cable decisions

[seanr]

Should I use a long medium-quality cable or a short low-quality cable? This isn't a serious project so I'm not too keen so go out and buy expensive new ones. I'm just recording a guitar through a pod and I have a couple shitty 10 ft cables and one acceptable 20 ft. Also, is there anything you can do to reduce noise from them, like stop them from coiling?

 

[ez_willis]

Use the shortest cable you can, but not so short that when you put your favorite Gibson Les Paul bass that sounded like a piano down on a guitar stand the cable is about 3" off the ground running to your amp. You'll trip over it and the bass will fall in slow motion and the headstock will snap off and you'll break your arm trying to do a Lynn Swan to save it.

Trust me on this.

Don't let instrument cables run parallel to power cables.

 

[ez_willis]

And the noise is not likely coming from your cables, unless it's touching a power cable.

 

[seanr]

Cool, thanks.
And there's no noise yet, I haven't even started. I just imagine that there will be. I am, after all, pretty incompetent.

 

[brevity]

if you keep the cable coiled it will more or less act as its own shield.

 

[boingoman]

if you keep the cable coiled it will more or less act as its own shield.

Not true. Basically the opposite, really. If a guitar rig is in a noisy EM environment, nothing will help except the shortest cables possible. Maybe not even that will help. And coiling a cable forms an inductor, making it even more susceptible to certain kinds of noise.

 

[leester]

Use the shortest cable you can, but not so short that when you put your favorite Gibson Les Paul bass that sounded like a piano down on a guitar stand the cable is about 3" off the ground running to your amp. You'll trip over it and the bass will fall in slow motion and the headstock will snap off and you'll break your arm trying to do a Lynn Swan to save it.

Trust me on this.

Don't let instrument cables run parallel to power cables.

Ow. I've hurt about 3 guitars that way, not to mention a couple mics when the stand went down. Worst was just a busted tuning key off my fav acoustic.

Les Paul... nooooooo. That makes me wanna cry.

me

 

[brevity]

Not true. Basically the opposite, really. If a guitar rig is in a noisy EM environment, nothing will help except the shortest cables possible. Maybe not even that will help. And coiling a cable forms an inductor, making it even more susceptible to certain kinds of noise.

Oh, sorry.... Guess I was wrong on that one. Maybe it was a bad cable that when coiled was just sitting so-so, but I've seen a cable get noisy when UNcoiled, but just fine when coiled... what gives? Bad cable then?

Thanks for the info, though.


Sucks aout the LP. Did you actually break your arm?

 

[lpdeluxe]

Noise comes from faulty solder joints, not the crystals imbedded in the premium connectors or the aura surrounding the phone plug tips. Cables are not cutting-edge science, guys. It's well understood that a well made cable with robust connectors and solid soldering IS **premium**. If your cable works better when it's coiled, or when it's uncoiled, you have a simple mechanical problem.

Like boingoman says, coiling adds capacitance and inductance, and is a Bad Thing. Don't do it.

 

[punkin]

Not true. Basically the opposite, really. If a guitar rig is in a noisy EM environment, nothing will help except the shortest cables possible. Maybe not even that will help. And coiling a cable forms an inductor, making it even more susceptible to certain kinds of noise.

A coil of wire makes an excellent directional antenna!

 

[brevity]

heh well yeah I see the point now that it's illustrated. Thanks folks.

so you're saying that if I wrap a twenty foot instrument cable around my head I can get free HBO?


digressions aside, I've had excellent results with Rapco cables. The soldering on them is top notch and so far I've never had one go bad after about 4 years of using them.

 

[boingoman]

so you're saying that if I wrap a twenty foot instrument cable around my head I can get free HBO?

Yup. Don't even need a TV.

These guys already said it, but basically either a cable is gonna pick up noise or not. Instrument cables make great noise collectors coiled or uncoiled. You can be pretty much boned either way. If a cable makes less noise uncoiled, uncoil it. If it makes less noise coiled, coil it. Try moving it. The noise is more likely to depend on where the cable is rather than it's shape. Sometimes moving a cable a foot gets rid of hum. And sometimes, hum goes away because your cable is faulty somehow and moving it made it work right for awhile.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

so you're saying that if I wrap a twenty foot instrument cable around my head I can get free HBO?

Probably not, but with that magnetized plate in your head if you jump up and down you'll create enough electricity to run your multi-band compressor .

G.