Cables coloring tone???

[mynan]

I was at GC the other night to pick up a couple new cables and might have made a mistake by asking the difference between two Monster cables. I then got a lesson in how each brand of cable colors tone.

I know that the gold tipped cables supposedly have better conductivity, which supposedly sounds better. I know that Monster makes a "bass" cable, which I honestly thought was a gimmick. But the GC salesman was telling me that the Monster cables add bass to your tone, but that the Mogami cables were crystal clear.

Can a cable really affect your tone in any noticeable way???

 

[adouglas]

I was at GC the other night to pick up a couple new cables and might have made a mistake by asking the difference between two Monster cables. I then got a lesson in how each brand of cable colors tone.

I know that the gold tipped cables supposedly have better conductivity, which supposedly sounds better. I know that Monster makes a "bass" cable, which I honestly thought was a gimmick. But the GC salesman was telling me that the Monster cables add bass to your tone, but that the Mogami cables were crystal clear.

Can a cable really affect your tone in any noticeable way???

IMHO....only if the cables are absolute crap. Any decent wire should work just fine.

What's the likelihood that the GC sales guy is an electrical engineer and actually knows what he's talking about vs. the likelihood that he's just repeating the marketing hype from the company? Of COURSE Monster is going to hand you a ready-made argument about this stuff. Are you qualified to tell if it's just hot air? Is the sales guy?

Please explain how a cable can "add bass" to your tone if it's not there to begin with. What a crock!

(PS: I have used Monster Bass cables. Still have a couple, because they're made well enough to last. Sound just like any other cable to me. I liked them because the cable itself was nice...coiled well, obvious good quality. Right now I use custom cables from bayoucables.com, simply because Butch will make me anything I want. At the moment that is a red cable (so I can see it and not step on it) with a Neutrik right-angle Silent Plug on one end and a plain Neutrik right-angle plug on the other.)

 

[midopa]

Yeah a cable's a cable's a cable repeat ad naseum. I think the real issue with cables is not tone but quality. That is, how well will it hold up to abuse and/or regular stress from handling and such.

But there is always a wire capacitance. I'm no EE wiz, but the wire capacitance of cables is probably in the pico Farrad range, meaning it'll bleed out frequencies well out of our audible range.

 

[MingusBASS]

Bayou Audio Cables Great Cable, Great Prices. Do it.

 

[T-bone]

I just bought an Ernie Ball cable. Not only are they specifically designed for our basses, but they taste great and are less filling.

tbone

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

IMHO....only if the cables are absolute crap. Any decent wire should work just fine.

Exactly

 

[mynan]

This is a link to some of the descriptions that Monster has for it's cables...is it for real or just a gimmick?

Monster Instrument Cables

 

[bovinehost]

More important is the length of your strap.

 

[roburado]

I'm on the fence on this one. I think my Monster is great. I like the quality before everything else. So, i got it for that reason, because i had a generic cable that fell apart and left the tip in my 20th Silo. I'm still a bit skeptical that it will really sound better, but it seems like it does. Maybe, it's just a placebo effect. Maybe, it's just that this new guitar sounds better than all the rest. Who knows?

 

[mynan]

More important is the length of your strap.

The problem that I have with a short strap is that one of my favorite guitar players growing up (not famous, just a great local guitar player) wore his guitar just below his neck. He also had a huge gut, so it looked almost like he was playing a pedal steel. I don't have a big gut, but I will never be able to play with a short strap.

 

[mynan]

I'm on the fence on this one. I think my Monster is great. I like the quality before everything else.

I also have a Monster that I bought a few years ago and I like it for the same reason. I also like the fact that it has a lifetime warrantee.

I have to admit that I bought a Mogami last night, partly because I fell for what the salesman wash pushing and partly because it also has a lifetime warrantee.

 

[EBMM7181]

I use Ernie Ball and Planet Waves cables.

 

[Aussie Mark]

the GC salesman was telling me that the Monster cables add bass to your tone, but that the Mogami cables were crystal clear.

I hope you asked him for a 20lb bag of the stuff he was smoking. That must be some good sh!t.

 

[1Echo]

Yeah a cable's a cable's a cable repeat ad naseum.

Sure about that? I worked in the cabling business for quite a while and I promise not all cables are created equal. There are several things that vary between manufacturers, such as purity of the conductor and consistency of the diameter (for those that don't know, spools of cable are created by literally stretching the ore). Over or understretching it causes inconsistency that leads to varying resistances and occasional errors in transmission. This is easily measured in the digital world and it is safe to say there is a similar effect on analog transmissions. The question is ...... are the variances detectable by the human ear? That is open to discussion.

 

[bovinehost]

The question is ...... are the variances detectable by the human ear?

A band I used to play in consisted of at least three guys who worked part-time selling audio gear. I was one of those guys.

We used to call this stuff "Measurements in the twilight zone" and eventually got around to naming a song that. (It was an instrumental.)

You think WE'RE weird - hang out with some audiophiles.

My take is that while there are differences in cable, we're talking about relatively short runs and relatively non-dynamic frequencies (sorry, basses go 'thump thump thump') (and I like that). Until and unless you get up to some pretty serious lengths, and unless, as always, you are actually Eric Johnson, you're probably never going to hear any difference.

I use good cables because they last a long time.

Jack

 

[n!k]

The difference between regular cable and better cable is a big jump, but after about a Monster / Mogami threshold I don't notice much difference. I use Monster cable and they have been holding up. I was extremely impressed with how much more clarity they added over the junky cable I was using, especially with my fuzz tone.

 

[oddjob]

Monster / Mogami, I've got both. There is a difference but most normal humans won't hear it, especially in a live band setting. I hear it (or think I hear it so I am picky about it. The wife, kid, and dogs don't hear it so it probably doesn't matter. What matters is that they are both constructed well and have held up (I have had to send my Fndr cable back 4 times and it is going back again tomorrow). Verdict: for what most of us do around here, just get a good, solid cable, no one else will know the difference.

 

[bovinehost]

I was extremely impressed with how much more clarity they added over the junky cable I was using, especially with my fuzz tone.

This is what we used to call a "target rich environment".

 

[TSanders]

Ill echo what others have said, with Bayou Cables. Butch makes me what I want, with a decent turn around, GREAT quality product, and a price that makes Monsters look like a BIG waste of coin.

Honestly, when I was on the road a lot (over 100 days a year) I had more Monster cables f-up than any other cable. I swore them off many years ago. Overpriced , hype is what Monster Cables proved themselves to be IME.

 

[scottbass71]

My 2 cents I think cables wouldn't affect a MM as much because of the active circuitry in the basses.

Please explain how a cable can "add bass" to your tone if it's not there to begin with. What a crock!

I suppose it could diminish treble which would sound like a bass boost.

Don't forget cables have a Series Resistance and a Capacitance which can become a High-Pass or Low-pass filter (can't remember which one) and when connected to a passive intrument where the pickups output is about 50mV a crap cable or too much resistance, too much Capacitance can really change the sound.