Cable from amp to guitar advice please?

[sgosnell]

The Neutrik aren't actually gold plated, they're gold-colored hard brass. At least the older, slightly larger, models I have are. You can also get nickel instead of the gold colored brass. Any of the NP series plugs will do the job, whichever color they are. They're easy to assemble, no need to solder the braided shield, just the center conductor, and once assembled, the cable will not move unless it's disassembled. I'm not a big fan of Switchcraft, and I only have a few plugs of that type, mostly because I don't throw many working devices away. The cables I normally use all have Neutrik plugs, and I have never had one of those fail in use. Once the chuck is tight on the cable, it cannot move or be pulled loose without destroying the cable inside it.

[pingu]

1299028[/URL]]The Neutrik aren't actually gold plated, they're gold-colored hard brass. At least the older, slightly larger, models I have are. You can also get nickel instead of the gold colored brass. Any of the NP series plugs will do the job, whichever color they are. They're easy to assemble, no need to solder the braided shield, just the center conductor, and once assembled, the cable will not move unless it's disassembled. I'm not a big fan of Switchcraft, and I only have a few plugs of that type, mostly because I don't throw many working devices away. The cables I normally use all have Neutrik plugs, and I have never had one of those fail in use. Once the chuck is tight on the cable, it cannot move or be pulled loose without destroying the cable inside it.

sorry I stand corrected on the gold thing ….

mind you their site says gold
NP2RX-B - Neutrik

[sgosnell]

Yes, the site says gold. But I've seen no evidence of gold plating. Perhaps it's there, but it's certainly brass underneath it if it's there.

[jackalGreen]

Another plug for braided cords. I don't use anything else for guitars if I can help it. I'm happy with the GLS brand cables: low-mid price, good construction, and IMHO, they look cool in that gold tweed braiding.

Strong preference for non-molded connectors. Yes, I have a heat gun and shrink tubes, and soldering equipment, but I'd just rather not deal with cutting those open only to add a tiny dot of solder, and then shrink it up again with heat shrink tube.

I wonder how many guitarists, even if they're not using super-long runs, use balanced 1/4" cables (sometimes called "stereo" cables, or just TRS [tip-ring-sleeve] for brevity). I know a lot of pedals/stompboxes can't handle a TRS balanced cable (for...reasons that I've forgotten...just the way the boxes are wired), but as primarily a keyboard player, I have loads of regular TRS 1/4" cables, not necessarily for long runs, but just because I got in the habit of using them, what, like thirty years ago or so.

And, yeah, I use Monoprice cables as well for some things. All kinds of audio equipment, or whatever, just a hodgepodge of acceptable quality cables with all kinds of terminations.

[GuyBoden]

What I like best are cables that don't tangle, so I wrap them around a broom handle first before using them, so they're slightly coiled in use.

All good quality audio cables sound the same to my ears, a good quality electric signal is what really matters.

[sgosnell]

Amplifiers, pedals, etc have only two connections, so a TRS cable can be used, but only the tip and sleeve will be connected, so it's not a balanced signal, and hum can be an issue. Better to use the type of cable for which the equipment was designed.