Can an amp ruin a guitar cable?

Trace · #1 04-19-2005

I just got a Peavey TNT 100 from my brother. It is currently having some issues as far as buzzing/fuzzing coming through when being played, but besides that he has said that the amp tends to ruin his cables. Now, I have never heard of anything like this, and I pretty quickly just chalked this up to a teenager buying cheap cables and stepping/stretching/bending/smashing/abusing them in the ways that kids in punk bands do. But, I have a special love for MY equipment and before I plug anything into this amp I wanted to see if you guys thought that there was anyway possible that this amp could be damaging the cables or instruments that are plugged into it.

I am going to crack it open and look for a fix on the buzz/fuzziness. Let me know if there is anything more I should be looking for.

NeoMagick · #2 04-19-2005

The signal is going one way /from/ the guitar...

It would have to be a rediculously high spike to physically damage a cable. Something that would blow up the amp, while it was 'damaging' the cable...

What kind of damage?

The buzz may be coming from an ungrounded power source, or reverse polarity. Does the buzz go away after nixing distortion on the amp, or switching between pickups on the guitar? Also, playing around halogen/flourescant lights or televisions won't help.

Trace · #3 04-19-2005

Glad to hear that on the cables. It sounded crazy, but he just swore up and down that the amp was killing his cables (crackling, pops).

The buzz is coming through only when a note is being played, and sounds like a fuzz effect. The amp is an older bass amp that should have a fairly clean sound. No buzzing occurs without playing. It is evidently some sort of distortion being introduced to the signal inside the amp. Could this happen from a loose wire, bad caps, dust? I am going to take a look and see if there is anything obvious, but any ideas would be very helpful.

Track Rat · #4 04-20-2005

Nope. You can't damage a cable with an amp. If they crackle it's because they were cheap cables with poor quality shielding to begine with.

SteveK · #5 04-20-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trace

But, I have a special love for MY equipment and before I plug anything into this amp I wanted to see if you guys thought that there was anyway possible that this amp could be damaging the cables or instruments that are plugged into it.

Only if you drop the amp from a great height onto the cable or instrument...

Dani Pace · #6 04-20-2005

Lack of care or cheap cables is most likely the cause of the ruined cables, not the amp. Using cables for multiple purposes can damage them. Keep guitar cables and speaker cables seperate (color coding makes this easy.) Never unplug be pulling the wire, grasp the ends. Try to aviod walking on, setting things on or rolling things over cables. Loosely coil cables for storage and transport. Never use cables to tie anything. Pass these bits of advice along to your bro and save him some some cable problems in the future.
As for the buzzing noise, it might well be in the speaker, try a different one and see if it helps, if not then get someone to check the amp, there are only a few hundred things which can cause a buzz in an amp.

TimOBrien · #7 04-20-2005

Ask him if at the end of sessions he winds up the cable into a tight bundle (or wraps it around his arm to wind it up).

That'll kill a cable real quick too....

Trace · #8 04-20-2005

You guys won't believe this, the little jackass pulled out one of his cables as "evidence" the thing actually had crimps in it from god knows what. Found my buzz solution, one of the components controlling the mid-eq was totally oxidized over, not interested in investing any money in this amp so I hard wired past it. Lost some eq control but I got the amp back.

Thanks for all the info you guys I love this place.