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10-17-2009, 12:36 PM
| | | | INSTRUMENT CABLE FOR A SPEAKER
Is there a difference in sound if I use an Instument cables to hook my bass head to the cabs?
Can this damage my head or cabs ?  |
10-17-2009, 12:41 PM
|  | vintage bass nut
John K Custom Basses | | Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Thousand Oaks, CA | | Quote:
Originally Posted by shakiroin  Is there a difference in sound if I use an Instument cables to hook my bass head to the cabs?
Can this damage my head or cabs ? | Don't do it! it WILL damage your head. |
10-17-2009, 12:44 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2009 Location: Evansville, IN | | | In addition to damaging your head, it also fries the cable. I've heard they can literally melt from the inside out because of the high voltage.
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10-17-2009, 12:53 PM
| | | | The greatest invention is "Speakon" connectors so people don't get confused on what cable to use.
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10-17-2009, 12:54 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Montreal | | | Instrument cables have very small wires in them to transmit signal from your bass.
Then the AMPLIFIER AMPLIFIES that signal about 10 000 times more powerful.
So the speaker wire must be of a much bigger size to handle all that power well.
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10-17-2009, 12:55 PM
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Head Tinkerer, The Flufflab | | Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: California | | Quote:
Originally Posted by seamonkey The greatest invention is "Speakon" connectors so people don't get confused on what cable to use. | I put a 1/2" wide ring of yellow heatshrink around the connectors for all the speaker cables as soon as I get them so that people can see which are which.
Doesn't stop them doing stupid things, but makes it less likely and removes any excuse.
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10-17-2009, 12:57 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Towson, Maryland | | Quote:
Originally Posted by seamonkey The greatest invention is "Speakon" connectors so people don't get confused on what cable to use. | +1
They lock too! |
10-17-2009, 12:59 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Connecticut | | | Sound? Probably not. But it isn't safe. Speaker cable is a heavier gauge, and the conductors are different. Instrument cables are coaxial, a center conductor, surrounded by a braided shield (which serves as the ground). Speaker cable has two conductors of the same gauge (one pos, one neg) that may or may not be shielded with a braid (either way, the braid would carry no current).
I agree, Speakons or binding posts are the best kind connectors because the save the unknowing from themselves!
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10-17-2009, 01:05 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Anaheim, Ca. | | | Wanna start a literal fire? Want to possibly destroy the amp? Speaker cable and instrument cables are NOT interchangeable. There are plenty of threads here on TalkBass that will clearly spell this out for you. A small-gauge center 'lead' conductor and a braided shield will not conduct high voltage transients without quickly heating up. |
10-17-2009, 01:30 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Sacramento/Pacifica, CA | | Been using Speakons for 10 yrs., undenialbly the best speaker cable. DON'T USE INSTRUMENT CABLE, PERIOD..... 
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10-17-2009, 01:39 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Chicagoland | | Quote:
Originally Posted by grifff +1
They lock too! | Yeah, I love them. No worry about a stupid techy walking through and tripping over it. (common happening at school performances). I had two amps running, one my practice amp and pointed at my drummer because their were no monitors and the acoustics in the auditorium were terrible, but I found out after the plug had been yanked out when a techy ran through. That would never happen to my Genz Benz
o, and to the op. Don't use speaker for instrument or instrument for speaker. They have different uses for a good reason. Mark your speaker cables to just in case. |
10-17-2009, 02:10 PM
|  | . | | Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Glendale, CA (LA County) | | Quote:
Originally Posted by grifff +1
They lock too! | Also:
Larger contact surface.
Contacts self clean every time you connect/disconnect.
No possibility of exposed high voltage.
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10-17-2009, 03:47 PM
| | Registered User
Owner, Bill Fitzmaurice Loudspeaker Design | | Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: New Hampshire | | Quote:
Originally Posted by seamonkey The greatest invention is "Speakon" connectors . | It would be surpassed by a forum software that forces use of a 'search' before anyone was allowed to post a question that gets answered at least once a week.  |
10-17-2009, 04:00 PM
|  | Supporting Member | | Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Colorado | | | It depends on how many watts you are pushing.
150 watts no problem. 600 or 1000 watts problem.
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10-17-2009, 04:43 PM
| | Development Engineer: Genz Benz | | | | Depending on the length, it can cause some power amps to oscillate (regardless of power level) and self destruct. CoAxial cable such as insturment cable generally has pretty high capacitance per foot which can cause the issues. Also, the smaller gauge wire mar cause heating of the conductor and insulation, not good.
Speak-ons are by far the best solution to all of this, meet all the international safety standards regarding touchproof contacts, rugged, locking, reliable and unlikely to be mistaken as an instrument cable by even the most techniclly challenged 
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10-17-2009, 04:45 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Yonkers, NY | | | hmm so it would harm the head but not the cab. Thats interesting. I always thought it wasnt good for either. |
10-17-2009, 05:25 PM
| | Development Engineer: Genz Benz | | | | | Won't hurt the cabinet unless the amp oscillates but doesn't blow up before damaging the cabinet, or damages the cabinet as a by-product of blowing up.
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10-17-2009, 06:59 PM
| | | Quote:
Originally Posted by billfitzmaurice It would be surpassed by a forum software that forces use of a 'search' before anyone was allowed to post a question that gets answered at least once a week. | Just click on a different topic.. Be happy
Last edited by shakiroin : 10-17-2009 at 07:03 PM.
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10-17-2009, 07:02 PM
| | | Thanks to you all for taking the time to answer.. I got real speaker cables now 16 AWG.. |
10-18-2009, 12:26 PM
| | | Quote:
Originally Posted by billfitzmaurice It would be surpassed by a forum software that forces use of a 'search' before anyone was allowed to post a question that gets answered at least once a week. | +1!
Other forums do force this. Nice and simple, and it automatically builds FAQs if people click on the "Did this answer your question?"
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