How do these difference translate into choosing an instrument cable?
Active pickups put out a signal that's less affected by capacitance than the passive pickups on your P-90 equipped guitar.
Explain to me how cable length can make a difference in tone/quality please.
Any cable offers capacitance, and the longer the cable, the more capacitance. The signal output on a pickup is very weak. So as the cable gets longer, you begin to lose high frequencies. This becomes particularly noticeable at about 20 feet, however, with a good amp, you can hear differences between even a 10 foot cable and a 20 foot cable. The rule of thumb is the shorter the cable, the better the tone. Obviously, you have to pick a cable that you like in the first place for this to matter.
There are also practical considerations, such as how far you need to be from your pedalboard during a show or in the studio. Sometimes I use an 18 foot cable so that I can move around in the studio easily. With a good cable, the tradeoff is very small. If you have to be more than 20 feet away from your pedalboard, consider a wireless system.
Are expensive cables worth the extra money over the cheap generic cables?
That depends on the player.
In general the higher priced cables offer less capacitance. The drawback one often encounters with very high end cables is that they can be very stiff, and relatively heavy hanging off your guitar. I prefer flexible cables that don't easily tangle.
Some people also like the sound of less expensive cables, and could care less if they break because they're cheap. Lots of great, classic records were made before people worried at all about cables; they were an afterthought.
For some players who just want to stand in front of their amps and listen to every little detail, and who have an amp and pedals that justify the outlay, a great cable can matter. You won't hear much if any difference on stage. And no one has ever listened to a record and said, "Man that guitar tone is great, I wonder what cable he used to get that tone!!!"
On the other hand, it's one part of the equation, even on a recording.
Generally, the more expensive cables offer better rejection of electromagnetic interference, RFI, and handling noise, and have lower capacitance. They're also often assembled with better plugs, and are mechanically better constructed, have more shielding, etc.
Very high end cables are often too stiff for my taste, and can seem overly bright to certain players, too. I use the moderately priced PRS cables, because they're extremely flexible, sound great, don't tangle, reject electromagnetic interference, and have low handling noise, etc. I've used brighter cables, but I think these sound about right for guitar.
So it's all personal preference. I like the Mogami, too. But I've used high end cables in the studio that sounded brighter, and more hi-fi, but were so stiff they felt like hula hoops. In the end, I like a warmer sound, so that high frequency fidelity was less important to me. YMMV.
What cables do you guys use and how long are they?
I use a ten foot PRS cable from guitar to pedalboard. The first thing my signal hits on the pedalboard is a high quality Suhr buffer. The buffer preserves the signal that hits it, and from there one doesn't have to worry about signal loss, because now the signal is buffered. This is not a low quality buffer like you find on, say, Boss pedals. It's the real deal. I'm a believer in a correctly buffered signal. There are good buffers and lousy ones.
Does the cable running from any pedals I have to the amplifier need to be as high of a quality as the one leading from the guitar to the pedals?
Again, that's personal preference. For me, the answer is "yes." It also matters how far your amp is from the pedalboard if you're not running a buffer. Some pro board builders will put a buffer first on the board, and another buffer last on the board for the kind of long cable runs you get on a major tour. Your mileage may vary.
It seems that there are very fancy and expensive instrument cables out there, but not necessarily for the cables that lead from pedal to pedal. Doesn't seem like much logic there, but I'm a newb and probably missing something.
Well, the pedal interconnects are shorter, and their capacitance is less of an issue. If you use a buffer at the front of the pedalboard, they're less important.
But there are PLENTY of high end pedal interconnects out there, including PRS, and if you go to the Lava site, they'll make up whatever you want, as will many others. So if you want to get very spendy on your pedalboard, the opportunity is there.
I use mainly the PRS interconnects, but because they're a fixed length, and they're not stiff so they're easy to use, but I also have had Lava make me some of the higher priced spread at longer lengths.
