Pete, this video is amazing. I’ve been playing electric guitar since the late 80s, and you’re teaching me more about how my guitars work in 20 minutes than I think I learned in 35 years. I love your stuff, don’t ever stop!

@PeteThorn

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks!

@smallmouthguy2264

2 жыл бұрын

Same here exactly ,thank God for youtube ,its really helped my playing too

@CordialCablesUSA

2 жыл бұрын

@@carsgunsandguitars We were also quite interested to see how Pete would consider the cable question. It's why we asked him. We knew him to be one of the straightest shooters in the music industry.

@nihilistlivesmatter

2 жыл бұрын

@@carsgunsandguitars Hi internet resume guy

@bassyey

Жыл бұрын

Were you just 0-3-5ing the whole 35 years? wtf.

I didn’t think I was going to hear the difference, but I did. The monster cable sounds like the tone control is rolled off a notch , and the no name even more so. Terrific video. Thanks.

Thank you for the effort , energy and work that you put into these videos. As a guitarist, engineer, and mathematician, I find these topics irresistible. I have to admit I am disappointed that you wouldn’t include George L’s cables as part of this comparison. I discovered them years ago and found that they just worked great for me. The additional feature of being solderless just adds a bit of gravy to the whole idea. I went to school at the University of Waterloo and I was lucky enough to have an instructor named Phil Eastman who taught a course called the science of high Fidelity. He was also the writer of the Sir Isaac Newton contests. He was an amazing professor along with having a really practical analytic mind. Rest in peace. I remember engaging him in many discussions walking across the campus while I was there and one time he said to me “ultimately it comes down to this: you buy the distortion you prefer”. that’s always stuck with me. 🇨🇦

@Guitar5986

2 жыл бұрын

I love Georgle L cables too. They beat out Mogami and a bunch of other brands when I tested them. However, I solder all of mine as the solderless options can become unreliable over time.

@mcsologuitar

2 жыл бұрын

George L's are fantastic. Great company and people.

@JesseClaus

5 ай бұрын

“You buy the distortion you prefer…” Reality in truth taught in a KZread comment on a guitar cable video.

I think your analysis was accurate. I found it interesting, and have had similar experiences with my own variety of cables. Matching a cable to the type of guitar pickups you're using contributes to which cable sounds best. Perhaps as a follow-up you could take the cable totally out of the equation and test how a good "Wireless" system compares to a good cable. Thanks

@valendis

Жыл бұрын

Yes I want a comparison between a cable vs wireless!

Always believed in this concept, but its the first time ive actually heard it. Extremely interesting!!! Thanks man, i learned a lot

I worked for the largest electrical wholesaler in KC in my early 20s. The owners spent a small fortune on my education. I was sent to classes once a month on everything from devices to switch gear to cables. Trained by the engineers from beldon, southwire on low distribution, high distribution, catagory & communications. This is the best explanation I've ever seen for this application!!! This is another NOTE TO MANUFACTURE you better be paying this guy good. Talent, product knowledge and communication skills are 2nd none on the tube. Smoken Peter!!!💪🎸

@CordialCablesUSA

2 жыл бұрын

We love Pete because he chooses his own ground. Our one rule for endorsers is that they are "True Believers" that Cordial improves their signal quality. That's it, period.

@PeteThorn

2 жыл бұрын

Hey thank you! I appreciate you saying that.

I was thinking the PW cable sounded the best besides the Cordial's. Interesting stuff!! More of a difference than I would have thought!

@jefft275

2 жыл бұрын

PW is what I use, and I've done a comparison against 4 different brands including George L. I can hear a difference in each cable. I've never tried anything as expensive as Cordial because I'm not a pro. When I'm as good as Pete and I own a Suhr setup I'll splurge 😎.

@beachcomber4141

2 жыл бұрын

@@jefft275 Exactly!!

I’ve noticed this phenomena through the years and the way you go through the facts is great. Thanks a lot, Pete. You’re a blessing to the guitar community.

Another great video for the nerds in the crowd! Most cable discussions out there only focus on the cable's capacitance, and blow passed the resonance peak of the cable altogether. You can hear how the Belden is imparting a more mid-focused energy to the sound. I agree that it's an attractive idea to have a "transparent" cable, but keep in mind that none of your favorite recordings over the years had one such cable. I'm split on the matter. I like a good transparent cable for humbuckers, but I also like a "cheap" or lossy cable for single coils. One of my favorite cables I ever had was the Vox coily cable. It had a ton of roll off, and a sick midrange to it. I was so sad when it finally broke after many years of live use. This reminds me to track down another.

Cordial is actually very affordable compared to mogami and canare, at least in europe. I love cordial personally.

@danielmauric8491

2 жыл бұрын

In find that I generally prefer German products to USA ones, quality without snake oil marketing bs.

Thanks for doing this video! Guitar cables act as low pass filter in the guitar - to - amp circuit. Five things have the most audible impact with guitar cables: Capacitance, Resistance (and it's inverse conductivity), metallurgy (purer metals are more conductive), the impedance of your pickups, and length (more length = more cumulative capacitance and signal loss that can necessitate the use of a buffer) There's a sweet spot for capacitance (Measured in Picofarads or pF) that for most players is preferred and this is typically about 25 pF/ft or so, +/- 5, but some players prefer higher capacitance, as an example, many Players like the Lava Cable coils I designed, as the high capacitance makes bright sounding amps more tame and musical. So, cables can be used effectively as tone controls. Ideally a good cable will open up more usable tone range with the EQ on your amp. With higher capacitance cables, the upper frequencies literally decay sooner in time and with low capacitance cables just the opposite occurs and this why guitarists will often say cable is to bright or darkens to their tone - this is the low pass filter effect. What I learned in more than 15 years of building and selling guitar cables is that: 1. The guitarists personal ear/tone preference is what matters most. 2. Keeping your signal chain using all the same cable provides the most consistent, even frequency response results. 3. Coax or Quad conductor cables with high purity metal alloys seem to produce the best frequency response (My favorite cable of all time is the Van Den Hul Integration Hybrid Lava). 4. Keeping cable lengths as short as possible to reduce signal loss helps with overall tone. 5. All Cables exhibit triboelectric noise or micro phonics to a certain degree (thump with finger near output jack - this should NOT be happening down entire length of cable) especially if designed with too low capacitance and will become more microphonic over time as the layers loosen from use. Some outer jackets that have plastic in them help reduce this noise, the black PVC layer around the dialectic (white or clear PE material around conductor) is what is reduces this noise the most. Understanding how cables work and impact your tone is just as important as doing A/B tests and finding your favorite cable. 6. Finding a cable with good durability in combination with preferred frequency response and positive impact on your tone is ideal. (The Van Den Hul cable I use makes the notes sustain an bloom better - this is why I and many other players and studios use it.) You should have me on for a follow on Pete. You've just cracked the surface here.

@gookiecrunch

2 жыл бұрын

I liked the lava cables. But ultimately went with the evidence audio forte. I think the lava let too much low end through (for my set up.) My amp has too much low end. but it was a nice cable. Was it just me..? or are low output single coils more affected by different cables than high output humbuckers?

@sonicmistress

2 жыл бұрын

Wow all that and at the end of the day my £2 cable still works like it should and what comes out of the driver is how I want it to sound....(Yes I have Klotz/Belden/ Van blah blah yawn here....) After all isn't that the desired result at the end of the day.

@jean-marcdumouchel7812

2 жыл бұрын

...and here I thought EQ's were designed to control frequency response and all along cables did the same thing.

I'm really happy you shared the resonance curve of how pickups look - we're creating these graphs for every pickup to make it easier to compare pickups against each other.

Great video! I sold all my monster cables a few years ago after I found mogami golds, it was like night and day. These German cable sound pretty good too👍🏽

@ryankozak6874

2 жыл бұрын

mogami for life. I buy it in bulk off spools from Sweetwater and Musicians Friend, and it's like half the price. $.80/ft'ish minus the connectors

I have three points short points to make... I have studied this too (physics PhD and pro musician) and I used to think that lowest capacitance cables was the key, but I have changed my mind a little. There are so many players whose live sound is revered that use 30 or 40ft cables on stage. That means obvious high end loss compared to a 10ft or 20 ft cable. But that's OK. They still sound awesome. Also choosing cable capacitance allows us to shape the high end in way that tone controls and pickups can't do. Note: The voltage at the resonant frequency is something of a red herring. The *total* voltage, summed across all frequencies, is what's important to what we hear as output. The voltage measured at just resonant peak of the full spectrum of the guitar is less important than the differences of the numbers suggest. All cables transmit equally at all frequencies below the resonant peak. Yes, that mean 90% of all cable marketing is BS. Sad, but true.

@petripuustinen2855

2 жыл бұрын

I would say that it is also up to the application and discussion should be made in that context in mind. I mean whether it is a live situation or a studio. I would argue that in the studio setup the nuances matter quite a lot more than in the studio. Although, say if you happen to cut off "that particular" tone component of you microphone with a live setup, you cannot get it back by adding say high end. Depending also how much other noise you have in your live situation. But yes, it is not to say that a tone cannot be dialed to be perceived as an awesome during live situation. Voltage summed across the frequencies, could you elaborate that a bit more to the audience? From what you are saying, two "toy tones" which both of them have 2 components: the first 1V@1k and 0.1V@4k will sound the same than a second 0.1V@1k and 1V@4k? Both of the will have the same voltage summed across the frequencies. "All cables transmit equally below the resonant peak." So you claim that all cables are flat below the resonant peak? Can you show how "flat" the usual RC circuits are say in the range of an audible frequencies and can that be generalized given any RC circuit (a guitar cable in our case)? For example if a resonant peak is the guitar microphone resonance. Lets then say that we have a set of different RC circuits with different slopes and how much they attenuate for example the lower range of frequencies (below imaginary resonant peak), can it be stated then that you cannot hear the difference in a blind A/B test?

I’ve done a lot of this testing myself. Nice job. If you really want your mind blown try guitar picks in different thickness and made out of different material! To my ears it makes significantly more difference than the cable!

@Rarebirdeffects

2 жыл бұрын

Same here dude!

@sonicmistress

2 жыл бұрын

One of the most missed 'Mods' ever, especially on an Acoustic, it can make a guitar sound completely different for what, a few pennies. Same with Pickups, 'oooh let's change them'....Why not try just adjusting them first.....'What you can adjust the pickps?' A lot of guitar players should stop getting their info from guitar mags and misinformed forums/retailers and do some learning for themselves. (Remember when Gibson tried to sell Polish that apparently changed the tone.....LOL....they'll say anything to sell you something.....Because they know most are lazy and ignorant....Do your own research and you'll be rewarded with a 'Tone' YOU want....

Pete, I was involved in a cable shootout with the guys at BlAcKSoUnD studio in Pasadena. Steve Stevens gave us some Evidence cables to try along with Lava Van Den Hul and some others. We came to a similar realization that cables matter!!! Our top picks were the Evidence for high gain and the Van Den Hul for clean tone. Steve talked about our shootout in a Premier Guitar issue. In a double blind we could even perceive a volume change. Great vid…

@jean-marcdumouchel7812

2 жыл бұрын

I'm wondering if Steve had his INTEXcables with him that day.

Hey Pete, very interesting review. I converted my entire rig to Cordial some time back and, for me, the difference between my old (high quality) cables and the Cordials was astounding. Now, every one of my guitars sounds great with one amp setting. And they actually feel more responsive in my hands. Really! The rig is also much quieter. Cheers

I bought a 20’ Monsterous guitar cable years ago on a close out at 50% discount and it was awful sounding, plus it was so heavy that I felt like I was dragging a a sack of rocks behind me. I did like the Cordial best but the Planet Waves were pretty good too. I would like to add my endorsement for the Asterope cables. They are full bodied, similar to the Cordials, sturdy yet pliable. Good review Pete!

I have had a couple encounters with "high-end" cables that may be of interest to some. One was a small Fender amp that had a very nasty sounding treble distortion when turned up. The customer was plugging his guitar directly into the amp with a George L cord. I had recently serviced the amp and it sounded fine when I tested it, so I grabbed my go-to guitar cable, made of Audio-Technica bulk microphone cable, (which is no longer produced) and Switchcraft #285 1/4" plugs. Swapping my cable for his, without changing anything else made the problem disappear, like freakin' magic, man. Another more recent incident involved a local hotshot guitarist who has been a good friend and customer at my repair shop for a couple decades. He brought me an original TS808 Tube Screamer, which I rebuilt, tested and sent out. He sent me a video later that evening showing me his pedalboard and the horrible buzz coming from it, only when he added the Tube Screamer. I asked him to bring the board, cables and guitar to my shop so I could determine the source of the problem. All his other pedals were true-bypass "boutique", only his newly acquired TS808 had an internal buffer & FET switching. With the TS disconnected everything worked fine, but with the TS in the chain it buzzed. I isolated it to just his TS808 and his two $150.00 ea high end cables. Still buzzed. I swapped his TS808 for one of my personal modified TS9/808 pedals. The buzz was still there. Finally I grabbed a couple of my AT/Switchcraft no-frills cables and plugged them in. No buzz, worked fine. Swapping either of his high $$$ cables between the guitar and the pedal brought the buzz back. Of course my customer was not happy that his fancy guitar cables could be causing his problem, but there was no denying that it only happened with them plugged into the pedal. I would have loved to have more time with those cables to try to isolate exactly what was happening, and maybe come up with a solution that allowed them to be used, but he was short on time as he was leaving on tour, so I sent him on his way. To this day I still do not know why those cables caused this buzz only in the Ibanez pedals. (I swapped out the TS for another Ibanez with the same switching circuit and got the same result) If I ever encounter this again I will try other brands with FET switching, like the Boss pedals and see if they are also affected with this affliction. As for the cables presented in the video here: I can hear differences, but not enough to want to spend ridiculous money for a 20 foot guitar cable. Most of the time live, I use a Sennheiser wireless, which pretty much negates the capacitance effect of my cables because it has a low impedance (buffered) output from the receiver. And if I use a cable I just bump the treble control on m my amp up a notch. Problem solved.

I honestly liked some of the cheaper cables more, especially with dirt. Less piercing high end. This kinda confirms to me that the most important thing is having a decent enough cable that doesn't cost a fortune and most importantly DOESN'T BREAK

@coppulor6500

2 жыл бұрын

Sweet. I'm not kray kray (well mostly). I have found the same exact thing. I tried some different fancy pants cables years ago and then George L's and in the end, just went back to whirlwind and similar cables. I hate ice picky high end and, while these types of cables may technically have superior fidelity etc, they don't feel as good to me. I read somewhere that Hendrix liked those curly cables for a similar reason. NO clue if that's true or not so.....just what I read at some point.

@Scott__C

2 жыл бұрын

I thought it was too much high end as well.

@BBBri57

2 жыл бұрын

@@coppulor6500 me too, I use a short cable at home, the longer cable really helps my setup (although now I got a lesser problem of tripping over it because Im clumsy as)

@IanBillen

3 ай бұрын

I'd say it depends on what 'sound' one wants .. for a particular song or style. Sometimes one wants a thinner more hollow sound. Sometimes the recipe calls for something thicker and lush... i.e. All depends what one is going for and what sounds best for the song or style at hand. With that said.. I would take the Cordial's here if someone said .. You don't know the guitar, amp or style .. just choose something to bank on. I think they sound great.

The high copper cables are definitely brighter, but ultimately I think most of these cables sound just fine and at a fraction of the price. Not trying to rag on the nice cables, they sound great but you can rock with any of these

My take is it’s worth it to buy a good cable vs. cheapest available. However, you quickly get to diminishing returns as cables get more expensive. Also, shorter is always better regardless of cable. Connectors do matter, especially on a pedal board with 3 or more pedals. A buffer at the start of your pedal chain is essential. For the few at Pete’s musical level it makes sense to get the best possible cable. For the rest of us, good enough is good enough.

@maxp6174

2 жыл бұрын

But it's the case for all the gear, the more you pay the less the returns are, but they do exist

@chipsterb4946

2 жыл бұрын

@@maxp6174 diminishing returns yes, but IMHO you hit the “perfectly fine” level right quick with cables. In contrast, acoustic guitars get better and better in terms of tone and playability fairly significantly at least up to $2,000.

@maxp6174

2 жыл бұрын

@@chipsterb4946 yeah, but when it comes to recording gear, passed a certain "level" you pay more and more for smaller and smaller gains but they do exist still, that's what I meant

@sonicmistress

2 жыл бұрын

Depending on your setup, A buffer is NOT essential neither is True Bypass, which has already been debunked....for a working Pro it's about reliability and consistancy, if a $5 cable gets you there, be assured the Pro will use it regardless of any marketing dept....

@chipsterb4946

2 жыл бұрын

@@sonicmistress I completely agree that if the sound coming out of the speaker is what you want to hear, none of the marketing makes any difference. However, if a pedal has an always on buffer - like most Boss pedals - it’s still a buffer. Many pedal buffers, especially older circuits, don’t present the best input and/or output impedances. “Best” in terms of reducing high end loss due to capacitance. A lot of new pedals have great buffers. Also, every buffer is basically a zero gain amplification stage. Therefore, every buffer adds some noise no matter how good it is. All true-bypass is a tone suck if you have more than 2 or 3 pedals or more than 20’ of cable. All buffered pedals will be noisy. The bottom line is learn what you need to consider and then experiment and find what works for you.

Just put an order in on some very nice cables - I always wondered if it made any difference, but this confirms my 10 year old suspicions from down in my Dad's basement studio. Really cool video, thanks man.

Completely agree, like a lot of things “you get what you pay for” and good cables are a smart investment in your tone. Now it’s time to compare speaker cables which will also make an audible improvement in any rig! Thanks Pete for another great video!

@CordialCablesUSA

2 жыл бұрын

That's on our list for next-level testing, along with XLRs.

No cable, no sound. That's pretty important! Once you get past the cheapest grade cable, you soon will get drenched in snake oil. Even a better quality cable should not cost you hundreds of dollars. THAT becomes a ripoff.

The Andrew Gouché and Planet Waves cables were my favorite. The Peak High Copper was too bright, piercing (peaky? 😅), probably because of too low a capacitance. I do cables myself with a quality German cable and I always measure them because sometimes, if you’re slow in soldering, a little insulation gets melted and capacitance increases massively. My reference value is about 470-500pF for a 5 meters cable. I believe guitar amps were fine tuned with standard good cables without excessively low capacitance and without being excessively short. In addition, epic guitar tones were obtained with high-capacitance coily cables (Brian May, Hendrix, etc), so too little capacitance in not desirable. Change my mind!

@sdfswords

2 жыл бұрын

Totally agree.

@calharrison4758

2 жыл бұрын

I thought that was the point though? I.e. the brightness is a sign that more of the signal is getting through, and you can then treat it yourself afterward on the amp or tone control (instead of it being controlled by the cable). On another note though, really interesting point you make about amp design. I'd be curious to know if that were the case! Same for pickup design as well.

@shredgd5

2 жыл бұрын

@@calharrison4758 actually having more high frequencies entering overdrive gain stages and then cut them afterwards or having less high frequencies in and use a slightly higher setting of the treble or presence pots yields different results.

@calharrison4758

2 жыл бұрын

@@shredgd5 OK understood, but surely it is still better to have access to naturally-occurring high frequencies and cut them if needed - especially given we can adjust them at almost any stage in signal flow? So even if less high-end is optimal, you could taper it to suit instead of being at the mercy of a cable. Either way, if the thing about amp design is true, I suppose the best cable is one similar to that used when testing gear in the first place!

@StratMatt777

2 жыл бұрын

@@calharrison4758 If you have to spend an insane amount of cash to retain those "naturally-occurring high frequencies", then are they REALLY "naturally occurring" or were they artificially created with money? ;)

I had been in the get a decent cable and it's all good camp until I traded in a piece of gear and had a $50 or so credit left over so what the heck toss in the expensive cable. Went home and was so impressed that the next day I went back and bought another (different) fancy cable. My take is that the biggest gain was the "bass" cable that really improved the sound of my bass straight in to the recorder in a way that I had worked for and the cable just got it done. People were asking what preamp/etc and were skeptical when I told them it was the cable. The super clean cables are great when connecting high end digital instruments straight in. I had a well know pianist playing a Kurzweil straight in and again "Why does it sound so good?" ... the cable!! With guitars it is a bit different as the video points out as there are so many things in the signal chain. When I got the high end cable I realized how much sizzle the pots on my guitar were putting out that the cables were attenuating it really got me rethinking my set up. Pick a cable that sounds good to you and stick with it and build your sound around it. That I have seen so many people spend $1000+ on their instrument and amp and then cheap out on their cable is laughable like it is an extension cord to buy on sale at the corner store.

The first cable Andrew Gouche' cables sounded the strongest and the best balanced with all the frequencies not just the top.

Thank you Pete for finding the crux of the issue for Guitar players...finding it...showing the masses demos and making clear easy to understand statements and suggestions. The loss of that high end detail and the moving of that resonant peak are important concepts to get in crafting a personal tone!

Electrical engineer and guitar player here. The amount of copper contributes to the series resistance of the cable, which is normally less than a few Ohms even in a medium-priced cable of 20 feet. The series resistance of the cable contributing to the loss of high frequencies is negligible as long as we are dealing with high input impedance amplifiers (or buffers) that have input impedance values of 500K to 1M Ohms (most guitar amplifiers, preamps, effects, and buffers meet that spec). The more important factor is the capacitance per length (meter or foot) of the cable, which acts as a low-pass filter by shunting part of the high range to ground, obviously more noticeable at higher capacitance values. Longer cables exhibit more capacitance simply because every extra foot is equal to an extra capacitor added in parallel. On the other hand, the amount of capacitance per length is inversely proportional to the outer diameter (the shield) of the cable, the larger the diameter the less the capacitance, and hence less attenuation or loss at higher frequencies.

Good on Cordial for making a low capacitance cable. If you actually want your cable to ‘get out of the way’, I recommend turning your volume knob down or using an active buffer in your guitar. Honestly, just changing your volume knob value will have as big an impact as the cable. Cables don’t have a sound, but they do change the sound of a passive pickup setup, and Mr Suhr is spot on that you should use the one that you like the best. Personally, I still prefer not to worry about it as long as the build quality is good. I think we can all agree that a broken cable is the worst sounding cable.

@PeteThorn

2 жыл бұрын

But I did find it interesting in this video the varying capacitance of cables of the same length. So they are not all created equal. Go to the website I pointed to in the video, and read some of the specs, and how they conducted the test, it’s quite interesting.

@danszabo5211

2 жыл бұрын

@@PeteThorn no doubt. I actually was privy to their test prior to your video. The folks that put together the test did an excellent job, IMO. I don’t personally feel that cable capacitance is the best metric for best sound, and that the other electronics in your guitar play a part as well, including pickups, volume/ tone circuits. I am however a strong believer that if it sounds good it is good, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned from your reviews, it’s that Pete Thorn sounds good 😉. Keep up the excellent work!

@CordialCablesUSA

2 жыл бұрын

@@danszabo5211 We were challenged to test in some version of real-world conditions, with pick up changes, tone settings, etc. It's not JUST about capacitance, as those electrical conditions do change. Luckily, our tester was a lifelong guitarist and amp tech who just happens to run the electronics engineering department at Rogue Community College. He got it.

@danszabo5211

2 жыл бұрын

@@CordialCablesUSA thanks for replying! It’s been a hot minute since I read the piece on that study, but I remember it being pretty interesting. Yeah, it really is a combination of several parts, of which the cable is one. Maybe the biggest surprise was that I assumed the Cordial cables would be super spendy, but were pretty reasonably priced.

@CordialCablesUSA

2 жыл бұрын

@@danszabo5211 Yep, the most expensive is the Gouché cable at about $120. Our essentials line starts in the $30 range.

Great video. It’s very interesting that concepts which were reserved for audiophiles and esoteric audio equipment are now making their inroads into guitar playing. Originally, the primary goal of electrical music equipment manufacturers was to make it as cheaply as possible. As a result of this quest, we have such a variety of different sounding guitars, amps, pedals, etc. In this case, the effect of the cable and the tone of the guitar will greatly depend on the combination of what’s in the guitar- the pickups, the values of the volume and tone control pots and the tone control cap(s), the levels these controls are set to, and the input impedance of the amp it’s plugged into, making a great case for using active pickups. The active pickups will almost eliminate the effect of the cable on tone and the price is comparable to the these cables. I apologize if I said the same thing as someone else did, too lazy to read all of the comments…

Hi Pete, great video as always, I am 61 and to my ears over the Internet via KZread, they all sound similar to me. The age of the listener has a lot to do with what your hearing as the frequency response of our ears diminishes as we get older, and in particular the high end frequencies reduce. Have you thought about doing a blind test with these cables to see if knowing which cable you were playing through is placing a sub conscious bias to what you are actually hearing?

Santana uses a 50 foot cable to roll the top off

@AdamGotheridge

2 жыл бұрын

I've heard that too. I wonder if that's a holdover from using the twins with the p90 SG and I think JBL speakers, cranked. Probably not as many options back then, and was a practical solution.

@farqueleyou7578

2 жыл бұрын

Wait, that's ingenious

@GlennJimenez

5 ай бұрын

What? No way. Seems like an un reliable method though.

@gravyblue

5 ай бұрын

@@GlennJimenez that's his thing

Wow, thanks. If I can hear the differences, probably anyone can:) I like the Andre' clean and the High copper dirty. P.W. is not horrible.

Great information with no BS.

Great video. We found that Cordial Cables do a fantastic job in transmitting a pure, unaltered tone. Many other cables affect your EQ differently, so it depends if you want the cable to affect your EQ or if you'd prefer to control that in other parts of your signal chain.

@CordialCablesUSA

2 жыл бұрын

Well stated.

When that distortion kicked on at 11:12 - holy shit! It spanked. Wasn’t ready for it. Fire shot outta my headphones.

When I went through the cable game for myself, I measured capacitance. High capacitance cables knocked down the guitar output just like turning the tone knob! Second was the cheapest cables generally had the lowest capacitance (let the most signal through). The expensive cable factories want to knock off the highs, where noise hangs out, to give a buyer a 'more quality sound' but it's like muddy pickups -- some players think they are 'smooth' while other players hear the mud and swap them out.

A few years ago the 12th Fret did an article called ___Do Expensive Cables Really Sound Better?___ There conclusion was the differences were negligible and many cheaper cables had better specs.They show a graph of the signal for 10 cables that at the time were from $10 to $160. Each cables response is given a different colour and it's signal laid over the other. It is very user friendly to compare. They pointed out that different cables do indeed have different levels of robustness. Oddly the one with the second highest frequency response was the $10 one, LOL. I think for most people the best was the 10th cable that should not be counted as it has a nano buffer built into the jack. My take was to buy the best cable using brand name cable and jacks at the best price. That said I use a wireless and ALL wireless have a healthy buffer in them because otherwise they can't even work. My best guess is in a blindfold test done comparing 10 you could not pick your favorite 3 times in a row. Now after all that what I could hear was differences in the mids. Some sounded more pleasant or a tad fatter.

Always knew these facts, but it was refreshing hearing the differences. Going to be replacing a few "things"... and Thanks!

@CordialCablesUSA

2 жыл бұрын

Good news, Greg. We hope you like them. Let us know on social @cordialcablesusa.com.

In fact, capacitance is only one parameter that changes the tone of an electric guitar. However, guitar cables change both the energy and saturation of the sound, and even the "grain", sharpness, roughness, percussion, and even the volume of the instrument. I'm currently using a 14.3ft long, intricately twisted silver semi-balanced cable, and it delivers a range of frequencies and expressiveness perhaps even better than your 2ft experimental cable. The sound of my cable is close, loud, transparent and at the same time rich in the lowest frequencies. In a mix with other instruments, it still occupies a hegemonic position, if the volume is not greatly reduced. I think it is important for a cable to rotate the phase of the signal at the output relative to the input over the entire frequency band, and if you achieve this, then the darkness disappears, the tightness disappears and the mid and high frequencies stop "screaming" and the chords get a good piano sound when you hear everything and every sound is clear and firm. But beware of such cables, they will give out all the fuzziness of the game, any defect or uncertainty will be heard by everyone.

About 15 years ago, in a break between teaching classes at London's Guitar Institute (now ICMP), I went into a empty performance room and wailed on my Fret-King S-type guitar (custom built for me by Trev Wilkinson) through a cranked Vox AC15 and I compared two cables: an Evidence Audio Lyric and a Cordial CGK175 and the Cordial sounded way better! It was just so much more lively and vibrant sounding. It just made me grin!

@CordialCablesUSA

2 жыл бұрын

Great to hear, Lee.

I'm still waiting for an additive that will prevent the singers from walking on my cables.

Great video as always, Pete! I use CORDIAL cables since they came up in the late 90s and never regret buying one! Very good stuff and built like a tank. Never had a breakdown! Can't say that over other brands... Best wishes from Germany 🤘😁🍀👍🏻🎸

@CordialCablesUSA

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the props, sir!

I would have liked to hear how Mogami cables compared to the Cordial cables. Also, hopefully, in the future you can compare your wireless tone to the Cordial and other cables.

@abrackas1

2 жыл бұрын

Wireless and mogami for sure! Wireless would be like using 2ft or less, at least from guitar to transmitter.

@Guitar5986

2 жыл бұрын

Mogami are great but I've put them head to head with George L's and preferred the latter. However, you can't really go wrong either way.

@traviscrown9189

2 жыл бұрын

@@Guitar5986 nothing a buffer wont solve

@mikedenkinger9570

2 жыл бұрын

I'm a big fan of Mogami wished it was compared along with Analysis-plus cables....

a rf filter (gauss) with a buffer to bring the level and output back up...ding ding! Worked @ KLIF KPLX radio stations in college as an assistant until they figured I learned to fix my toys and solder/ step into a hand in development of a pair of latest greatest recording and working studios. I was a broke college student I went to a radio shop bought100ft of cable, heat shrink and 1/4 plugs ,spent 4 hrs making cables, they are still here today, Zero failures! oB

Buffer + Decent cable would do. No need for snake oil. Even wireless over UHF would probably do better. Some people even say wireless system sounds too bright, but it's just the tone is preserved without the loss from cables, it's the original guitar sound if you were to use 1 inch of cable.

The Belden Cable was pretty great, and Planet Waves was not bad either, but still I heard more string definition with the Cordial Cables. Im impressed.

Listening on my iPhone so I’m sure I’m getting the full audio spectrum and can make an educated decision

@nilesanders5110

2 жыл бұрын

Good point. I will listen again on my headphones.

Good analysis. I'd add that "Impedance" is the sum of the pure resistive (real) portion and the 'reactive' or 'imaginary' components of capacitance and inductance where capacitors/capacitance store potential (voltage) and inductors/inductance stores current. Funny thing is if you're trying to maximize throughput (losslessness) of a signal you ideally want just one frequency to talk about and then you'd CHOOSE an inductance and capacitance value that would be equal/opposite, cancelling each other out.. ideally 'getting out of the way' as you call it for the signal to go through unmolested. Sadly (actually joyfully) frequencies coming from our guitar or bass come from a wide range of frequencies so there is no one single resonant frequency we could ever target for that holy-grail cable. Unless you just played one note forever. ;-) Ultimately the cord as you very well described becomes a component in the signal chain along with the pickups, the tone/volume pots, any tone capacitors in your guitar, and the preamp circuitry of your guitar amp (assuming you're running unbuffered). All that said, and as you said, it is your ears that will tell you what sounds good to you. I don't think you said a single thing incorrectly by the way... great summary! I thought (to MY ears) the Cordials sounded best with the PW product a close 2nd.. so total agreement there too. Wish you had mentioned pricing in terms of how many times more expensive they are compared to PW product for example. I make my own cables using Canare cable with Neutrik ends (thanks for teaching me how to pronounce that... always had been saying new-trick LOL!). When I'm lazy I use ProAudioLA as they have the best soldering gurus anywhere... and their stuff is always done so neatly. I've taken their stuff apart and inside the connectors they do an amazing job of soldering, shrink wrapping, and just overall it's super clean and neat. A little expensive, but super well made. Get the Neutrik Silent Plug connectors... you'll never regret it and you'll never hear that loud pop when plugging/unplugging an instrument. Sorry for long comment... couldn't resist. ;-)

The whole time I was thinking about the balance we have to make as guitarists. Having an expensive cable in a studio is one thing. Having a cable for out on the road is another. They're stepped on, pulled again and again. I know Evidence has some very expensive high end cable, but no way would I bring a $100 cable out on the road. Glad you brought it up Pete. Thanks for the vid.

@CordialCablesUSA

2 жыл бұрын

Cordial cables are warrantied for life. Period. @Johnny Griparic from Walter Trout's band stomps all over them and his are still kicking.

@SaintLuminus

2 жыл бұрын

@@CordialCablesUSA Ohhhhh, yes thank you for mentioning that. I went to your USA site and noticed your lifetime warranty. 👍 I’m certainly interested in your cables, as I can be rougher with my cables than I’d like at times. Thank you for responding here 🙏

@CordialCablesUSA

2 жыл бұрын

@@SaintLuminus Stomp away!

I like the the warmth of the Belden. Andrew Gouche cable may be a little too clear and detailed for my taste. The standard cordial sounded good. All the other cables clearly had a noticeable loss of capacitance that was less desirable in tone. I remember doing cable comparisons years ago and recall Beldon 9776 cable sounding really good. Thanks Pete, this was a helpful video.

That´s funny...because I´ve just changed all my cables due to issues. That´s very appropriate Pete!!!

I am a newbie bass player (also learning the banjo at the same time) and I am contemplating upgrading from my 10ft standard Roland cable. This was such a great and educational video on the subject. Thanks so much!

As I’ve noticed from other gear tests-a clean tone brings out all the differences but once a dirtier tone is used the playing field is considerably levelled.

Great video Pete, many thanks. in the electric Eng. world, we refer for a current ( not a voltage ) generated by the pickup coil. of course there is a voltage as well. you can think for current as the amount of electrons flowing in a conductor and the Voltage is the pressure. Best and keep Rocking !

Planets Waves and Cordial are my 2 favorite cable brands, what a coincidence :) Thanks, Pete!

To be honest, live I always go for wireless. I know it sounds different and I did some cable sound tests some years ago. But playing live I prefer the freedom and can focus on the performance. A high quality sound maybe interesting to listen to. But it can get so boring if musicians never move a millimeter in stage 😂. Maybe I try my different cables again before doing my next recording - great video!

I love the quest for tone and I love the science behind all this stuff. That said, I have kind of had your attitude of not worrying about buffers or cables too much. I just use the same setup/cable/length always and adjust my volume/tone on the amp to where I love the tone and don't worry about it.

@CordialCablesUSA

2 жыл бұрын

Cables are a physical filter, and wouldn't we all prefer that filter to be as transparent as possible? We all work so hard at tone with amps, pedals, guitars, etc. Try one out, you'll be as amazed as Pete obviously was. We had the same reaction, but it's undeniable.

@stephenmestrada

2 жыл бұрын

@@CordialCablesUSA when running a pedal board with patch cables etc how much does the cable from instrument to board matter? Or from board to amp?

@CordialCablesUSA

2 жыл бұрын

@@stephenmestrada Great question, we get it a lot. Our feedback from artists is that the first cable is most important, as it transfers that minute voltage from your pickups against whatever resistance the cable has over it's length, the shorter the better. Once it gets to pedals and amps, signal is filtered and shaped in many ways. That said, improving the quality of your signal path with highest-quality copper is helpful even down the line. Next most helpful being that long run to your amp.

My son and I tested a bunch of cables 15 years ago, he worked at a music store and we had Monster, general music store cables, and cables supplied by the guitar manufacturer. Monster cables failed horribly. Some were good for clean, others for chunk. Some robbed the low end! Some were like someone twisted your tone knob. Bottom line, it wasn’t necessarily the cost that made a cable better, but the cable does make a difference. If you don’t think so, whatever.

I definitely hear the difference! Amazing dude! And the basic logic makes complete sense. Thanks for another excellent video!

For not really wanting to do the video it turned out to be pretty important ! My fav, the 2' Cordial, ok ok which makes me wonder about wireless !!

At first listen, I thought I liked the Belden best for the crunch tone, but I would agree, the Cordial is best all around. Will check out check out those prices. Great video as always!

I thought the Andrew Gouche cable and the Planet Waves cable were pretty much identical and they are my favourites. But, seeing that the Cordial cable is probably over 2x more expensive than the Planet Waves cable, it is not worth me buying the Cordial cable (Law of Diminishing Returns) so PW is the one I shall buy. Thank you, Pete! :)

Hello Pete I've seen your video on You Tube, (CABLES! How much do they affect guitar TONE?) and many others too. You explained it very well and confirmed my opinion about good sounding guitar cables. I've been playing Vovox cables for many years and for me the best off-the-shelf cable is the Vovox Sonorus. Unfortunately, Vovox cables are very expensive and there is no meter goods to solder your own cables of different lengths. To wire my effects board and for my guitars, I soldered various cables myself to get the best possible sound out of my guitars. My absolute favorite is no longer the Vovox but the Sommer SC-Corona cable. I use G&H plugs with a copper core as jack plugs. German translated with Google. greeting Reinhold

Really true. I have a dark amp and used monster cables and really struggled with the lack of clarity for years until I tried different cables and realized how much top end was being killed by those monsters.

Wow! Took a shot on a Cordial - it’s like I took a blanket off my amp!! Thanks for the heads up, Pete!! 🤘😎

Interesting, Pete. I've used Monster cables for the last 20 years, but I'm up to try the Cordial and Planetary Waves, too. Thanks for putting in the leg work so I don't have to. Next up, 2:31:05 of Sunday Live via YT Premium. 🎸

Us guitar geeks love this! Good job! I think it all adds up piece by piece. A better cable, better pickup, better tube. etc = better tone! Once you add them up the differnce is bigger than one thinks.

KMB Basslines: A student brought over a KMD Bass cable years ago…1996?…. I plugged it in and wow, brilliant and clearer bass tone. They are a brown kind of braided cord. I think they went out of business. Definitely the most hifi cord out of all…verses .monster and Mogami.

Great job as always! Very interesting. I am a planet waves guy. Have them dialed in so don’t think I will change however, I am sure the Gouche are great. Every step does count though as you say. I recall my high end audiophile friends would buy super low gauge monster cables with gold ends etc then you look in the speaker cabinet itself and they are 22 gauge so…. Anyway thanks again! As always, JD

Great video. I’ve used evidence cables for the last 15 year. I often have to remind myself that it’s very easy to get out in the long grass on this stuff. Keep in mind Hendrix used coiled cable and no one I’d running around saying his tone is bad.

I have a switch on my main guitar that disconnects the tone control or just assigns it to the bridge pickup. This allows me to shift the peak of the sound very much like the different cables. Of course you can't use the tone control in some positions...I could probably switch a resistor in and out instead to keep the tone control working all the time but I'd need to use much higher value pots which would introduce much more tone change as I rolled the volume down so I've stuck with the current setup...it works great as a brightness tweaker!

Wow, quite a difference! Especially side by side. I never want to loose bottom end or size or weight of the sound. More top end can always be added but size not so much. Thanks for this revelation!!

Interesting work, as always, Pete. I would prefer in future that when you get down to A/B-ing the various sound files you do so without comments in-between. The sound of your voice (or any sound, for that matter) tends to “interrupt” the ears’ ability to make sharp comparisons. In “double-blind” gear comparisons we use ID cards that we hold up to let users know “choice A” vs “choice B” vs “choice c” so there’s no sonic distraction when making comparisons.

Loads of effort on this one and very much appreciated. I have always wondered about cables and now I know. Thanks.

Nice video Pete I noticed a difference in cables years ago at 61 yrs young I been through alot of them ,my favorite so far are ,Jumperz cables,and for speakers, Pro,Co,12 gauge wire cable clean and quiet.

A few years ago I did I made 2 new speaker cables, same wire, same length, same solder. One had CBI ends and the other Neutrik, WOW what a difference. So to make sure, switched the ends on the same 18” cables just to make absolute sure, and yup the Neutriks were bigger fuller and perceivably louder.

If you use a free program called 'Room EQ Wizard' and run a sine wave sweep out to a reamp box then from the reamp box to a DI going to an input on your interface you can swap out the cables between the reamp box and the DI to actually get a measured, scientific, objective result.

Very good explanation Pete, really appreciate your excellent content. All of this is clearly audible and real. I have played at a pro level for many years and came to the same conclusion that it is best to start with a high quality cable between your instrument and your first input. Funny thing is that the Belkin was a super familiar sound because so many cables I have used over the decades have used that wire, it was instantly recognizable! I would also add, especially for younger players, do not stress about this at all. Many other things are more important such as musical ideas, a quality instrument, good amp, etc. just get the best cable you can and don’t overthink it! If/when you can get a very high-quality cable go for it.

Great Video! This is where it gets tricky… like you said at some point adding some roll off can actually sound better. I was recently tracking a band and we tracked through a true bypass tuner that added significant hi end loss but when punching in another day, we had plugged straight in with the same guitar/cable and we were blown away with how different it sounded. All in all, we actually wanted to get back to the other sound. But yeah, different cables can really make a guitar sound like a completely different guitar! I’ve noticed those “monstrous” rock cables REALLY cut the high end!

I have used or tried a lot of different cables over the years from cheap Rapco, George L's, Canare and finally settled on a few choices. I use Mogami 2524 or Belden 9778 to swithcraft plugs. For my setup, style, guitars, pedals..this works for me. Cabling makes a difference for sure but to my ears not as much as the guitar pick up itself and proper power to the pedals. I usually test my board by comparing it to cable straight to the amp tone. If the board is quiet and the tone is close to direct to amp sound then I'm happy.

I'm with Pete, I would love to not have to care about cables, but the differences are real.

Signature cable, huh? How about a signature guitar case latch?

@sharkair2839

2 жыл бұрын

ha ha ha ha ha...

@johncruz9357

Жыл бұрын

Think of it as an EQ setting. His sig cable gives him the curve his after.

@dennisdaniel1146

Ай бұрын

😂 LMAO

I love Asterrope. After 45yrs, I became a believer after about 2min of playing.

Using a pedalboard was the reason why I got the Friedman wah with the output buffer. Even not taking brand into account, the sheer length of cable I added robbed my tone of clarity and gain.

@CordialCablesUSA

2 жыл бұрын

Every cable does that, it's undeniable physics and electrical properties. That said, when you have better frequency response, it's no doubt that will sustain positively over a longer cable. Great conversation here!

Great comparison. For the overdrive sounds, I thought the Belden was great. It has a midrange grunt I didn’t hear with the other cables. The Peak High Copper was my favorite for the Clean sounds. The other cables sounded pretty similar to my ears with the Planet Waves barely edging out the rest

@XChristianNoirX

2 жыл бұрын

Belden is kind of a dark cable. If your guitar has too much spank, it's the right tool to tame it. It works well with a lot of single coil pickups. It's dark but sounds really nice. For humbuckers, Sommer Spirit LLX is virtually unbeatable, unless one is trying to use the cable as a filter as with single coils.. But that's not usually the case. 15.8pF capacitance is insane. It's less than 1/3 of Mogami 2524. Basically a 60ft Sommer can outperform a 20ft Mogami 2524, and 2524 is the pro industry standard.

I didn't expect this, but the difference was apparent, even on my phone before I plugged in the headphones!

AWESOME VIDEO, thanks Pete! This is the best study on cables I've seen, it's definitely waking me up to getting better cables!

Great video Pete! What's interesting about the Gouche signature cable is that he plays active basses almost exclusively and the onboard preamp/buffer makes cable capacitance a moot point. Still, I'm glad there are companies like Cordial and Sommer making quality, low-capacitance cable without resorting to precious unobtanium alloys and charging crazy audiophile prices. I may have to put together my own comparison with the typical DIY wire you can buy by the foot: Mogami, Canare, Belden, Sommer, Lava, etc. In the meantime, I'll say it again: great video Pete!

I think that monster cable is for head to speaker

Tone based on the cables been using. High end roll off ,Mids, Bass , Signal strength, Everything. "If I change cables I will definitely change everything else." I like the idea of cable as tone control . Just like the Speakers, Cabs, Tubes, Power, Strings, Pick, etc. etc. Disagree on this one Pete. I want the cable "In the way". If you get to know a good cable, length becomes a knob.

Some of the tales I heard about the length and strength of the custom-made cables used by Angus Young were the stuff of legend, I tell ya what. Great topic Pete!💜☺👍

Hey Pete, I did know this before but it was a really great comparison and very detailed! Thank you very much! I noticed differences in guitar cables and patch cables for my pedal board, especially during recording. Another point is to get rid of the hum and noise of electromagnetic impulses and fields that can effect the guitar signal in a very bad way. If you're standing on a small stage and playing life, noise can come from everywhere and than it good to know that your cables are shield and don't making problems. I don't use bad cables anymore also if I use a lot of effect pedals.

Well done, Pete. I've known for a long time that the "Monsterous" was really bad sounding cable. Their Jazz model intentionally rolls off the top even more. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the PW compared to the reference. I do high end audio for a living and this topic gets even more difficult there where you're not trying to create a sound at all but, like your preference, introduce no change at all in reproducing a symphony or whatever. Tone controls can decrease frequencies but if a cable or anything else removes the frequencies you can't add them back, you can only emphasize what still remains.

A good buffer can change a lot! Which is why I always have one at the start of my chain. I bought the Tumnus Deluxe, which has the buffer/true bybass switch on the side, which is great, you can instantly A/B the sound. I have high end Vovox cables made in Switzerland, they are mega expensive, but I have had them for 7 years now and they still work great. I had to re-solder my planet waves cables twice! The cordials sound great and the Belden seemed to have more lower mids!

Great video Pete. Im loving my new Cordial Cables ⭐️🤟🏼

@CordialCablesUSA

2 жыл бұрын

We love you too, Steve.

Great idea playing big chords Pete, more gear review Vidz should do this. Winner to my ears the Cordial peak high copper... Dig the clarity.. great comparison vid P

Wow, wasn't expecting to hear enough to think it really matters. The difference seems like that bit of definition that makes the difference when the band is loud. Very surprised.