Guitar Talk & Reviews with Bob Molton

Hello friends, it’s great to hear from many of you who have have similar experiences with guitar cables, and the issues that can be involved with them.

The sooner a guitarist can accept the fact that, guitar cables do indeed influence (good or bad)  their guitar tone, the sooner they can conquer this battle. It’s a battle you can quickly win.

Here’s a few more things to consider as we move forward in this discussion… you need to use the exact same equipment when testing (same guitar, same amp, same speakers, same A/C power source) this way you can accurately determine what is happening.

Also keep in mind that what might be great for someone else may not be right for you. That’s why it’s very hard for someone to say “The best guitar cables are XYZ” because it’s very subjective to the individual due to their needs and desired results. With that in mind, allow yourself to re-learn what you may have thought you already knew. It’s ok.

What I’m about to say may blow your mind, but it’s my personal honest opinion and I’m telling you this to break down all barriers in your mind of what could limit your cable testing. I’m sure you all have seen those super cheap cables that come free in the case with a new fender guitar…? We’ll in my opinion, I absolutely love the tone from all of my guitars using those little cheap junkers. Yes, it’s true they are cheap and will not last very long before shorting out but, I think they sound GREAT! My point is, don’t only compare price when choosing what cables you will be testing.

In fact, Stevie Ray Vaughan was said to have explored this route in order to emulate aspects of Jimi Hendrix’s tone. The infamous old gray radio shack cord is a favorite in this realm, as well as the good old faithful vintage spring-loaded coiled cable. There’s no doubt that these cables will tame down the harsh high end.

In the earlier days of the Fender and Marshall Amps, this was probably a good thing, in that those amps were a bit harsh in the high-end range. This allowed the cable to sort of balance out the overall tone of the amp.

Obviously this wasn’t a thought out strategy back then because we didn’t the vast amount of high quality cables to choose from then. But now, we’re able to compare all of these factors with a vast array new high quality cables, and it’s very interesting to say the least.

More things to consider when testing cables…

• The length of cables influence your sound. Typically the longer the cable (20 feet or more) will begin to breakdown, or dull your tone slightly. As mentioned in the comments section earlier (Anders) describes how Jerry Garcia used a buffer to battle this problem and that is definitely a solution when using lots of long cables. You can also try an MXR micro amp to boost the signal as well as… etc.

• Your patch cables play into this scenario too. In fact, just one bad patch cable can degrade the rest of the signal chain throughout your rig.

• Don’t over-solder your ends if you’re building your own cables. Too much solder will also affect your tone in a negative way. Always use just enough solder to make the connection, it’s all you’ll ever need.

• The real expensive guitar cables are not always the best sounding guitar cables. You may notice a crisp high-end with greater fidelity over the whole frequency spectrum, but this may be something that you may interpret as too harsh and cold sounding. I hope this drives home the point to test every cable you possibly can.

• Once you’ve decided on the type of guitar cable you’re going to be using, be sure to re-cable your entire rig from top to bottom. Don’t forget to change a single cable or you can create a problem right there in the signal chain.

Solution: I recommend that you get a bulk roll of your favorite cable, and then get a couple dozen high quality quarter inch male jacks, and custom build each and every cable and patch cable needed for your rig. This will be something that you’ll look back on down the road and say to yourself “I’m glad I took the time to do that”.

Your rig will be super quiet, and very signal driven, and most importantly will make your guitar feel alive and responsive. This is when you’ll always be reminded of just how important guitar cables are to achieve great guitar tone.

This is how all the touring pros do it.

I hope this has given you at least one ah-ha moment, and opened a door for new possibilities within your sound.

Please share your comments with everyone… I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

More soon,
Bob

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