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Vintage threads from the first ten years

george l's cables

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12/1/1997 2:34 PM
Nat	george l's cables What's the scoop on the George L cables? Are they worth it? I figure it's about $22 (plus S & H) for a 20 foot cable. They offer two wire guages -- .225 and .155 -- what's the difference (besides price? I wouldn't mind spending the $ if it will improve my sound and if the cables were durable enough. You can't believe everything you read in Guitar Player!

12/3/1997 10:40 AM

I bought one of each connector type and a 10' of .155 cable. I might of assembled it wrong... I thought it was noisy. It had less loss than the other cables I had handy which I believe contributed greatly to the near universal concensus by the board of impartial reviewers (couple friends and a sixpack) as "better". Its a skinny cable with no strain relief. The jacks had no easy way to extract from a strat other than pulling on the wire. Certainly not the only cord I would bring to a gig.

12/3/1997 12:42 PM

Nat:

This cable has a relatively low shunt capacitance (pf/foot), compared to most of the types seen in music stores. Lower capacitance means that more of the high frequencies will reach the amp. This is more of an "accurate", or higher fidelity cable. Whether this sounds better to you for your particular rig is a subjective judgement call.

Before I saw this cable shootout article, I noticed Eric Johnson's favorite guitar cable was a skinny red thing. I said,"Hey! That's the ticket- - low capacitance cable!" So I made up a 10 foot cable using surplus RF coax cable (RG-174U, I think it was) and plugged in. There was an easily noticeable difference from the run-of-the-mill cable I was using. Test rig was Strat plugged directly into a good sounding Princeton Reverb. I had to go back to using the low fidelity cable to get the warm smooth sound I was used to. The low loss cable was too analytical and less musical.

If you're going to plug into some transistor gear, which is lower impedence than tube amp grid circuits, you probably won't notice a great (if any) difference in the high end. I did not test this, it's only a guess.

For recording, or extra long cable runs, the low capacitance cable might be advantageous.

Doc

12/5/1997 3:21 PM

Other than whether it will stand up on a mechanical basis, differences between cables tend to be moot in many applications.

Differences may or may not be audible, depending on where they are in your signal chain, the length, and the output impedance of one's guitar.

Do you want a 50-foot cord between your guitar and amp and nothing in between? Get the best cord money can buy.

Do you want a 12-footer between your guitar and FX pedals, and another 18 footer between your noise gate and amp? Run of the mill Belden will probably do you nicely.

Cable capacitance is a function of the cable, times length. Lousy cable will sound great, provided it's short enough, and fabulous cable will sound like crap, provided its long enough. Either type will preserve more high end, if it's coming from a low-impedance source going to a high impedance input.

The importance of preserving that high end depends on your "sound", how much high end your speakers will produce, and how much high end you stand to lose from your pickups (i.e., how bright they are).

12/8/1997 10:34 AM

I recommend the George L's cable. I use it and definetly hear a better sound for my guitars. The signal is more defined and would also be a good idea for wiring effects pedals, as there is also signal degredation between units.

Of course, if you are used to less high end the George L's may seem to overly brighten your sound, but that can easily be adjusted. I think trimming back the brightness on your amp will help, and you still get the benefit of a more focused signal.

The cable, although very thin, seems qute strong and I have not had any noise problem. I am buying more cable for other uses. It is a small investment worth trying I think.

later,
Dave

12/17/1997 12:51 PM

You're probably right on all counts.

It's just worth considering that it may be "golden ears" overkill in many common uses.

It's wonderful to drive on smooth asphalt with spanking new top-notch radials, in a car with a humdinger of a V-6 engine. The thrill is substantially less apparent when you only drive a foot.

Now, when it comes to a cable's ability to be wiggled this way and that at sharp angles (which IS true of short patch cords) and still survive (how many times have you had to clip the plug off, expose more shielding, and resolder because the shielding had fractured all the way around from bending), the extra money is DEFINITELY worth it, as is extra money on good, snug-fitting jacks.

1/16/1998 10:03 AM
Paul H.	I was looking at some old pictures of Jimi Hendrix, Michael Bloomfield and other guitarists of the era. And I noticed they used some cheesy coil chords with molded ends. Could this be the real secret to great tone?

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