Four types of "wire" you need to know as a bass player...
--- you will want to call it a cable, not a wire. The wire is the stuff inside a cable ---
1. Instrument cable -- aka, 1/4" cable. This is your basic guitar cable that would go from your bass to your amp. Also used in-between pedals, or from your bass to a DI box, or to run things in your FX loop.
This cable has a hot wire & a ground wire (also called a shield). The give away is the connector - tip and sleeve (TS). This is a mono cable. It is not balanced - meaning not great for very long cable runs because it can get noisy and starts loosing high end the longer the cable is.
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2. Speaker cable -- This one goes between your amp head and your cab. This cable is actually conducting electricity!! This cable will often look just like the instrument cable, and can sometimes have the same 1/4" connector. WARNING - easy to mix them up, but be careful, because, remember, it's conducting electricity. Not safe to hook up your amp and cab with a regular 1/4" instrument cable.
This cable has a "hot" and a "cold" (or + and -) no ground. It has two wires (see below). The instrument cable also has two, but not really - more like one and a shield. The speaker cable has two unique separate separate wires.
You can often tell a speaker cable because the 1/4" connector will be a "jumbo" style connector - bigger than the normal one on your instrument cable - or the wire itself will be thicker, or it will have a speakon style connector.
If your amp and cab have speakon connectors, then this is what you should use. It the safest bet because you can't mix it up with your instrument cable, and you can't accidentally unplug it while it is conducting electricity.
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The next two are kind of related...
3. TRS cable -- This one looks like the instrument cable and has a 1/4" connector -BUT- it has a "TRS" (tip, ring, sleeve). This cable has two wires and a shield (hot, cold, ground -or- +, -, ground). This cable is balanced (+and-).
Follow me here, cuz this one has two functions...
--Function one is as a stereo cable. Instead of hot/cold, think left/right... tip = right, ring = left, and sleeve = ground.
This would be used for stereo functions like plugging a stereo music player into a soundboard. The give away for stereo on this cable is that it has the 1/4" TRS connector on one end, and on the other, it will have two connectors (RCA, or XLR, or something).
--Function two is as a balanced cable - meaning, its good for long cable runs without introducing noise. In this case, you will often have a 1/4" TRS connector on one end, and a XLR connector on the other (or another 1/4" TRS). If both ends are 1/4" TRS connectors, this will look almost exactly like an instrument cable -look close at the connector to tell the difference.
You might think this this cable is a good idea... it's balanced, less noice on long runs. But not really. Like some guys said above, in some cases this cable can actually cause problems, like with certain pedals.
You probably don't need a TRS cable unless you have some very specific use for it... like a pedal that has a stereo output, or if your amp has a 1/4" balanced out.
These cables are going to be used more for sound guy type stuff than bass player type stuff. Like I said you probably don't need one, and there is no benefit to using one unless needed. Not safe for speaker cable, and even though it will fit in your bass, you bass only has TS (tip/sleeve) connections, so it doesn't actually do anything even though it would probably work.
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4. XLR cable -- you know this as a microphone cable. It has the connector with 3 pins. This one goes out of the DI out on the back of your amp. This one is balanced, so good for long runs (like from the stage way back to the soundboard). This is the same cable as the TRS cable, just a different style connector.
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IMO, you would be more likely to use a XLR cable as a bass player than a TRS cable for getting your DI out to the sound guy. But usually something the sound guy would provide.
You most likely need a speaker cable (or two if you have two cabs), and how ever many 1/4" instrument cables you need for you bass, pedals, wireless, etc... Better to keep cables short if possible.
Your Line 6 G30 uses a regular 1/4" instrument cable. A TRS cable will probably work, but will have zero benefit, so use a regular 1/4" instrument cable.
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