Who has the best instrument cable?

[Freddy-G.]

Just purchased a Kordex instrument cable. Ordered it from Shoreline Music. I needed a longer cable and wanted a right angle plug. Man, does it sounds good! More detail than my Monster Cable. 28 bucks for a braided 20 ft. length. Great price for 99.9% oxygen free copper.

Who makes your favorite cable?

 

[Steve Dude Barr]

I use these exclusively:

http://www.bayoucables.com/

 

[Golem]

Just purchased a Kordex instrument cable. Ordered it from Shoreline Music. I needed a longer cable and wanted a right angle plug. Man, does it sounds good! More detail than my Monster Cable. 28 bucks for a braided 20 ft. length. Great price for 99.9% oxygen free copper.

Who makes your favorite cable?

Maybe that will become my fave when I try one. I have a few Bass and Jazz Monsters, right angle and straight. There is a problem with Monsters. I find they can be really latched in, so well latched that it seems like it will one day yank the innards out through the jack hole. I don't mean the barrel is overly thick. The plug is free to rotate in the jack if you check for that, but pulling it straight out feels like something you don't want to do too often.

The only instance of damage so far is to the Monster Cable itself. A friend sat in, used my cord, and while playing, he stepped on the cord, pulling it out of his bass. It was so well latched in that the tip and inner shaft [solid conductor to the tip] of the Monster plug broke free of the cable and remained inside his jack [Ibanez SGR]. Actually, that incident points to another problem. If it were wrapped around his strap like we typically do with more flexible cables, this would never have happened.

Monsters being too thick and inflexible, my current fave is the "George-L", a thin but quality coax cable that the dealer cuts off a roll and fits to your choice of plugs, straight or angle. You pay for the plugs, and buy cable by the foot. This means you can shorten or field repair your cables. The plugs are solderless, with a single screw cap. No wire strippers, no screwdrivers. The plugs come in nickel plate or plain brass finish, so you can somewhat color-code your cords that way.

 

[Mobay45]

"Who has the best instrument cable?"

I do.

 

[beej]

Bill Lawrence cable. $48 for 50 feet of low-capacitance cable and 10 connectors. Just need an allen key to attach the connectors, no soldering required so it's easy to make your own lengths of the stuff. Excellent stuff.

 

[Freddy-G.]

"Who has the best instrument cable?"

I do.

I should have known!

 

[Bill]

I use these exclusively:

http://www.bayoucables.com/

7.6 miles from my house & I never knew anything about this guy!! Ya learn something new every day!

 

[tkarter]

I use Bayou exclusively now and never been happier in all my life with the cables I have.

tk

 

[Bill]

Well, I know where I'm gonna buy my next batch of cables from.

 

[strummer]

I have some monster I'm satisfied with, but generally it's just a matter of reliability, and then Neutrik connectors and belden cable is my choice. Inexpensive, any length you like and the fun of soldering to boot

 

[barkatozz]

I have PRO-CO cables from Sam Ash....one of which is over 10 years old & has never crapped out on me.

 

[Motojunkie]

I use a Sennheiser wireless, but recently rewired my rack using Bayou cables. Top notch stuff made to order, and extremely quiet. The Bayou cables are about 2x as quiet as my George-Ls.

Bayou for me!

 

[Sigmunds Couch]

The Bayou cables are about 2x as quiet as my George-Ls.

Bayou for me!

The nice thing about the Canare cable that Bayou uses is that you can pick it up by the reel like George L's. Most communications suppliers such as Rexel, Graybar, Anixter or Accu-tech can order it in. They have great mic cables and speaker cables also. I've got several reels of the stuff and use it all the time. If comes in multiple colors which makes color coding racks or stage setups easy. Canare is on par with Mogomi without the premium cost.

 

[Psycho Ward]

I use Radio Shack cables found on sale. I suck as a bass player so no sense blowing big money on high grade cable. In fact I used an expensive cable once and I sucked worse, cheap cables hide some of my suckness...

 

[Randracula]

I use a Mogami instrument cable and Quantum Audio patch cables.

 

[Colin]

What about Ernie Ball cables?

Colin

 

[SteveB]

I use working cables, and throw away the non-working ones.


I generally stick to Belden cable with Switchcraft plugs. I hate paying big money for a frikkin' cable. YMMV.

 

[AnthonyD]

Been using Planet Waves for a year or so now...

Hoping to go wireless soon!

 

[tkarter]

It's all copper right?




tk

 

[Freddy-G.]

It's all copper right?

tk

Shoreline (www.shorelinemusic.com) sells a cable made of silver. A little pricey for me, but here's what they say about them:

How is it possible for one cable to be so much better than every other cable? Well, it's simple physics: Whereas almost every other cable has a core of pulled copper wire, these cables are built with 99.99997% pure cast silver. Since silver is the most electrically conductive metal in the periodic chart, the result is a guitar cable with the highest possible signal fidelity. Of course, since silver is expensive, it also means that the cable costs quite a bit more than a generic cable. But considering what a lot of players will spend on instruments, pickups, and amplifiers to improve their tone, the extra cost of a Zaolla cable is rather modest.

20 ft. of that one costs $110. That's why I bought the Kordex. They speak highly of Kordex cable too. And it sounds great to me.