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Post by benttop (Steve) on Apr 11, 2008 12:08:45 GMT -7
I just ordered a couple of George L cables with nickel plated plugs. Can anyone tell me the pros and cons of nickel plated plugs? It seems alot of the newer cables are gold. Not sure if it makes a difference. Right now I'm using Planet waves for guitar to pedal board and pedal board to amp and am using the cheap patch cables between pedals. I ordered the Planet Waves cable station to replace the cheap patch cables. Nickel is fine if you get the good Russian nickel made on Thursdays in the Spring by imported Botswanian maidens - that's the good stuff.
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Post by hogridr on Apr 11, 2008 12:16:41 GMT -7
Nickel is fine if you get the good Russian nickel made on Thursdays in the Spring by imported Botswanian maidens - that's the good stuff. ;D ;D You forgot what those maidens use to strip the wire leads
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Post by billyguitar on Apr 11, 2008 13:18:27 GMT -7
You wanna watch out for those. I hear they have teeth!
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Post by texasjim on Apr 11, 2008 13:26:41 GMT -7
Nickel-plated plugs work fine most places. Where I live, the humidity is 65-90% year-around. If I use nickel-plated plugs, I have to Scotch-Brite clean them about once a month, to cut down on scratchi-ness and static. With Gold plugs, I never have to clean them. To me, the additional cost is well worth it. If I lived in Ari(d)zona, I'm sure it would be a non-issue. Good luck!
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Post by myles on Apr 14, 2008 8:28:10 GMT -7
Good metal properly polished and finished does not need any form of plating which is used to cover cheap workmanship in most cases. Plating can also flake off of the cheap metals and poor machining that is seen on a lot of plated cable ends.
A $75.00 cable distributed in the USA with a big name and big ads with gold ends and pretty colors does little for me when the same cable can be had via our Chinese partners for $1.83 and is overpriced at that and even if it were free I would not use them.
Corrosion problems .... a little deoxit twice a year and forget the scotchbright pads.
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Post by pcns on Apr 23, 2008 19:32:12 GMT -7
I just ordered a couple of George L cables with nickel plated plugs. Can anyone tell me the pros and cons of nickel plated plugs? It seems alot of the newer cables are gold. Not sure if it makes a difference. Right now I'm using Planet waves for guitar to pedal board and pedal board to amp and am using the cheap patch cables between pedals. I ordered the Planet Waves cable station to replace the cheap patch cables. The different coatings on the connectors will give you different corrosion protection and toughness. Nickel is very tough and will give you the most insertions before it wears out. If left plugged in for long periods of time or in corrosive environments it can oxidize and give you crackling and other noise problems. Gold plating is excellent for corrosion resistance and can be left plugged in for years without problems. This is why you see so many "studio" grade cables use gold because they tend to be left plugged in. The down side of gold is that it is softer than the nickle so it will wear off sooner. Generally speaking, nickle is good for about 10,000 insertion where a comparible gold connector is good for 2,000 insertions. The gold will not help with sound quality, the quality of the solder joint, the material the connector is made out of (copper core is very standard) and the cable itself will give you your sound quality. It was said very well early in this thread, pick a quality cable and stick with it and you can eliminate a tonal variable in your system. There are tons of quality cables out there, they will all sound different from each other. Pick one that is well built, easy to repair and sounds good for you and you will be in great shape. Todd
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Post by Danny on Apr 23, 2008 19:39:17 GMT -7
Todd,
Thanks for the very clear explanation. I also have wondered about that for a long time.
You're a class act. When I get around to saving up for new cables I'll give you a holler.
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Post by dixiechicken on Apr 24, 2008 3:57:36 GMT -7
Agreed IF and Only if - they they remember to slaughter a goat and make an offering to the God Vishnu at solstice. Cheers: Dixiechicken!
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Post by Phil (aka Phil) on Apr 24, 2008 4:28:52 GMT -7
Around the time I got the Evidence Lyric HG+ and Van den Hul's I talked to my friend Stu at Fatsound Guitars about cables for a long time. He said something that I had never really put into words but had thought about in the past.
He said that his philosophy is that cables are like another tone control in your signal chain. A particular cable may be right for a given player with a certain guitar, pedal, and amp setup, but if you change one or more of the variables you might not like the cable as well anymore.
It reminded me of the story that Rene' Martinez told about SRV. He said Stevie always had a 50' roll of power cord that he plugged his amps into- until one night they didn't use it and he said "This doesn't sound right- the cable is passing too much electricity". Rene' kind of thought he was crazy until they plugged the amps back in to the long cable and the highs were indeed more pleasing. It just goes to show that everything in the signal chain has an effect for better or worse.
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Post by pcns on Apr 24, 2008 11:27:09 GMT -7
Hey Phil, That was good advice you recieved, cables are part of the tone quest. When my Maz Jr showed up yesterday I pulled it out of the box and started to play around with it and had this funky break up sound I couldn't dial out. Later last night I was up at church and changed cables and the sound went away. The cable I had at home was an old piece of junk I had laying around and my cable at church was one of my good ones and it made a huge difference in my tone. I continue to be surprised how much difference there is. That was a cool story you told about SRV. The longer cables will bleed off a bit of your high end because the capacitence goes us the longer you run the cables. SRV was probably used to the long high end roll off on the longer cable and when the short one was plugged in it certainly sounded different. I remember hearing discussions amongst players when guitar wireless system were first becoming affordable. Players were looking to emulate that "40ft of cable" sound with their wireless. Its interesting how it all plays together. Todd
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Post by benttop (Steve) on Apr 24, 2008 11:46:58 GMT -7
But he's talking about SRV's POWER cord. I suppose a long one will give the amp a brown out condition which most decidedly will affect how it responds.
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Post by pcns on Apr 24, 2008 19:01:36 GMT -7
But he's talking about SRV's POWER cord. I suppose a long one will give the amp a brown out condition which most decidedly will affect how it responds. really? the power cord? I must have missed that. I can't see anyway that power cord can affect the sound of your amp unless you are browning out from using a long cord and a really thin gauge power cable. I know on another forum they went through an amazing discussion about these $700 (yes, $700) power cords. After much effort, discussion and a set a cables shipped all over the country the data showed no effect in sound or amp performance from the different power cords. Anyway, sorry for missing that detail, could have saved a long winded post that you all probably already know anyway lolololol Todd I'm still loving my Maz Jr!!
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Post by benttop (Steve) on Apr 24, 2008 19:21:42 GMT -7
Yeah, I did a double-take on that one myself. Like I said, if the cord was long enough, I can imagine it browning out somewhat, but I don't think I'd want to run my amp there all the tme. I suppose that's no different than using a variac for the same thing though.
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Post by jwr on Apr 24, 2008 20:51:38 GMT -7
I really like Lava ELC's for Effects Loops and in front of a clean amp, like my Stang Ray. The low capacitance really helps in an amps Loop.
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harris
Junior Member
Posts: 65
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Post by harris on May 3, 2008 11:42:43 GMT -7
What about the monster cables are they good or just %rap?Harris
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Post by benttop (Steve) on May 3, 2008 13:14:44 GMT -7
What about the monster cables are they good or just %rap?Harris I think it depends on what you're trying to do. They all sound different, so you should try them and choose the ones that sound best for your playing and music.
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Post by billyguitar on May 3, 2008 20:09:24 GMT -7
I just bought a set of Zaolla Silverline Artist cords. Nice and flexible. Maybe a little red c hair sweeter than a George L. Here's my take on cables. Yes there is a difference but between good cables it's subtle at best. Read the Guitar Player shootout from last month and go with their recommendations. A while back I bought the Van Den Hul cables because of all of the hype. I reported no significant improvement over a George L. Guess what, in the GP shootout the VdH actually scored lower than the George L. See, I'm not crazy!!!!!!!
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Post by eliot1025 on May 4, 2008 2:55:40 GMT -7
I've done limited testing, but I've heard a bunch of the cables that are included in the two studies. And I own some of them. I didn't agree with the findings of the Guitar Player cable shootout in general. My ears seem to be much more in accord with the Cable Summit by Eric Kirkland. You can find this article at the Lava Cable site. It's more extensive than the Guitar Player shootout in every way. The Cable Summit involves twenty-one cables, addresses more aspects of sound, and the results are more specific and scientific. It covers well-known companies like Monster and Planet Waves through relatively obscure companies. Mr. Kirkland was very even-handed and thorough.
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