Comments on: Does An Expensive Guitar Lead Make a Difference?

By: Elliot Stent

Elliot Stent — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 04:11:28 +0000

In reply to Roger A.

Hi Roger,

That’s an interesting argument, and it was something that I had considered when planning this piece. However, not many people purchase cables above £30, so I thought it would be more beneficial to most players if I compared cables that were only £10-£15 apart, to discern if that little extra would produce better results. However, a Part II to this might be interesting, where we compare cables of vastly different price-points. We’ll see!

Thanks for your comment,

Elliot

By: Elliot Stent

Elliot Stent — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 04:04:57 +0000

In reply to Geoff Sloan.

Hi Geoff,

Thanks for your comment, that’s very interesting indeed! It gives us food for thought for another article, where we could dig deeper into cable construction and materials used, etc.

Cheers!

Elliot

By: Roger A

Roger A — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 09:07:21 +0000

Many people would argue that £20-30 is all the same price range given that you can easily spend £200+ on a cable. Whirlwind Leaders have always been a solid choice and for all we know might cost more to make than the Ernie Ball. You have at least proved what some of us knew all along – there are good and not so good cables.

Now let’s hear about some of those really expensive ones to see if they are at all justified.

By: Geoff Sloan

Geoff Sloan — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 07:14:42 +0000

Hi there, very interested to look at your work on guitar leads. Have carried out much work myself and found that in the early 90’s Fender leads, manufactured by Whirlpool, got really good with a wide frequency response and low noise, similar to using an average Audio lead for guitar cable. Using better than average Audio lead instead of guitar cable increases tonal colour depth volume and frequency even more.

Playing POP on stage with this arrangement in a Covers Band in the 70’s – the sound boost is very akin to wiring in the pickups direct without the volume and tone controls in the way. Never used anything else until the Fender leads came along in the 90’s which were almost as good as the Audio leads. Someone at Whirlpool had done their homework at last but alas they were changed again later on. I’ll leave you to go through whatever happened to the Acusonic+1 H1-z Capacitance Corrected cable residing in the “where is it now file”.

Rang them up in the States spoke to a several senior Geeks until I found one that remembered what they had done. He said they had changed the spec but they didn’t think it would make much difference. They had reduced the available frequencies through the changes but they didn’t think it mattered. A super, well considered, caring, research result. Sweep the market with that downgrade wouldn’t you know?

Hosa patch cable is rubbish but Hosa mid range audio cable cut up and made into patch cables and guitar leads, is well worth doing and it doesn’t cost much. All the frequencies to come through in bucket loads and tonal headroom is everywhere, guitar response multiplied little or no increase in cable noise compared with almost any guitar lead.
The high gain cables made for metal can be exceptionally quiet and are a completely different consideration.

By: Ltw Recordings

Ltw Recordings — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 19:17:45 +0000

Directly into the amp isn’t going to give you much of a comparison test. Put about 6-10 pedals in front of the amp, and then try cheap plastic Hosa patch cables vs actual patch cables. Throw the pedal board in your car and off to a gig a dozen times and see how well the cheap cables hold up. This test kind of missed the mark.