Image by Sabre Cables.
I want to spend a few minutes here talking about the most underrated aspect of your guitar tone. We spend thousands of dollars in music gear chasing a deep, rich tone that inspires us to play guitar, so if you do that, shouldn’t you be paying for better audio patch cables to run your guitar through and to manage all those effects on your pedalboard??! If you spent a ton of money on that vintage blackface Fender Deluxe Reverb and a great nitro finished, balanced Stratocaster, you need something of quality to bridge the carried electrical signal from the guitar to the amplifier to really translate every nuance of your playing to the listener. Spending some money up front for quality cables up front will not only improve the tonal quality of any player regardless of skill, but these cables are much more durable, meaning you won’t go through them every year and you will save money in the long term!
Cables have always been a hotly debated topic in the guitar and audio community.
You tend to have two camps of thought. On one side, you have snobbish products that are sold with unconventional promises only made to justify prices no sane human being could ever afford unless they are Paul McCartney. You also have the basic cables made with the cheapest components available that keep your guitar rig from reaching its true potential.
Instrument interconnects are meant to only serve two main functions: to pass audio signal from its starting point to it’s output source at the purest fidelity (the purest, best audio quality), and to reject any audio interference or noise from being injected into your tone.
Quality audio cables allow your guitar rig to perform at its very best, and be as true to the source material (the sound of your guitar and fingers) as possible. These cables elevate your overall guitar tone by giving you a much more defined bass frequency (better stereo imaging of your low strings), more crisp high end (more rich tone from the high strings and pitches with reduced harshness), a more stable and reliable electrical connection, better connectors which lead to fast response time from picking for the sound to come out through the amp (it’s a bit like going from an economy sedan to the instantaneous response acceleration of a Ferrari), to better shielding (for reduced noise).
I describe the enhancement when you upgrade cables to a much more complex and sonically rich guitar tone!
When you are considering buying new audio cables for your guitar I recommend looking at cables that feature:
· Dielectric shielding for insulation, noise rejection and single purity
· Precision metal stranding of cable wires to maximize strength and ductility
· Oxygen free 99.99% copper for high dynamic range and pristine signal transfer
· Ultra-high bandwidth and ultra-low capacitance
· Highest quality materials for secure connection and long life
Brands that I love for guitar cables are Mogami cables, GP2 Inc Cables, and my personal favorite Sabre Cables out of Austin, TX. Sabre Cables are made to order in Austin, TX with the finest materials available for guitar tone purists and novices alike. The owner Matt Tapp, has become an invaluable friend to me over the years, always answering my emails and phone calls whenever I need cable advice.
I have used Sabre Cables since 2009, and don’t plan on switching anytime soon! They hold up to my level of usage, and really help translate what I’m playing with absolute fidelity! I cannot recommend them enough!
KEEP ON PLAYING-
AM