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speaker cable question

#21
Rafael said:
Like I said, this kind of thing brings out the religion in people [faith over fact] like few other debates.
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It brings out the engineer in me. If you value your amp never use an instrument cable with a speaker. If you aren't aware of the engineering reasons why this is nothing but a bad idea, and aren't prepared to pay the repair bills that might arise from people following your advise, you shouldn't be advising others to do so.
 
#22
It is not a myth and it is not conjecture. Instrument cable center conductor can be extremely small - 22-26 gauge or smaller, as it is not designed to carry any current. This is a small fraction of the conductor size of even an 18 ga. lamp cord.

It has always been a real problem that the instrument and speaker use the same connector. 1/4" connectors are crap for conducting any kind of power anyway as the contact area for the tip is tiny. Should never have been used.

Anyway - don't do it.
 
#26
If you connect the amp and the cabinet with a guitar cable, will sound come out?
Yes.

Is there an undetermined degree of liklihood that everything will survive none the worse for the wear?
Yes.

Will you be an absolute idiot with no recourse and completely undeserved of compassion if something does fail?
Yes.

You have been fairly warned. Now, go and do whatever you were going to do anyway before you even bothered to post this thread.
 
#27
Rafael said:
OTOH some responses have been along the lines of 'grab some zip cord and make your own cord until you get to the guitar store' and trust me, THAT'S A RECIPE FOR DISASTER! I've seen more failed attempts at homemade speaker cords gone wrong than I can count! Not to say someone with a reasonable amount of soldering skills can't do it, it is just as easy to screw things up bad trying to make your own cord.
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I was the first one to suggest this, and I stand by that suggestion. It takes almost NO skills to connect two 1/4" jacks to the ends of a piece of zip cord. I'm not anyone's big brother here and I'm not going to hold their little hands and help them solder. If they don't feel competent to connect A and B at each end of a piece of zip cord, then they shouldn't try.

I firmly maintain there is less risk to advocating use of a piece of zip cord than to using a guitar cable to connect a speaker. Yes, you can probably get away with it for short periods at low volumes, but understanding why it's OK, what is not OK, and what to look for to detect problems is a helluva lot more complicated than connecting two 1/4" jacks to a piece of zip cord....which absolutely DOES work.
 
#28
Rafael said:
If you keep the cord short, and don't try to pump a thousands watts through it, there is no rational reason to not use a guitar cord. If most people could look inside of their speaker cabinets they would find that most of them use short lengths of tiny wire to connect the drivers to the speaker jacks.

I can't even count how many times I've run my 400 watt Seymour/Duncan amp through a 3' guitar signal cable with zero ill effects....

Ironically enough the old wife's tale prohibiting such usage is actually exactly opposite of what you can really get away with....plugging your bass into your amp using an unshielded speaker cord can result in some amp/speaker damaging hum like you wouldn't believe...
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I have no interest in flaming you - you are simply totally wrong. If you wish to learn a little of the subject do a google search for capacitive loading of a power amps output.

Plugging your bass into your amp using an unshielded cable will give you hum and noise for days. Especially in an electrically dense field like we often have to perform in.

A question if I may, why would you WANT to get away with anything??? If you run a speaker signal through an instrument cable and get a way with it fine but there will come that one time where you won't. If you wish to risk the gig on marginal gear that's your choice. Myself I find it both foolish and unprofessional. You are being PAID to entertain an audience with music not a fireworks display.
 
#29
Rafael said:
Like I said, this kind of thing brings out the religion in people [faith over fact] like few other debates.
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Just stop. This has nothing to do with "faith over fact." Your argument is roughly the equivalent of saying "no, you don't need smoke detectors. I've lived without them for years and never had a fire." You've been lucky enough to do something without damaging your own gear. But don't give out advice that is dangerously wrong.
 
#30
Rafael said:
Hah! Wanna create a controversy? Do what I'm about to do and commit the ultimate sacrilege of OKing the occasional use of a standard guitar cord for hooking up your amp to a speaker....There are few topics more surely guaranteed to whip up a hornet's nest of vitriolic postings than this:

If you keep the cord short, and don't try to pump a thousands watts through it, there is no rational reason to not use a guitar cord. If most people could look inside of their speaker cabinets they would find that most of them use short lengths of tiny wire to connect the drivers to the speaker jacks.

I can't even count how many times I've run my 400 watt Seymour/Duncan amp through a 3' guitar signal cable with zero ill effects....

Ironically enough the old wife's tale prohibiting such usage is actually exactly opposite of what you can really get away with....plugging your bass into your amp using an unshielded speaker cord can result in some amp/speaker damaging hum like you wouldn't believe...

Now, let the flaming begin!
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Do you want to destroy your amp or something?
 
#31
Pilgrim said:
I firmly maintain there is less risk to advocating use of a piece of zip cord than to using a guitar cable to connect a speaker. Yes, you can probably get away with it for short periods at low volumes, but understanding why it's OK, what is not OK, and what to look for to detect problems is a helluva lot more complicated than connecting two 1/4" jacks to a piece of zip cord....which absolutely DOES work.
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+1

I have a "speaker" cable that I made from a length of extension cord that I have been using off and on for 15 years.
 
#32
Using an instrument cable as a speaker cable is very unwise.

You might not damage the amp the first time. Or the second time, the third time, whatever. Just like in Russian roulette you might spin the cylinder, put the barrel to your head and squeeze the trigger, and manage to have nothing bad happen. Maybe even more than once. But there's certainly a risk in doing so, and don't mistake "it hasn't happened yet" for "it can't happen."
 
#33
Simple fact of the matter is if industry leading experts with numerous degrees on electrical and audio engineering are saying don't do it, then it's that simple. My buddy was running a 75 watt head and blew his... It's ********. Sure, it might work, but who wants to take that chance, especially when you can just wait a few days?

Nuts man.
 
#35
Poor place to ask for technical help. You got answers that are all over the map. How do you sort this out? Go to engineering school. They will teach you about ohms, watts, signals, power, impedance matching shielding, wire gauges and all sorts of things that most musicians do not understand. Pilgrim got it right, Rafael gives bad advice. How do I know??? I went to engineering school and worked in high tech for 30 years and there is still lots that I don't understand.

My $.02??? Signal cables and power cables should never use the same connectors. Leads to major confusion like this.
 
#37
bass-flyer said:
Yep ... I have a couple of short cables I use with my wireless system, I also have a few speaker cables ... which I have marked with white tape so I don't ever mix them up.
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Excellent idea! Many speaker and instrument cables look similar. I have some electrician's colored tape around - it's good to use it on speaker cables just to guarantee I'll know which is which.
 

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