Mogami cables

  • Some weeks ago i found and 5 year old guitar cable in my cellar. I tried it and the sound was muddy , unusable. Than i changed to my normally used cable and the sound was ok. So i think also the age of a cable could be important.

  • Of course cables are VERY important, but not in all positions. The most important cable is the one from your guitar to the input of the amp/Kemper. You should use a high-quality cable there and if you use pedals in front, the whole chain has to be high-quality, all pedals should have true bypass.


    If you use this main instrument cable for studio-sessions and recordings, it's best to keep it short (f.e. 3 m). Mogami, Monster, Spectraflex, Vovox ect. are high-end cables and for this most important cable I wouldn't be too stingy. Anything behind the signal (from Kemper to active monitors/mixing-desk ect.) doesn't have to be high-priced.


    I made very good experiences with Sommer cables, they are very good, reliable and not as expensive as the high-priced ones. Klotz and Cordial-cables are very good and not too expensive, too. From the guitar to the input I'm using Spectraflex and Vovox for studio-sessions/recordings, for live-shows and the rest I'm using Klotz and Sommer-cables.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    first name: Guenter / family name: Haas / www.guenterhaas.de

  • Of course cables are VERY important, but not in all positions. The most important cable is the one from your guitar to the input of the amp/Kemper. You should use a high-quality cable there and if you use pedals in front, the whole chain has to be high-quality, all pedals should have true bypass.


    If you use this main instrument cable for studio-sessions and recordings, it's best to keep it short (f.e. 3 m). Mogami, Monster, Spectraflex, Vovox ect. are high-end cables and for this most important cable I wouldn't be too stingy. Anything behind the signal (from Kemper to active monitors/mixing-desk ect.) doesn't have to be high-priced.


    I made very good experiences with Sommer cables, they are very good, reliable and not as expensive as the high-priced ones. Klotz and Cordial-cables are very good and not too expensive, too. From the guitar to the input I'm using Spectraflex and Vovox for studio-sessions/recordings, for live-shows and the rest I'm using Klotz and Sommer-cables.


    Sommer cables +1 - great quality, audilby better that Monster Rock Cable. Cheaper.

  • But.... What about ME...? ;(


    heh heh heh...


    Yes, your post was very sensible, Michael, and you deserve some love for it too. There is no "love" button, so I "liked" your post. LOL


    Diminishing returns. Indeed!


    IMHO robustness / durability come into play as the most important factors over time. Higher-priced cables generally offer smoother, better-performing connectors and soldering, and these aspects of the design, I'm betting, would overwhelmingly be the most noticeable distinguishing factors for most guitarists.


    Are those the same cafés where people talk about you NEED a pre-1970 Les Paul (or at least a custom shop reissue) in order to get THE SOUND? :D


    I'm not a LP guy, Michael, but I do respect the sound and playability of 'em. If only I could bend as easily on my strats! I'll have to ask my brother "Fingers". He's got a '59 CS reissue so I'm betting he'd say "yes". :D


    No.


    I like your approach. Gotta try that sometime!

  • all pedals should have true bypass


    I need to stop this train right here. True bypass is fantastic, and, these days, I look for true bypass as the standard for a "quality" built pedal. But, there is one major problem with running 100% true bypass pedals: If all of your pedals are off, you've might as well run a low pass filter on your guitar, because all of your highs and clarity are now gone.


    There is another factor in cables called capacitance. Basically, with any electrical signal, over distance, portions of that signal get weak or lost. This is why running extension cables to a portable heater is a bad idea, but also the same reason why you don't see guitar cables in stores longer than 25' or 30'. At about 15'-20', there is a noticeable roll-off of high end and clarity. That may be okay for you, or it may not. People who don't care about this say that Hendrix played with huge distances of cables and sounded tremendous. But this is 2015 (almost 2016), and knowledge and tech has come a long way.


    Introducing a non-true-bypass pedal (or having any pedal turned on!) creates a buffer in the line. This is a good thing. This is why people with all true bypass boards should invest in at least one quality buffer (though I'd recommend two if you have a lot of pedals - one at end in addition to one at the start). You're basically boosting the line by lowering its impedance, making the signal stronger and travel further without as much degradation.


    I used to run a Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner at the very beginning of my chain. It's buffered (not true bypass), and I don't generally use buffered pedals myself any longer. Its best benefit was it kept my tone consistent if every pedal was off or any pedal was on. Removing it made my clean, unaffected tones muddy and too warm. Why? The signal was no longer buffered, and through tens of pedal connections, the signal degraded like it was running through 80' of cable (I've got a large pedalboard).


    So, while I agree with your statement, I also don't feel it is a complete representation of what a true, professional pedalboard should look like. This topic is a whole can of worms, but, to anyone interested in running longer strands of cable, I would recommend at least trying a buffer with your signal, be it standalone, as an active preamp or passive wiring in your guitar, or within another activated true bypass or non-activated non-true-bypass pedal. Personally, I couldn't live without mine on my board.

    Guitars: Parker Fly Mojo Flame, Ibanez RG7620 7-string, Legator Ninja 8-string, Fender Strat & Tele, Breedlove Pro C25
    Pedalboard: Templeboards Trio 43, Mission VM-1, Morley Bad Horsie, RJM Mini Effect Gizmo, 6 Degrees FX Sally Drive, Foxpedals The City, Addrock Ol' Yeller, RJM MMGT/22, Mission RJM EP-1, Strymon Timeline + BigSky
    Stack: Furman PL-Plus C, Kemper Rack

  • dougc84: of course everything you wrote is right, but I didn't want to go very deep into pedalboards. Like I said the most important cable is the one from the guitar to the input. I'm sure most of us will go directly into the KPA and use the KPA-effects, too. My external effects (Strymons) are connected via KPA-loop and I always go straight into the KPA-input.


    Of course capacitance and the length of the cable are very important, no doubt about that. That's why I recommended to use short and high-quality cables in front of the KPA-input (in my case Vovox Sonorus 3m or Spectraflex Fatso Flex 3m). For live-shows I try to avoid cables longer than 5 or 6m and I'm using Klotz and Sommer cables, too.


    For pedalboards the Lehle Sunday Driver might be a useful tool.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    first name: Guenter / family name: Haas / www.guenterhaas.de

  • Yes, an in-line buffer makes a big difference with long cables and large pedalboards. I've used one for a long time - come to think of it, that may be part of why regular cables work so well for me. My current rig includes an A/B guitar switch, with buffered input.


    I used a VHT Valvulator with my tube rig, and also used it with Line 6 and Roland gear. It warmed up the older digital gear, but the KPA is warm sounding without it.

  • This small article explains also very well, what Doug has touched in his post before:


    http://www.petecornish.co.uk/case_against_true_bypass.html


    Pete uses a great sounding buffer in all of his pedals. Actually it is a buffer into a second buffer, thus a "bootstrapped" buffer which creates a very tube-like sound (although based on JFET transistors) with quite a bit of headroom. Believe it or not, only one of his buffers does not sound that great but bootsrapping them creates that extraordinary sound. Interesting ... but I have tested this myself by building some buffers based on a traced schematic and therefore can verify this.


    There is nothing bad about buffers, but the problem is, that some - mostly Germanium transistor based - pedals do not like a low impedance at their input at all. A low impedance provided by a buffer will overpower the input of such a particular pedal and produce a nasty sound. The same issue arises when you have "true bypass" pedals before such a "sensitive Germanium pedal". As soon as you switch one" true bypass pedal" on, you will create the same problem as if you would have a buffer. The only exception here are pedals that have a resistor in series at their output - thus creating a higher impedance.

  • To amend on @REVILO here, there are some pedals that simply do not like a buffer before them. Most fuzz pedals and older wah pedals have this problem. The good thing is that they generally sit at the front of your chain, and you can always add a buffer after them; the bad thing is if you're running 30' of cable to get to that old wah pedal. Buffers don't "fix" problems, they simply boost the signal and change the impedance. Once some signal is lost, you can't recover it, though a buffer may make it seem like it is "fixed."


    Also, @REVILO, your avatar is awesome.

    Guitars: Parker Fly Mojo Flame, Ibanez RG7620 7-string, Legator Ninja 8-string, Fender Strat & Tele, Breedlove Pro C25
    Pedalboard: Templeboards Trio 43, Mission VM-1, Morley Bad Horsie, RJM Mini Effect Gizmo, 6 Degrees FX Sally Drive, Foxpedals The City, Addrock Ol' Yeller, RJM MMGT/22, Mission RJM EP-1, Strymon Timeline + BigSky
    Stack: Furman PL-Plus C, Kemper Rack

  • Hello Everyone


    You asked about cables -- I work where we make cables and its been 20 years ..and we have come a long way from the 50 style amps and noise - buzz and single coil hum ... All this said it is important to buy the best you can afford for your needs .. My hobby is guitar and amps and I was always getting some noise when splitting my inputs to more than 2 amps .. I found that my problems started with improper cables and mismatched impedances this is where I went out and picked up some high end pre made cables and started chopping them down into smaller lengths to save some $$ and it works and no more buz .. key factor was the proper high quality cable like this model GS-6 Canare 1205 -- and f you are planning on running more than 1 input of the kemper a Tonebone jx2 will do the trick ..All this will keep your sound clean and eliminate any noise ..These are reasonably priced and do not come with smoke and mirrors -- you get what you pay for .. just my 2 cents worth


    Frank
    cablek industries Canada





    ..

  • Well, to sum up:


    For a cable that carries a line-level signal from a low-impedance output (like from the Profiler to a power amp), the cable's capacitance is not important.


    A capacitance acts like a low-pass filter. A cable's capacitance is important for the sound when connecting a guitar to whatever. It is more important the more the PUs are low-level, high-impedance ones (see old strats for example). And it's more important the lower the amp's input capacitance (tubes have usually high impedance... hehehe).


    Capacitance is a specific factor for a cable. Each cable exhibits a certain value of capacitance per meter. So given certain materials and assembly parameters, a cable's capacitance will be higher the longer the cable.


    Is the difference audible?
    if you use a 4-m cable whose capacitance is say 30 pF/m and then use a 2-m one whose capacitance is 60 pF/m, you won't hear any difference. Also, for small differences the impact over the sound is negligible.
    if you switch from a short, low-capacitance cable to a longer, high-capacitance one, your guitar's PUs capacitance is very high and the amp's impedance is quite low, you'll definitely hear a difference.


    Is a lower capacitance "better"?
    A lower capacitance will more faithfully transfer a PU's harmonic spectrum to the amp. Whether this is preferable, is entirely a matter of tastes. If we like vintage tones, we also like the "darker" tones guitarists produced with their strats in the '60s...


    Some artists use longer cables (30 m) because they like the bigger, fatter sound they get (see Santana for example). With heavily distorted sounds you can get some nice, round, not-harsh tones.


    The following video is in Italian, but in the comments there's a link to d\l high-resolution audio clips where lots of cables are compared :)


    External Content www.youtube.com
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.


    Massimo Varini, the man talking in the first part of the video, a well-known sessionman, teacher and Kemper expert has created (together with Eng. Brunetti) a cable which gives him a fatter tone on the Profiler. It's called Sonic Solutions, and it's among the tested cables.


    HTH :)

  • To amend on @REVILO here, there are some pedals that simply do not like a buffer before them. Most fuzz pedals and older wah pedals have this problem. The good thing is that they generally sit at the front of your chain, and you can always add a buffer after them; the bad thing is if you're running 30' of cable to get to that old wah pedal. Buffers don't "fix" problems, they simply boost the signal and change the impedance. Once some signal is lost, you can't recover it, though a buffer may make it seem like it is "fixed."


    Also, @REVILO, your avatar is awesome.


    Thank you Doug. :)


    Of course you´re absolutely correct, most of these pedals in question sit at the front of the signal chain, but if not - as one may have active guitar electronics or a compressor before the Wah or the Fuzzbox - you can "fool" that pedal by soldering a 7-10k resistor in series in the input cable that goes into that particular pedal.
    This "trick" will provide the midrange impedance that it needs so desperately to sound as it should ;)
    Before and after that you can use buffers ...

  • 'So i think also the age of a cable could be important.'


    Cable capacitance is what affects the tone of a passive pickup. There is a harmonic circuit created that features a low pass filter with a resonant peak...
    http://www.shootoutguitarcable…e-resonant-frequency.html


    Single coils are most affected, and you get the single resonant peak with them.


    Good shielding is important, but that doesn't affect tone so much a stops additional noise entering the signal path. Then there is the connector quality and strain relief, otherwise cables just don't last long getting yanked about and stop working full stop until re-soldered or new plugs are put on.


    Hope this helps.

  • Today i received my new guitar cable. I have chosen a Klotz T.M.Stevens Funkmaster Guitar/bass cable. I changed it and i must say it's a big difference to my old cable. The sound is more clear and crispy. Ca. 26€ on amazon. Good invest.

  • I had 2 klotz cables in my life and both broke the same way. The extreme end of the jack broke. the first one broke into my KPA monitor output on the first day I owned the KPA and the second broke into my Les Paul. Both times it has been an epic adventure to take it out without damages. I guess I'm done with klotz.

  • I used to use Planet Waves cables. They were really good, though their build quality was trash. They'd break apart if you ever tried to rewire something. However, I never had one go bad on me.


    I switched recently to using all Lava ELC and ELC Mini cable. Tonally, it's a little clearer, but I don't notice much. I'm just happy my pedalboard all has the same cables everywhere, instead of the multiple shades of black, chrome, and brushed silver it had with the PW cables.


    I will say though - creating Lava Mini ELC cables is not as easy as it appears, and I feel less confident about them after first making them. I've had several go bad pre-gig. Apparently their new piston head jacks are much easier to build with and more stable, but I'm not going through that again. They're all working now, and I keep a handful of spares in my gig bag.


    If I were to do it all over again, I'd probably go with the Disaster Area DisasterPlugs. They seem nice, and the plugs are made by G&H. For the soldered connections I've done, G&H is certainly my preference - easy to work with, but not very reusable. Or I'd go with Canare, though I hate the look of those pancake plugs.

    Guitars: Parker Fly Mojo Flame, Ibanez RG7620 7-string, Legator Ninja 8-string, Fender Strat & Tele, Breedlove Pro C25
    Pedalboard: Templeboards Trio 43, Mission VM-1, Morley Bad Horsie, RJM Mini Effect Gizmo, 6 Degrees FX Sally Drive, Foxpedals The City, Addrock Ol' Yeller, RJM MMGT/22, Mission RJM EP-1, Strymon Timeline + BigSky
    Stack: Furman PL-Plus C, Kemper Rack