• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Anyone use or tried a coiled cable for bass?

ishouldbeking

ishouldbeking

Feb 5, 2007
2,090
32
#1
My bayou cables have seen plenty of road wear in the past few years (the orange cable is practically blacked out from stage dirt, the chrome plating on the cable tips is chipping pretty badly) and before they die on me, i'd like to pre-emptively switch to something else. Now that butch is out of the custom business, i'm looking to different options.

My guitarist just picked up a phantom guitarworks vintage-style coiled cable for the astonishingly low price of $18.95. He a/b'd between his old (mid-level monster) cable and didn't notice any change in tone. I always liked the feel and look of a coil cable on stage, but i wondered if anyone had tried any of the newer crop of coiled cables to see if they still have issues with high-end loss.

Cables like the Vox Vintage Coil Cable and the Fender Koil-kords claim they don't have the treble-bleed the way the old coil cables did, but then in koil-kords description they mention having the "distinctive coiled-cable voicing" but with extended highs. Frankly, i doubt any of us want any voicing of any kind with our damn cables. Also, in my searching i found a lot of people specifically disliked the fender koilkord, so i'm gonna dismiss that from my consideration entirely. But the Vox seems to get high marks, and people like the Bullet cables. I'm naturally skeptical of the Phantom cable due to the low price, but if i get the chance i'll have to borrow my guitarists' and A/B them on bass.

Anywho, longwinded way of asking: anyone know if the new cables bleed treble?

(YES. I did a search. The only thread that seemed of any use was full of well thought out responses like "why would anyone want one anyway?" and "I tried one in '72 and it sucked")
 
#2
I don't know for sure about tone changes (and I'm curious to hear more about it), but I do have experience with coiled cables breaking more easily or quickly than regular cables. By "breaking" I mean internally, where the wires become weak conductors due to stress.
 
#4
bongomania said:
I don't know for sure about tone changes (and I'm curious to hear more about it), but I do have experience with coiled cables breaking more easily or quickly than regular cables. By "breaking" I mean internally, where the wires become weak conductors due to stress.
Click to expand...

Exactly my experience. When I was a beginner, back in the late eighties, I bought coiled cables thinking that they could take abuse way better than regular cables because of stretch, but it turned out to be exactly the opposite.
 
#6
Stick with straight unless you're in a vintage looking band. If you're in a band like that, they're cool, but keep a few spares. There's a reason people quit using them.
 
#7
I used coiled cables for many years. IME, as long I didn't overstretch them, they seemed to last longer. Still, a recent one that I purchased and haven't done much with, didn't last long at all.

IMO, I would go with a regular cable for more long term reliability.
 
#8
JimmyM said:
Stick with straight unless you're in a vintage looking band. If you're in a band like that, they're cool, but keep a few spares. There's a reason people quit using them.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's part of the reason I was interested... we definitely go for that look as much as we can. Champagne sparkle ludwig drums, Nash relic telecaster, 335-type guitar, we built wooden covers to hide our keyboard player's modern looking controllers, and i dressed up my LDS 610 with tolex and silver/turquoise grillcloth. That and we dress up (a little) for all our shows. That said, cable that's gonna break is probably not the best choice either. I'll probably buy something else, but keep tabs on my guitarist's red cable, see how it works for him. I'd still like to A/B it with my bayou canare cables to see if i can notice any difference sonically.
 
#9
My $.02: With a 10' straight cable, you can get 10' away from your amp. To get the same usable distance using a coiled cable, you need like a 25' cable because it doesn't stretch completely straight. So you have 2.5x the resistance and capacitance for the same usable length. I don't know if you can actually hear that difference, but the idea of it bothers me. I want my amp to get the cleanest signal possible from my bass. Plus, coiled cords tend to get tangled up in my gear bag.
 
#10
I used to have one of the Bullet ones, a beautiful cable that felt like jelly and sounded OK until it started going bad (I thought I had some sort of speaker damage from the sounds I was getting, but it was bad cable). Then I got one of the Vox cables, it's an ugly tomato red color but it sounds great and has held up wonderfully since I got it a couple years ago. It's my main cable. And it came with a little mesh drawstring bag, which keeps it from getting tangled up with other stuff in my box of odds and ends.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back