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Topic: Guitar cords |
Ron Sodos
From:
San Antonio, Texas USA
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Posted 12 May 2019 8:25 am |
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I've been using the same cords for 20+ years. The cord to the volume pedal then to the preamp the to the amp. Just for a fluke I decided to buy 4 short cords (3 feet). They functioned for all of my connections except to my speaker that sits behind me. I use components (preamp, power amp, volume pedal and Black Widow speaker)
I tried them for the first time Friday night.
I thought something was wrong as my volume was so much louder I had to turn my preamp down 3 notches. After a while it made me realize the signal was that much stronger. I don't know if it was due to the quality of the new cords or the short length. I had previously used a 3 foot to the volume pedal but the others were all 10 foot.Crazy. I never new cords made that much as a difference. |
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Godfrey Arthur
From:
3rd Rock
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Posted 12 May 2019 9:47 am
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I never new cords made that much as a difference.
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Sure they do. Length does for sure. Try running a 100 foot extension cable to power your amp from the outlet and see how much power it will rob.
Same thing happens to audio cables. Which is why buffers are used in the case of long cables.
Cables, the way they are made, even the plugs and jacks, the construction of them makes a difference in the sound you hear.
It's not as much as about being the "best" cable but about producing the right sound you might want for any song.
Some cables will be too bright, some just right, so you experiment with them and mix and match.
But shorter cables will definitely produce a stronger signal than a longer one from the signal loss in the resistance in the wire.
If anything your ears just got better Ron!
_________________
ShoBud The Pro 1
YES it's my REAL NAME!
Ezekiel 33:7 |
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Steven Paris
From:
Los Angeles
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Posted 12 May 2019 6:54 pm
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| Godfrey Arthur wrote: |
| Sure they do. Length does for sure. Try running a 100 foot extension cable to power your amp from the outlet and see how much power it will rob. |
That don't wash. Let's see---according to Calculator.net, a 100 foot, 16 gauge power cable will cause a voltage loss of about 6.7%. I highly doubt that it will cause a power output drop of that much; but, even if it did, you can't hear a <7% change in power output.
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Emmons & Peavey |
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Godfrey Arthur
From:
3rd Rock
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Posted 12 May 2019 7:08 pm
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| Steven Paris wrote: |
| Godfrey Arthur wrote: |
| Sure they do. Length does for sure. Try running a 100 foot extension cable to power your amp from the outlet and see how much power it will rob. |
That don't wash. Let's see---according to Calculator.net, a 100 foot, 16 gauge power cable will cause a voltage loss of about 6.7%. I highly doubt that it will cause a power output drop of that much; but, even if it did, you can't hear a <7% change in power output. |
If you want to use an online calculator to be the judge then I guess having ears is not an issue. 
A power cable has an affect on audio as well. Did your online calculator run a test for audio signals vs running a power tool? Or did it just make a general computation for just AC power?
I remember playing a 60's Vibroverb powered by a long extension cord playing outside, one gig. My intro to "Pipeline" quickly turned into "poopline."
The amp's tone was distorted, not as loud and not as clean as plugging a few feet from an outlet.
Total harmonic distortion (THD) and intermodulation distortion (IMD) can be affected by as much as 10% for the THD and 50% for the IMD.
Even just a short length of a Belden hospital grade power cable will allow more power to pass than similar length of a generic hardware store cord.
And it will affect the sound, if one is able to detect the differences.
Without getting into a complex discussion, the information is out there.
But a null test which is two sample-locked copies of the same audio file played with one copy phase inverted, if the copies are identical, they will cancel, leaving only residual random noise.
A sample with a different gauge power cable powering just a mixer will produce a different sample with say a stock 18 gauge amp power cable vs a 14 gauge power cable and the null test will show the results that can be seen as well as heard.
If differences in gauge can be seen in a null test, so can different lengths of cable.
Plotting a baseline for each gauge cable and then comparing the baselines with the different gauge cables' sound samples locked to each other, the differences in gauge alone produced samples that did not null out. 
Video clip below, watch Dave Pensado in his epiphany on AC power issues and how it affects audio.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaGE-zDoxuY
Reason why you can spend large benjamins on some of these high quality power cables.
If cable quality affects tone, rest assured the length of a power cable will too.
_________________
ShoBud The Pro 1
YES it's my REAL NAME!
Ezekiel 33:7
Last edited by Godfrey Arthur on 13 May 2019 12:26 am; edited 5 times in total |
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Posted 12 May 2019 7:12 pm
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Maybe there were a lot of broken strands in one of your old cables.
The capacitance of cable will make a difference. The gap between the hot wire and the shield forms a natural capacitor than can rob high frequencies, just like a passive volume control. Always use low capacitance wires for full fidelity from your steel guitar.
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-𝕓𝕆𝕓- (admin) - Robert P. Lee - Recordings - Breathe - D6th - Video |
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Danny Letz
From:
Old Glory,Texas, USA 79540
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Posted 13 May 2019 4:15 am
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| I’m gonna guess that everyone knows that speaker cords & instrument cords are not the same, but I’ll mention it just in case. |
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Godfrey Arthur
From:
3rd Rock
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