Guitar cable length & signal loss

Mr. Moon

Force of Naked
In the past I have heard that the maximum length for a guitar cable (non-balanced) is 18 feet 6 inches before you start to loose signal strength.

Now I see that most high-end cable manufacturers don't sell 18' 6" cables anymore, the closest length being 20'.

What gives?

-mr moon
 
Quantity before quality is their mind set.

They figure they'd rather have more complaints saying "my audio signal isn't that great on this 20' cable," than hearing people say "Why did you make a cable only 18' 6", why don't you just round up to 20'

It's an 'even, common' problem people have. Just like when some people mix a song or apply effects or anything with values effecting the signal. Maybe the mix sounds PERFECT with the guitar panned 28% to the right, but hey, you're so close to 30%- just round off and put it at 30% (even though it sounded a lot better at 28%)

They're putting comfort in the simple-common number before the more important signal-quality; or maybe, there really isn't a difference better 18' 6" and 20' or both even depending on the cable maker ofcourse..
 
Mr. Moon said:
In the past I have heard that the maximum length for a guitar cable (non-balanced) is 18 feet 6 inches before you start to loose signal strength.
Next time someone tells you that nonsense, give them this link, which explains in detail why it's completely untrue.
 
Thanks for the info!!

Thanks for the info and the link. From what the article described, I guess the major issues would be quality of the connectors and cable quality rather than length alone.

What about crosstalk and attenuation?

-mr moon
 
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