Wednesday, October 12, 2011

New Cable


New cable: Fender "Vintage Voltage." My trusty old Planet Waves cable I've been using for nearly 10 years is starting to get noisy. I think I've stepped on it too many times...

UPDATE:

(I've gigged with this cable and it sounds great. Even my guitar player noticed. My old Planet Waves cable must have been farther gone than I knew.)

My purchase of the Fender Vintage Voltage cable generated some discussion on Facebook. Chris Richards, among others, said the fabric covering of retro cables rubs against the “rubber” inner sheath and creates a small electrical charge that makes the cable noisy and raises its capacitance, changing its tone.

I’m not so sure. I’ve heard that before but have never seen definitive evidence to support it. Chuck Gurney is a very well-known custom harp microphone maker who also makes and sells cables – all of them cloth covered.

I found a web page from Ovni Labs comparing and testing several instrument cables. Their top three picks were all cloth covered.

So what’s the deal? Is the story about cloth cables being inferior just an old urban legend? Chris makes and sells fine custom cables that are not cloth covered, so he may have a bit of an agenda here. I’d like to know what you think.

1 comment:

Jeremiah said...

Yes, I'd like to know the answer to this question too. For example, do the Fat Bottom cables sound as good for harp playing as Magami cables, which are arguably the best cables out there. Also, is there anything that Chuck Gurney (Fat Bottom) is doing to his cables that makes them particularly effective for playing harp, compared to a cable designed for guitar, bass, or key board?