Do leads affect tone??

You will probably get all kinds of opinions on this one. :D

I have never been one to purchase super expensive leads (cords) that promise better tone. I really do not know what they mean by that. I plug my guitar in, then I adjust my amp and eq pedal to get the tone I want. I think I can do this with any cable.

There are tone freaks out there. They will argue about the most imperceptible tone. They always claim to have this fantastic tone, and if you don't use the exact pedals, pickups, cables, strings..... they use, then they say you aren't getting good tone.

But what is good tone?? I love many tones. I love the clean tone of a Fender amp with reverb, the ole Surf tone. I love the sound of Tele twang. I love the great crunch of a Marshall amp like old Bad Company or AC/DC. But I hate the mega distortion many Metal players use. But that is me, those Metal guys love this tone and hate the tones I like.

Like I said, I just turn knobs until I get a tone that turns me on. That is good tone to me. I don't worry whether my pedals are true-bypass or if I have the best pickups, or if my cables are gold plated.

My 2 cents.

As for picking up radio, I believe that happens when you have a ground loop. When your amp and effects are plugged into the same circuit it creates a circle or loop that acts like an antenna. Sometimes you can pick up radio waves. I remember once practicing when I suddenly heard the police talking through my amp. I looked out the window and a Police car was driving by my house. But I think that is the one and only time I have ever picked up the radio like that.

Or it can be caused by a bad ground, or bad shielding or a loose connection.

High impedance non-balanced inputs to high gain amplifiers are (almost by design) excellent radio receivers.
Unfortunately, that's exactly what most guitar/amp combinations are.
Humbuckers are a bit less susceptible than single coils, but they aren't immune.

Back when I was mixing bands in the bars, I would check all the power plugs on the stage to make sure they had functioning grounds (as well ad if they were wired correctly) and if I found a bad one, I'd make sure none of teh stage gear used it.
Occasionally I'd find a spot on stage where any single coil guitar would hummm like a beast. Often moving a step in any direction would quieten things down (sometimes just turning 90 degrees would do it).

Is your guitar's pickup cavity shielded properly?

What happens if you wiggle your cables near the connectors?

And, yes, really cheap cables can add to the problem, because they often have very poor shielding within the cable, as well as weak, easily damaged connectors.

I read a great piece on this a while back.....I wish I could recall it now.......

the basic gist of it was....as long as you don't get the cheapest of cheap cables and don't have 100m+ of lead, there's v. little difference.

the more complicated bit (with numerous errors here on my part, no doubt to be corrected by others - thanks ricochet, gnease, etal, lol).......

the effect of cables differs depending on what you use the cable for. now, for some use (I think cables in the actual amp was one example, audio listening may be another), stuff like gold-shielding is a plus since the signal is pretty high and is therefore more affected by external factors and whatnot, and you want good transfer rates (e.g. latency issues). but, guitars produce a relatively low signal, and most guitar cables are sufficiently insulated as to prevent most external noise, and there's miniscule (if that) latency issue involved.

I swear, I don't remember the specifics, I'll repost if I find the link for ya. but they gave a huge amount of reasons which (imho) supported my own experience that, provided you don't buy the cheapest of cheap cables, there's no difference whatsoever. I have know at least one pro guitarist who will swear differently. but they happen to get their cables free as an endorsement deal, so I'm not convinced. I also know a bunch of other things which dissuade me from their pov (e.g. being 'happy' with solid state tone vs tube tone - I think there's a more noticeable difference in SS vs Tube than decent guitar cable vs v. expensive guitar cable).

the site the article was on was all geared to tone, so maybe a google search with that as part of the criteria will throw something up.

I believe there are real differences, but don't usually worry too much about my leads/cables as long as they are (without too requiring to much conscious notice): reliable, not too long, not obviously tone killing, realistically RFI resistant and tastefully matched to the decor of my rig :roll: . Which means it's not something I think about too often, unless the problem is really freaking obvious. There is so many other things that muck up my tone worse ... including me. Oh yeah, and if I've had a good history with a cable, I like to be able to tell it apart from everyone else's at the end of the night when it's every (wo)man for self during teardown.

Couple of specific opinions:

Complicated, fancy, custom-designed goldplated connectors are rarely better than well-soldered Switchcraft or a quality Neutrik connectors. In fact some of these fancy connectors are of Monsterously poor mechanical designs and come unscrewed during performances. Really annoying.

There are not many practically valid electrical reasons for making a cable directional (this end guitar, that end amp). One that is valid is having a kill switch designed into the connector ... either manual, auto or breakaway. If you buy a fancy directional guitar lead that has differential twisted pair + single sided shield grounding, someone should probably manage your money for you or smack you in the head :P .

FWIW, the current Guitar Player magazine has a guitar cable comparo article, and concludes with picks at all price levels.

This is gonna be a good post. :D

I hope I didn't give the wrong impression, I buy good guitar cords (leads, cables....). I don't buy those super-expensive ones, but I don't buy the cheap ones either. Although I will say this, I bought a couple of super-cheap cables from Musician's Friend once just to practice around the house and they lasted for many years. They also never tangled like my more expensive cables.

The thing I worry about most with guitar cords is that the wire is securely soldered to the jack. I have always moved around a lot when I play, and I have stepped on my cords many times. It gives you a good yank! :shock:

After a few good yanks like this, cheap cables will short out. Either they won't play, or they will make horrible noises at the worst time. So to me, the jack connection is the most important part of any guitar cord. I use about a 25' cable to run from my pedalboard to my amp, but I usually use a short 10' or 15' to go from my guitar to the pedalboard. So losing signal over distance has never been an issue for me.

And what do people mean by sucking tone? I don't care whether you use a cheap or super expensive cable, they are gonna sound a little different. Even expensive cables will often roll off your high frequencies at times. So, I simply go over and boost my Highs on my amp or EQ pedal. So cables really don't affect my tone, I am always going to tweak my amp, pedals, eq, and guitar to get the tone I want regardless of the cables I use.

Every component of your guitar rig has it's own distinct tone, just adjust your tone at the amp, pedals, and guitar and you are good to go.

I'm with Wes on this one.
my cables are not cheap and not the hyped brand. I use the right length for the job. they are kept in good condition.
I doubt I could hear any miniscule difference anyway. I adjust my gear settings to the project or house to get my tone.
clean electricity is always best. in a garage jam situation it would not matter. in a recording session, absolutely.

Just to add some fuel to any potential flamewar, here's a comparison between ultra-hyped brand-name speaker cables and plain wire coat hangers. :twisted:

As for myself, I make my own cables using by soldering Neutrik connectors to Belden or Digiflex bulk cable.

. In fact some of these fancy connectors are of Monsterously poor mechanical designs and come unscrewed during performances.

Hmmm, I wonder which brand you're talking about ...
:wink:

Just to add some fuel to any potential flamewar, here's a comparison between ultra-hyped brand-name speaker cables and plain wire coat hangers.
I've seen similar tests that had similar results from one of the high-end audio mags a number of years ago. They ran 3 types of wiring in the test: 1) cheap speaker cable; 2) expensive speaker cable (the really expensive stuff *); good gauge regular lamp cord. Which one lost? The cheap speaker cable because it was of such thin gauge. Which one won? It was tie between the expensive speaker cable and the lamp cord. The lamp cord was hundreds of dollars less.

* - The audio nuts are worse than certain segments of the guitar crowd as far as assigning almost spiritual powers to gear. Monster cable is not even close in price (though more than I want to pay - I use lamp cord for my speakers) to some of those high-end audio cables where they end up being directional, mono-crystal, cryogenically treated, made by naked elves in the black forest under moonlight, etc. etc.

As others have said the end connectors and how well they are attached makes a big difference. If they are either soldered or one of the no-solder type (e.g. Planet Waves) then you can just snip off a 1/4 to a 1/2 a foot when the end goes bad and then re-attach the connector. I find that for me the end of the cable is where it goes bad because that's where it gets the most flexing. If the connectors are molded type then when the ends go bad you'll just have to buy new connectors to attach to the remaining cable or throw it out.

The other difference between cheap cable and more expensive (but still reasonable) cable is the amount of shielding coverage. Some of the cheaper cables don't have as much of it - the shield braid has a lower percentage coverage. The percentage coverage is how much of the surface of the cable is covered by shielding braid. The more coverage the better the resistance to interference.

As has already been said, reliability (mainly an issue of the connectors and their attachment) is the main consideration, and proper shielding can reduce interference. As for tone, as long as cables have inductance and capacitance, they'll affect tone. But cable manufacturers don't give us specific information about their cable's ratings in this regard. You'll see some pickup sites rating pickups' resonant frequencies, Q, inductance and capacitance alone or with various lengths of typical cable that will give you an idea of how cables affect tone. Basically you want to keep the cable as short as possible if you don't want it to affect tone much, and as you go to longer cables you'll lower the peak response frequency, lower the peak amplitude and spread out the curve (lower Q.) I can't imagine that the price of the cable is reflected in these electrical characteristics.

Thanks for all your input - it's really as hard as defining 'tone' isn't it? I'm still trying to find my 'sound' & I get all these theories put towards me. I think I can cross cables off the list as I'm not that much of an audiophile. The search continues & next on the list of mods is a humbucker for Christine... But I guess I'd better start a new thread for that one. :D

I'm not going to buy a $60 cable for my $30 guitar. :lol:

I'm not going to buy a $60 cable for my $30 guitar. :lol:
where is the "Amen" emoticon when you need it?

There are "amen" emoticons, but apparently not in GN's set.