High end cables

If you are talking about instrument cables, I like any of the good quality, flexable, shielded cables. Monsters are fine.

For speaker cables I like 14 gauge braded wire with speakon connectors on the speaker end and 1/4" plug ins on the amp end. Again the brand is less important than the quality.

 

I vote for Tara Labs. They just seem to work a little better than anything else I've tried.

 

After using the same cable for almost 20 years, it fell apart as I was plugging it in to my Hamer. I ended up having to replace the jack (long story...), but I took the plunge on a Planet Waves cable. So far, so good. I couldn't see spending so much more for the Monster, and others here (and another board) said that they felt the price was a bit high for what you got.

 

if you have a 20 foot good cable and a 6 foot generic cable the generic cable will crush 20 foot cable in tone difference

 

I buy $20 cables and never seem to have any problem. I bought a real expensive one once, and it kept tangling up big time (forgot what it was) - I returned it, got a cheap one, a whole bunch of money back, and I'm happy.

 

I'd read that it isn't such a good idea to use George L's in "active stage use," however. does that only apply to the "make your own cable length" George L's?

 

I make my own cables. no factory-made cable can be compared to them

 

Monster Bass have good harmonic response, as well as giving a clean, beefy low end, no tone loss at all. Good cable, check it out.

 

Lifetime guarantee.

The "make your own" and prepacked cables are essentialy the same.

The smaller diameter (.155) GL's tend to curl and kink if you move around. I don't know about the larger ones. I use the Planet Wave's 20 footer for my stage cable and the GL's for the efx loop.

 

George L's work great for situations where you are going to plug the cable in and leave it, such as in a rack or a studio environment.

I bought 15' of cable and 2 ends back when they first came out, and tried using them live. Every 3 or 4 shows the ground would start messing up and I would have to either turn the cable in the connector to a new spot and tighten the screw down, or cut a little off of the end and put the connector back on. I finally got tired of the hassle and gave the cable(which had since lost about 18" of its length) to a guitarist who forgot his cable and told him that he could have it.

 

For instrument cables, I use Monster Standard 100. They sound fine and I love their connectors and rubber stuff on the cable. They are very flexible and easy to coil. This is the reason why I spent $20 on them; I love their casing and stuff. It is great.

For speaker cables, I suggest you make your own. Dont use anything thicker than 12 gauge it is overkill and is hard to work with. Dont use anything thinner than 16 gauge either. Use speakons whenever you can, I prefer Neutrik just because they invented the speakon connector and Im used to them. The Switchcraft ones are probably good too, but I dont trust them yet. The only good thing about buying that clear amber monster speaker cable that they sell at Circuit City is it smells really good.

And remember the following about cables:

• never use instrument cables to hook up amps + cabs, unless you are cold and want to heat up your cables
• you can safely do visa-versa, (plug your bass into your amp with speaker cable) but it will be really noisy.
• make sure you wire your speakon connectors right. if you're bridging an amp, you need a 4 conductor one. Wire it so that conductor +1 is positive and conductor +2 is negative.

 

About 6 years ago, just on a whim, I bought one of those $50+ Monster Bass cables, just to see for myself. While I can't hear a difference in sound, that sucker hasn't failed me in 6 years, and is still going strong, despite an average of about 2 gigs a week.

I've never had a cable last so long without failing.

 

Dunno, I've only had them a month. I tried for two rehearsals and one gig to use them. I just couldn't get used to way it kind of curled and dangled.

Part of it is that after 24 years of playing, my onstage cable management is pretty automatic. But it depends on a heavy cable. I relegated the George L's to my effects loop, then ran into the ground problem that Jeff had. Mine was intermittant and really drove me crazy, but I'm going to try them there a few more shows (I've got a cable tester now as well as back up cables).