I remember when I was a child I heard the phrase “ Your chain is only as strong as the weakest link.” As an adult I have applied this concept to amplifier building & guitar rigs. The quickest and simplest way to test the theory is to take an amazing sounding amplifier and hook it up to an amazing sounding speaker. Play a few notes, chords, then shut it down and hook up a bad sounding speaker. How does the amazing sounding amplifier sound with the bad speaker? It just sounds bad.

 So why not stop there? Trace your entire signal path through you set up. Start with the guitar all the way through to the speaker. Find out where the weakest links are and upgrade them. Often the best place to start is with a guitar cable. This is the place where the signal is injected into preamp of the amplifier. The preamps job is to amplify any signal present. Regardless if it is your neighbor’s skill saw, the baseball game on the radio, or a guitar with a P90 pickup in it.

 I decided to take a few guitar cables that we sell in our Web stores and run them through a series of tests. The cables tested were the Evidence Audio Melody, Evidence Audio Lyric HG, Canare GS6, Klotz La Grange,  & the Fender Vintage Voltage. Each cable tested was 10 feet in length.

Evidence Audio 10 ft Melody- a single 20 AWG solid copper conductor, spiral shield, 98% noise rejection.

Evidence Audio 10 ft Lyric HG- balanced dual 20 AWG solid copper conductors, high-density copper braided shield.

Canare GS-6 10 ft- 18 AWG stranded oxygen free copper, double carbon braid shield..

Klotz LaGrange 10 ft- coaxial design with high quality stranded copper conductors & spiral shielding.

Fender Vintage Voltage 10 ft-  oxygen-free copper wire and braided copper shielding.

The testing procedure was methodical. I first tested the flex of each cable by hooking it to the guitar and amp and flipping it around a few times to see how well the cable would lie. Next, was the listening tests, I used a few different amplifiers and guitars, Never switching guitars or amps until all the cables had been listened to though that particular rig.

The amplifiers chosen for the tests were:

 64’ Fender Super Reverb with 2 - 10"Tone Tubby AlNiCo speakers on bottom and 2 -10" Eminence Copperhead speakers on top.

Whole Tone Pearl Custom Classic

Two Rock Onyx

The Guitars chosen were:

 Paul Reed Smith McCarty guitar with Tone Pros bridge, 10 gauge SIT power wound strings.

62’ Re-issue Fender Strat with nitro finish, Eric Johnson maple neck (no string trees.) 62’ re-issue pickups, blender setup, Suhr BPSSC system, SIT 10 gauge Power Groove strings.

Super Reverb with the Strat & PRS- Clean sound

Evidence Audio Melody good tonal balance, rich harmonic content. Very balanced high end.

Evidence Audio Lyric HG- Smooth relaxed feel in the midrange. Bass frequencies sounded slightly attenuated.

Canare GS-6- Most transparent & balanced cable out of the 4 tested, no tone coloration.

Klotz La Grange- More bass response than other cables, smooth chimey high end.

Fender Vintage Voltage- High end rolled off a bit, smooth mid response.

Whole Tone Pearl Custom Classic with Strat & PRS-

The Pearl has a Princeton 5F2-A tone stack which gives the amp more warmth and mid-range.

Two Rock Onyx with Strat & PRS-

The Onyx was primarily used for the over-driven sounds to see how the cables would sound with an over-driven tube amplifier.

Evidence Audio Melody- Not as 3 dimensional as the Klotz and the Canare GS-6.

The Melody had good high end detail, a slower attack, rich harmonics with a slight grittiness added to the over-driven notes, No high end glare.

Evidence Audio Lyric HG- Less low-end response, a slower attack, rich harmonics also with a slight grittiness added to the over-driven sound. Fast runs were articulate, slightly subdued with a hint of grit, No high-end glare.

Canare GS-6- Most 3 dimensional out of the four cables tested, faster attack, retained high-end detail yet remained smooth sounding. Similar low end response as the EA cables. Rich harmonics, fast runs flowed well. No high-end glare. Best over-driven sound.

Klotz La Grange-Slightly less 3 dimensional than the Canare GS-6, slightly hotter signal than the Canare GS-6 cable, As the overdrive is turned up the cable has a glare in the high-end. The Klotz La Grange had the best overall attack.

Fender Vintage Voltage- The highs were rolled off when over-driven. Smooth mid-range response, Bass was slightly muddy.

 All the cables had certain qualities that I liked about them. For clean sounds I enjoyed the extended lows of the Klotz La Grange cable. For recording I would go with the more transparent Canare GS-6 cable. The cable that suited my style of playing best was the Canare GS-6 cable with the over-driven amplifier. The best way to find out what cable works best for you is to try a couple out with you rig. It’s a lot of fun!!!

Sincerely,

Brian