Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bob_Molton
When it comes to creating the ultimate guitar tone, there are many factors that account for this carefully calculated recipe of tone. Yet, who's to say what the best guitar sound is? This is completely subjective to the person being asked. However, there are common key elements that are present in most every great guitar tone, and a full spectrum of frequencies are indeed one of those key elements.Today, we're going to look at guitar cables and examine what this simple little lifeline is (or isn't) doing for our core guitar tone... (Core Guitar Tone or CGT, is simply your guitar plugged directly into the front of the amp with absolutely nothing else in the signal chain anywhere.)
The first thing we must accept is that guitar cables do indeed affect the signal and the tone of your sound. One simple single guitar cable can be responsible for good or bad quality immediately. This is exactly why I recommend that you spend some time working with different guitar cables to pin point the one you like best. You'll only have to do this once, because after the initial time is spent narrowing down your choices and making a decision, you'll want to use that type of cable throughout your entire signal chain to maintain consistency.
So, talking from experience and knowing what helped me to quickly overcome this process of cable comparisons and eliminations, I simply spent a couple days rounding up and locating as many different types of cables as I possibly could. This includes cheap ones and expensive ones and everything in between. I was able to borrow tons of different brands of cables from a local music store I worked at. I also rounded up all the cables I personally owned and ones that my friends personally owned.
This may sound like a crazy thing to do, but it was one of the best things i ever did to educate myself on cables regarding signal loss and tone robbery. I would never have thought to even do something like this if it weren't for months and months of wondering why my guitar sound would change now and then, when I wasn't changing any components in the rig. I would notice gain loss, or presence loss and the worst of all saggy bass instead of tight focused bass. You can imagine how this can drive you crazy, when your trying to achieve Great Guitar Tone.
One day, I was swapping out a simple patch cord and noticed a difference immediately in my entire guitar sound. It then dawned on me that the patch cord was affecting my overall guitar tone. That's when I started experimenting with my cords and realized the huge amount of influence my cables had on my core guitar tone. Keep in mind, i was using all kinds of mixed matched cables at the time. This didn't help the scenario any.
This is why I spent the time going through tons of different cables to discover what worked best for me. As i mentioned, you'll only have to do this once if you spend the time gathering as many cables as possible, then do it all in one day.
I advise you to record your audio auditions of each cable and document the brand so when you can play them back, you be able to further analyze each cable. But... odds are you'll know when your playing through the cable right then and there if it sounds right, and feels right. Yes, you'll feel it in the guitar as well.
You'll notice differences in things like
- Frequency drops or frequency harshness
- Loss of gain or enhanced gain
- Loss of clarity or enhanced clarity
- Saggy low-end or tightly focused low-end
- Big roundness of frequencies or narrow nasal frequencies
- Massive loss of sustain or increased sustain
- Dull responsiveness from the guitar or making the guitar feel Alive
- Non- transparent and cloudy or crystal clear with sheen
All of these things are what you'll notice when you're able to rapidly examine at least 20 different types of cables through the same guitar and amp rig in one simple setting.
