The Steel Guitar Forum

What's the preferred guitar cables these days?
Factory assembled?
Self assembled?
Most transparent in the longer lengths (12'-20')?
What about connectors?

I use George L's and no longer than needed to get to the pedal,amp,effects etc..The longer the cable is the higher the chance of signal degradation.

What Lonnie said..Also I carry in my seat, a 2"X 2" block of hardwood, a boxcutter, and a small screwdriver for field repair, only takes a couple of minutes. Also, I make mine a couple inches longer than needed for future trim repairs. Only had to repair one so far.

Bill

Edited to say>>>>20' ????

George L's.

Nothing else, Period!

George L's cable (thin) and connectors. Extremely low capacitance (very little loss of highs) and easy to repair should repair be needed. They are well shielded, lay flat, coil easily into a compact coil and can be quickly built to custom lengths. This keeps your overall cable lengths as short as possible. My guitar to foot volume, foot volume to delay, delay to reverb and reverb to amp lengths are all different which makes the total length as short as possible and the overall setup very neat.

Greg

Lot of money to be spent on fancy cables with "gold" ends and smart looking wraps,bend restrictors and what not but the fact is that all you really need is a low resistance cable to take that relatively small signal from your guitar and get it to the other device(s)without changing it.The George L's do just that and nothing more.They are very solid built cables with strong ends and can be repaired with the minimum of time and tools.Why spend all the money on a good sounding guitar and pickup just to spoil it with the wrong connection.

I recently switched to George L's and the improvement in treble clarity was immediately noticable. They allow more of the natural high-end to come through without needing to turn the amps treble up which, I find, can get blarey without being crisp.

Dan

self made via George L's cables & jacks

Steel guitar pickups are quite a bit more High Z compared to conventional electric guitar pickups. This makes the capacitance contribution of a cable more significant. The capacitance of a cable presents itself as a connection from the hot to GND and is in series with the source resistance of the pickup therefore it acts like a tone control bleeding off the highs. I've found those expensive Monster cables are highly capacitive. You may not notice the loss of highs with conventional guitar but you sure do with steel. George L's it is.

I've found those expensive Monster cables are highly capacitive. You may not notice the loss of highs with conventional guitar but you sure do with steel.

My sentiments exactly. I've never been in a situation where Monster cable performed any better than cables costing a tenth as much.

I wonder who actually manufactures the cable used in the George L products?

I have some cables that I've had for 25+ years, that look similar to the George L type,(small diameter, push on connector with set screw). They have given almost no problems, even from our old guitar player, who treated all cables like they were rope. Are they the same with a new name, or is there a difference?

They are just as strong as always and can rope many a pony on the side if so desired

I don't know who manufactures the George L's cables, now. Originally the "L&L Sales Co" (Bill Lawrence and George Lewis) cables were marketed as "Bill Lawrence" cable and Bill claims he had an exclusive contract with Belden for the cable, which was made to his specs. When Bill sold his portion of the company to George Lewis, the cable was marketed as "George L's". Actually the first cable that George sold didn't have any brand name on it. I saw several reels of the cable in St Louis his first year and there was no name at all on the cable, the next year the cable had the George L's name on it.

Lavacable is also a good choice. It has (allegedly) less capacitance than George L's and a very interesting solder less jack with no set screw. They are something like 20% more expensive and its near impossible to tell if they are worth the extra cost but they are at least worth a look. Very nice guy to do business with.

I use nothing but George L's.
Like Greg all my cables are cut to the shortest lenght needed for steel to Hilton to DD-5 to amp.
The all coil up in a neat wrap and fit in my Pack-a-seat.
Don

George L products are the best on the market today, in everything they sell. You will be satisfied. I have used those cables for years & there strings also.

Ernie Pollock

In Guitar Player Magazine a couple of months ago, there was a comparison of many brands. In terms of conductance and sound, George Ls beat out almost all the low and middle price cables, and were better than some very high priced cables, and approximately equivalent to the very best and highest priced cables. So they would be one of the best regardless of price, and considering their reasonable price, they are the best bargain on the market. As for Monster cables, they were no better than average in the low and middle price ranges. Their highest priced cable was about as good as the other high priced cables and George Ls, which cost much less.

Durability is another matter. Some people might say that permanently soldered ends are a better connection and are more durable. But the George L method of attaching the ends does not seem to adversely affect the conductance and tone.

Lot's have been written recently on this subject. Check out the recent Guitar Player magazine Shootout...they compared 40 cables.

I like the new Elixir cables since they have the lowest capacitance of any cable. But remember, if you use anything active in your signal chain, capacitance doesn't matter.

You'll find that Monster's sound the absolute worst. Stay away from those.

George L's are nice, light and work fine.

Have any of you who swear by a particular brand, because of the sound, taken a blind test to hear if you can actually tell the difference and detect which kind of cable is being used?

James Randi actually has multi-thousand dollar challenge up to anybody who can scientifically prove that expensive speaker wiring is any better than any other speaker wiring. So far, no one has been able to do this.

I know speaker wire isn't necessarily the same as guitar cables, but I would be interested in finding this kind of thing out.

I am skeptical of magazine comparisons, especially when magazines live and die by the money they get from advertisers. Do the top ranked cables also happen to be predominately featured in the magazine?

From my experience: I never buy the most expensive, and I never buy the cheapest. I have about 10 Fender California cables and they've worked great for the last 5 years. I use them for guitar and keyboards. Each one set me back about $10-$15.

Some are more durable than others, but I've never noticed any having an enhanced sound, except for ones that have no sound because they are busted.

James Randi actually has multi-thousand dollar challenge up to anybody who can scientifically prove that expensive speaker wiring is any better than any other speaker wiring. So far, no one has been able to do this.

For speaker wires, I'm inclined to agree. That's because they carry hundreds of times more signal than guitar cords, and speakers are low-impedance devices. Guitar cables, however, are quite a different matter. Signals are sometimes small fractions of a volt, and the impedance of the steel pickups (always higher than straight guitar's) adds to the dilemma, as others have said. The more capacitance you have in the cable, coupled with the higher inductance of the pickups, means that highs will be attenuated, somewhat. As to whether or not they will be attenuated enough that your treble control will not cancel it out is anybody's guess. However, even with the very best cables, there will be some tonal change when lengths are excessive. Some don't mind it, and some do.

Personally, I use a cable that's as short as possible, and I'd consider 20 feet as "too long".

I've tried George L's, Lava Cable ELC, and your run of the mill GC cables. In my experience, length is definitely the most important factor in the effect of the cable on tone. The George L's that I have are solderless, and I've decided never to take them out of the house. Too much trouble. You can buy soldered George L's in any length. I don't understand why anyone would want to use solderless cables that frequently need to be taken apart and redone due to loss of connection. If you are using more than one of them and you notice a bad connection during a gig, it can be even more of a hassle because you may have to try each plug to find the bad one.

George L's for me too.

I use George L's because I'm a treble nazi Keep in mind that not everyone likes to hear all the treble available. Think about Hendrix and those coiled cords and SRV using the cheapest Radio Shack cables possible. Those guys wanted the treble attenuation. It's the same reason some folks prefer passive pot volume pedals to active volume pedals. One person's clear and bright is another's shrill and piercing.

Guitar Player has had 2 shootouts. The first one picked Carvin Cables for sound quality, price, durability and overall value. I've had great luck with Carvin cables.
Get a buffered most any type of stompbox, put it right out of your steel, use it with the 3 cord method(if available), and stop worrying about your cables. JP

Eddie Fulawka told me he makes his cords in 3ft increments (3',6',9',12',18', etc.) so as to keep in line with the wavelength of light.
I like that type of scientific thinking!
http://www.ambrec.com/fulawka/accessories.html