Cable direction

[vernplum]

Hi

I have some Planet Waves cables that are 'directional',i.e. they wrork properly in one direction from the guitar to the amp, but the other way around causes there to be a lot of noise. Can some explain why that is please? I know they are designed that way but am interested how it works and what the advantage is.

Thx

 

[theblueark]

I don't think they are designed that way. I don't see any such planetwave cables. My guess is the plug on one side has some bad soldering, which cause crackles. When you put that side on the amp, it doesn't move hence no crackles. When you put that side on the guitar, it's constantly being moved, hence crackles.

Describe the noise you're getting?

 

[cherns]

"Directional" cables are specifications dreamt up by the marketing department. As Ark mentioned, it's probably a case of bad soldering.

 

[vernplum]

Did a bit of surfing and I found this, here: http://www.planetwaves.com/FaqSolution.aspx?id=50130000000KFFZAA4

I have one of your Custom Instrument cables. What does "sheilded end" refer to?

This configuration provides the best shielding against external noise. The shield intercepts external noise and diverts it to the amplifier ground, reducing interference. Connecting the shield to the amplifier end provides the shortest and most direct path to the amplifier ground and maximizes the shielding effectiveness. If the shield is connected at the guitar end, the intercepted noise is forced to travel through the cable before reaching the amplifier ground; this causes extra noise pickup by the cable and reduces shielding effectiveness. If the shield is connected at both ends, some of the noise can still travel through the cable before reaching the amplifier ground, thereby reducing shielding effectiveness.


Is this a load of crap then?

 

[theblueark]

The planetwaves 'custom' line of cables seem to use a twisted pair instead of a single core. I'm not sure how the twisted pair is wired, will need to open up one to see.

To illustrate, this is commonly found in most cables:

The shield is where we connect the ground, and the solid core where we connect the live.

A shielded twisted pair looks like this:

Now, I have seen cables which use both of the twisted pair together as the live (for reasons unknown to me), and the shield used as the ground.

I'm guessing the planetwaves 'custom' instrument cable is using one of the twisted pair as a live, the other as the ground, and the shield is also connected to the ground, but only at one end. Hence the use of the description "shielded end".

I'm not sure how much more effective this style of shielding is as compared to shielding both ends.

In either case, the cable itself (note that instrument cables as we usually call them, are actually made of the cable and 2 plugs) does not have directionality, it's just that one plug is shielded and the other is not.