R&M Tone Technology - PowerWire Amplified Instrument Cables

[Gene Della Torre]

Introducing:

One of your steel cohorts, Tom Mossburg in Phoenix, recently said this about PowerWire.

"I have found at least two great uses for the power wire cables. First, they bring out the clarity of an instrument that is often missing when amplified, giving a true representation of the instrument's tone and dynamics. There is a clarity in note definition not found in ordinary cables. Secondly for steel guitar. Steel guitars are notoriously hard to amplify. Partly because of the instruments tonal range and multitude of chord possibilities but mainly because of the mismatch in impedance between pickup and amplifier. Pickups for these instruments are very high in impedance due to the size of the winding itself. More strings, bigger pickup. The Power wire cable solves this problem by buffering the output of the guitar right at the source. This limits the effects of resistance and capacitance in the cable that destroys tone. This also eliminates the need for costly impedance matching devices you see a lot of people using. The result is clearer tonality and better note separation. Exactly what you want in an amplified instrument."

Tom was referring to the PowerWire Model CB0 cable, with Clean Boost signal enhancement and 0 dB of gain. There are 4 models of PowerWire and Tom thinks the CB0 is best matched to the pedal steel.

Here's a picture of Tom playing PowerWire and Steel at NAMM last month.



The PowerWire™ family of ‘active’ guitar cables by R&M Tone Technology, carry clean amplified analog boost from your pickups to your pedals and amplifiers. By driving the cable with a pre-amp, signal quality is improved and noise reduced. The resulting sound is bolder and more defined across the frequency range. PowerWire’s patented, U.S. made circuitry is designed into the cable jack and powered by two long lasting and easily changed watch batteries.

To learn more about PowerWire, visit http://www.rmtonetech.com

[Billy Murdoch]

I am surprised that there have been no comments on this item.
It looks very much like a "one length" cord which is suited for six stringers.
I find it difficult to hear a marked difference in the soundclips and at the price I would be looking for a tone that My many heros have attained with "normal" cables.
Best regards
Billy

[Greg Cutshaw]

Steel guitars are not hard at all to amplify! There are tons of really great amps that handle them with ease.

The steel guitar pickup, amp and pot pedal system was designed with the "impedance mismatch" in mind. The high impedance pickup was designed to sound great when feeding a typical setup of a pot volume pedal and cord with some capacitance in them. The classic tones obtained using this system and still obtained today even by top players are missing nothing! This system is not deficient nor are there any needed tones missing.

I've moved on to a buffered electronic pedal that sounds pretty good with the right adjustments. Better tone than my pot pedal? No, but I like the taper on it. And I've added some of the classic loading back into it using an adjustment provided by the pedal.

Listening to all the greats play with their classic setups, their is no "destroyed tone", problems with "note separation" and the tone is quite "clear".

If you like this inline cord amp and you changes in tone that it produces then that's great! Is it a better system and does it solve the "problem" of "missing clarity", that is very subjective!

[Tom Mossburg]

The guys that make this cable are friends of mine. They asked me to help them out at NAMM so I gave them a hand. At first I was skeptical about this cable making any difference in the tone. But I tried it and I liked it. To me the difference happens in the midrange and it just seems to be clearer. I don't have a dog in the fight here as I am really not connected to the company. But I believe I hear a difference in the tone between this and standard cables. Whether that is better or not is subjective to the listener. Greg you have done some nice reviews and contributed positively to the forum. Maybe it could be arranged for you to try one of the cables and give it a review.

[Greg Cutshaw]

This is a forum. Forums discuss things and opinions get expressed. No doubt this will change your tone and it's up to the user and forumite to discuss, like, dislike, opine and even review devices like this. My opinion is just that. If you try it and like it then that's valuable information for all of us!

Nice picture Tom!

[Gene Della Torre]

Thanks for the comments Bill, Greg and Tom. I appreciate the opportunity to have this discussion here in the forum. We're excited to share info about PowerWire and it may be of interest to you.

In the case of the CB0 PowerWire, it's less about the amplification (there is no gain in this one) and more about signal retention across the frequency range. These cables deliver more of what is coming out of the pickups, whether a guitar, steel, fiddle, bass, any fretted instrument except those that already have active pickups installed. Being an 'active' cable, it's not well matched to active pickups.

There is a noticeable signal (and sound) improvement over a passive cable. Here's a spectrum analysis comparing PowerWire with a standard and high-end (studio) cable.



The signal doesn't degrade with length of cable and capacitance is a non-issue. I was with Tom at NAMM and admit that even in that noise-filled environment, the side-by-side sound comparison was noticeable. As far as I know, he was the first to try PowerWire with a Steel and he was surprised by it.

We're hoping some of you will be interested in giving one a try. And I absolutely know that each of you has a 'tonal recipe' of your own, pieced together with great care over many years. You might find this new 'ingredient' to be a tasty and surprising addition to your recipe!

Gene

[Gene Della Torre]

I didn't point this out in my comments about the graph in the previous post. The spectrum analysis shown is our CB6 (6 dB of gain). The CB0 graph tracks the CB6 identically except 6 dB lower along its trace. You'll notice we are carrying an average of 15 dB more signal across the spectrum. Notice also how the standard and high-end cables show limited difference. Even if you remove the 6 dB of amplification of the CB6, PowerWire carries significantly more signal down the cable.

[Tom Mossburg]

Heres my 2 cents worth on this subject. I have seen numerous threads on the subject of tone here on the forum. I believe that tone, without exception, lies totally in your EARS. That's all you have to measure it with. Either you like the way something sounds or you don't. You or I will never sound like our heroes, no matter what equipment we have, because we are not them. That said a lot of us have gone through a lot of gear searching for a "sound" and we will probably continue to do so. I just gave my honest opinion of what I thought of this cable and my experience with it. Some may look at it as an expensive investment. But I believe compared to the gadgets you see hanging off some steel guitars and expensive buffering pedals, it provides a cost effective alternative. I heard a difference in sound when these cables were AB'd with standard cables. Was it better? That's up to the ears of the beholder. If anyone in the Phoenix area wants to hear one let me know and I'll try to accommodate you. Again I am not selling them and do not have a stake in the company.

[Billy Murdoch]

Gene,
Thanks for posting information.
Like Many players I use several cords/cables to take Me from Guitar output jack to amp input jack via volume pedal,effect pedals and such.
In order to obtain best results is it necessary to replace all cords or will one from the guitar to the vol pedal be sufficient.
Are the cords custom made(length)?
The Dallas Jamboree would have been a great place to show the product.
Best regards
Billy

[Tom Mossburg]

Billy, I don't want to speak for Gene here but you should only need one cable and that would plug into your guitar and then into your pedal or pedals. The buffering that takes place at the guitar input is what does the trick and that end should not be altered. The length of the cable after that does not matter. It could be shortened since there is a standard switchcraft plug on that end. At Namm we had a 100 ft cable and it did not make a difference.

[Billy Murdoch]

Thank Tom for the speedy reply
Billy

[Gene Della Torre]

Billy and Roy both mentioned they would only need a 3 foot version of the cable.

I would be willing to make a special length version of PowerWire for Steel players on this forum if there was interest. I would need to standardize the length for production reasons as we don't have proper capabilities for a custom length program. If 3 feet is the best overall length that's what it could be. Just remember, if you historically minimize cable length to reduce capacitance and signal loss, that isn't an issue with the PowerWire. Any length cable works just fine. (As Tom mentioned, we demo'd 100 foot versions at NAMM just to make the point.)

If there was any interest, what would be the best 'universal' cable length for steel? And if any of you might be interested, let me know publicly or privately and we'll see how quickly we could make some available.

Respectfully,

Gene