Best Guitar Cable ?

Here’s my thinking on cables:

1. Capacitance is important, especially from the guitar to the first buffered pedal, or of course, to the amp. Why? Capacitance rolls off high frequencies in unbalanced cables, and affects how long a cable run can be before your hear signal loss. You can start to hear signal loss with most guitar cables in less than ten feet.

This is because the high impedance signal coming off your guitar pickups is very low level (this is why buffers are important in longer cable runs, they convert high impedance signals from the guitar to low impedance, which is less affected by capacitance).

One reason the PRS/VanDamme sounds good is that its capacitance is very low, 25 picofarads per foot. This is among the lowest on the market; most highly regarded cables are close to 50 PF/foot.

What this means is a twenty foot PRS cable run sounds like a ten foot run of higher capacitance cable, such as Canare or Mogami. For reference a lower capacitance number is better at preserving highs than a higher number.

Here are some capacitance numbers of competitive cables; Mogami is 49 picofarads per foot. Canare is 49 PF/foot, Evidence Melody is 28.

No wonder that so many of us like PRS/VanDamme, or Evidence cables. Given your typical 15-20/foot cable, you’re losing less of the guitar’s high frequencies than you do with even the very good Mogami or Canare stuff. Unfortunately, Evidence’s solid core cable is very stiff, see my discussion below.

I should mention that my studio (both current and former) has been wired with Mogami for 30 years, and some of my cable runs are from 1990. None has failed. But I use Mogami for low impedance audio signals, mic cables, etc., not for guitar any more.

The lowest capacitance cable on the market is the German made Sommer Spirit XXL. It’s more expensive than the others, but the capacitance is only 16pf/foot. I have one of these, and it lets more high frequencies through, but it’s stiffer than the VanDamme, and tangles more easily. It’s fine for recording, but I wouldn’t want to do a show with it.

By the way, Van Damme is highly regarded. Abbey Road Studio is wired with it. Doesn’t get better than that.

2. Another big factor in cable choice is noise rejection. Cables that pick up noise from nearby electrical equipment, radio stations, etc., don’t help matters out. Also, some cables have mechanical handling noise problems, they crackle when moved. Good cables don’t have these problems.

3. Untangling cables, or tripping on them because they don’t lay flat on stage or in the studio are things that suck. The PRS cables are highly flexible, don’t easily tangle, and lay flat. This is a real advantage for cable runs of any length, such as from pedalboard to amps, etc.

Now, all that said, some players WANT cables that lose some high frequencies. Carlos Santana is one; the PRS Sweet Switch was designed to make Carlos sound like he was using a 100 foot cable, if memory serves.

What folks should not want are cables that fail because of poor design, or bad termination, or crap plugs.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the dissertation! ;)
Thanks for the excellent explanation! It was a day late for me after I bought a Mogami Gold. Nevertheless I have a PRS van damme on order. The Mogami is a vast improvement to the crap cords from a particular guitar company I used for years. Cheers
 
I don’t know if I could work from home every day, I’ll be too distracted by playing guitar. Unless of course that was my job
I thought that, too. Turns out work keeps me busier than I thought. If I were wasting two hours a day commuting, I’d be way behind, and never have time to play.
 
Question... I'm an mfx user. Would that mean I need 2 good cables (like the Van Damme), 1 for guitar to mfx and another 1 for mfx to amp?
 
Was looking to get a new Tuner for a grab'n'go board for a friend and was looking at the TC Polytune 3 which has a built in buffer, then I looked at all his old cables he brought me, then it just occurred to me:
Wouldn't a buffer help your signal if the cable isn't the best?
Would it be best to change all your cabling, or just add a good buffer?
 
I've been using Free The Tone cables and was pretty amazed by how great they sound compared to a standard cable. It's like your signal gets an immediate volume boost.
 
I've just bought myself a Van Damme cable with the silent plug on after reading about them here. I needed a new cable anyway as the one I normally use has started to get noisy when being moved.
So far I'm really liking it, they're not crazy expensive and the silent plug end works great. I didn't realize that they are also made in the UK which is bonus
 
Was looking to get a new Tuner for a grab'n'go board for a friend and was looking at the TC Polytune 3 which has a built in buffer, then I looked at all his old cables he brought me, then it just occurred to me:
Wouldn't a buffer help your signal if the cable isn't the best?
Would it be best to change all your cabling, or just add a good buffer?

The problem is that the cable capacitance attenuates the high frequencies between the guitar and the buffer. The buffer can’t restore what’s already lost. It can only preserve the signal it receives.

The goal is to preserve the high frequencies traveling from the guitar before they hit pedalboard and the buffer.

So yes, a good buffer helps the signal following the buffer, but does nothing for the signal traveling from the guitar to the pedalboard, and that’s the source of a very big tone loss due to capacitance, because your pickups put out a pretty weak signal.
 
Of course, this is clearly understandable Les.
I wish I took a pic of all the interconnect cables he brought me...
Some of them were on his old board not connected to anything... o_O
 
Coming at it from a practical living room novice angle... my main cables are all Orange because they match my Orange amp and they were premium cables I got for less than half price. My pedalboard patch cables are all Roland premium Gold, again because they’re premium cables I got for less than half price. I haven’t measured capacitance or anything but they’re both well made high quality cables and I still had enough money left over for food.

It all sounds pretty good in the man cave, everything I want to hear and nothing I don’t :)
 
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