Cause and Effect - Part 2

In ‘Cause and Effect – Part 1’, I talked about signal strength from your guitar, through your effect chain and to your amp.  I talked about buffer switches and true bypass switches and your tone.   In this post,  I'll address the effects of a coiled instrument cable.

If you look at pictures from your guitar heros from the 60’s and 70’s, you’ll notice that they probably have a coiled cable going from their guitar to the device it’s being plugged into (foot pedal or amp).  You might even notice that most of them were playing a Stratocaster (Hendrix, Townshend, Zappa, SRV, etc.).  What I discovered from extensive research (or ten minutes on the internet), was that the pickups in the late to mid 60’s Stratocaster were low resistance (weaker) pickups and didn’t do much for controlling the high-end frequencies created in the signal and sent to the amp.  The coiled instrument cable basically provided somewhat of a solution by providing more resistance to the signal in a shorter straight-line length of cable than a straight cable.  In other words, a ten foot coiled cable had close to twice the amount of copper as a ten foot straight cable did because of the coils.  More cable, more resistance, less high-end frequency to the amp.  Get out your tapes and listen to the deep tones from the 60’s and 70’s.  Other benefits of coiled cables:  Easier to use on stage because of the recoil, causing less cable tangles and they just look cool.  Why are coiled cables still available today with all the fancy effect pedals and modeling amps out there to control your tone?  Because the guitars and amps from the 60's and 70's are still out there.  If you're lucky enough to find a used amp from 'way back when' at your local guitar shop, plug into it.

A quote from  SRV’s guitar tech about high-end (and expensive) instrument cables, “When we were doing the In Step album with Stevie, I had an endorsement with Monster Cables. They would send me all of this free stuff and I was very excited because I could manage these things for a guy like Stevie, who really didn’t even know how to wash dishes. All he knew how to do was play the guitar, but God bless him for that, because he really did something with what he knew. Anyway, I took these cables we got to Stevie and he said, “I hate these things.” I asked him, “Why, man, they’re the best cables in the world?” He said, “They pass to much electricity.” Those were his exact words, and I’ll never forget it as long as I live. “They pass too much electricity.” “

In other words, they were too effective and messed up his tone.

It all boils down to your own preference in your personal tone.  If you want deeper tones, add more resistance to your signal.  If you like high-end, remove the resistance.  You just need to decide if you want to do it through your effect pedals, through your amp, through your cables or through the guitar itself.  There are a million different pickups out there that all sound different and your local guitar dealer would love to sell you one...or two.   Hmmmm- Cause and Effect – Part 3?