less expensive ones.

For my money, the most important thing isn't the copper or plating though - it's the durability of the connector joint. The weak spot on a guitar cord is the solder joint to the connector end; if that snaps, the copper purity won't make a difference. Monster standards are nice and durable at about $16-25.

For my money, the most important thing isn't the copper or plating though - it's the durability of the connector joint. The weak spot on a guitar cord is the solder joint to the connector end; if that snaps, the copper purity won't make a difference.

Absolutely; I got a couple of cheap MF cables (made by AXL) and they have both failed at the connector joint. It must be the rigorous church-band environment I play in ... :roll:

No problems yet with Planet Waves cables, and the Core X2 product seems well made for a fairly low price.

http://www.coreoneproduct.com/pages/corex2web/corex2cablesinst.html

Some months ago I had a very bad experience with Yellow Cable. Then I bought a Planet Waves and it is great. They use a kind of spring in the jack for avoiding the connector goes out.

Last week I also bought a Die Hard cable by Proel for a mic. It is lightly cheaper than the Planet Waves but I like it also.

Since that bad experience I try to buy good cables. Sometimes they are a 2-4% of all the equipment and we try to save money for this weak part.

+1 for planet waves cables, more expensive than the junkers which have inadequate connectors and joints in my opinion ( about 25-30 Canadian bux for 15 to 20 footers) but worth it. I have had some for 3 years or so no problems and as was said I do like the molded connector with the spring which stops it from disconnecting easily. They also sell cables with right angle plugs for those amps that connect on the top such as my Roland cube bass amp this helps reduce strain on the connector. But I am no Angus Young so they may or may not give similar performance if you are an active player.
Robbie

As has been already said, connector quality (and strain relief quality) is the first thing to look at.
For 1/4 inch, I like to see either a Switchraft connector with a length heat shrink over it (like this), or a Neutrik connector (like this).
Most failures that I have seen happened within a few inches of the connector, and that extra reinforcing of the shrink tubing will reduce the strain on the cable.

I prefer connectors that I can open up and re-solder if I have to.
It also allows me to see what the cable quality is (not the purity of the copper, but the thickness) as well as the quality of the insulation.

All things being equal, a cable that feels "limp" (for lack of a better term) is probably not going to last as long as one which feels more solid.

As in so many things, don't pay extra just 'cause something has a certain brand name, or an effective marketing department.

Good quality, properly assembled Switchcraft connectors generally make the grade for the stage. I have one Monster Cable guitar lead I never use unless desperate. Nothing wrong with it except the sexy custom, gold-plated connector at one end keeps coming unscrewed and falling apart during use -- easy to reassemble, but it's real-world useless. Talk about an overpriced, idiotic design.

As for cable quality: A lot of what NB says is good advice. A high tech nonsense explanation and sell job is usually misdirection, overkill or at least a primrose path. If someone tells me they have a good, strong, well connected, quality wire/shield cable to sell me for $40 USD, I'm far more likely to believe they have a good product than the techie slickster with the 99.99999999 OFC, phase corrected Litz wire, with free-range PVC jacketing, listing at $129.99, but mine for merely $79.95. The second guy's explanation might even be accurate, but he is clearly overselling something. And that oversell is usually for something I don't need.

Besides, once that signal enters my FX and amp all the time correction (phasing) is out the window.

Tom, nice details in that one. I've bought cheap cables and they would break. I bought some $20 braided cables and they broke. So I decided to spend a bit more and not be aggravated.

These have a nice braided cloth on the exterior (they won't tangle, yea!) and have the rubber heat shrink over the ends. Best of all, you get to choose your own color! I like the Fatsoflex.

http://www.spectraflex.com/cables.html

I don't work for the company but have bought 7 of their cables because they are great! There are two other neat features. They'll put a spring load on one end of the cable so you can pull the cord out of your guitar without hearing that massive "pop" come from your amp. And for those who play guitars with the cord jack on the face of the body, they have the option to have a right angle put on. Very cool.

You could also make your own if you are somewhat handy with a soldering iron. Good cable is about 50 cents a foot (depending on where you buy it and in what quantity) and a switchcraft plug is about $4-5 each. If you're not handy with a soldering iron the Planet Waves plugs are $8 to $11 (depending on if it's got the circuit breaker switch) - those don't need soldering but just screw into the wire. I'm not sure if the Planet Waves cables need their own special wire or not.

You could also make your own if you are somewhat handy with a soldering iron. Good cable is about 50 cents a foot (depending on where you buy it and in what quantity) and a switchcraft plug is about $4-5 each. If you're not handy with a soldering iron the Planet Waves plugs are $8 to $11 (depending on if it's got the circuit breaker switch) - those don't need soldering but just screw into the wire. I'm not sure if the Planet Waves cables need their own special wire or not.

If you're really into the technical aspect of 'tone' (for example some people think that amps that are 'hand wired' have better tone than printed circuit boards), i think that's the way to go. I've never built my own but I've fixed broken cables of mine, I use the cables I bought from my local music store and they seem to work fine, so I've never understood why anyone would pay over $20 or so for 10-20 feet of cable.

You could also make your own if you are somewhat handy with a soldering iron. Good cable is about 50 cents a foot (depending on where you buy it and in what quantity) and a switchcraft plug is about $4-5 each. If you're not handy with a soldering iron the Planet Waves plugs are $8 to $11 (depending on if it's got the circuit breaker switch) - those don't need soldering but just screw into the wire. I'm not sure if the Planet Waves cables need their own special wire or not.

If you're really into the technical aspect of 'tone' (for example some people think that amps that are 'hand wired' have better tone than printed circuit boards), i think that's the way to go. I've never built my own but I've fixed broken cables of mine, I use the cables I bought from my local music store and they seem to work fine, so I've never understood why anyone would pay over $20 or so for 10-20 feet of cable.

It's not just for the "technical aspect of 'tone'". It's because I'm frugal (I'm careful about how and where I spend my hard earned cash). Once you start needing more than one cable (cable from a pedal to your amp, cable from one pedal to another, footswitch cable to control the reverb on the amp, etc., etc.) it becomes worth it to buy some raw cable and some connectors. If you're just using the $20 for 20 ft cable then the savings aren't as great but they're still there. The difference between making and buying becomes more pronounced as you increase the quality of the cable (there's a bigger markup on the higher end cables).