Patch Cable Shootout!

[Ized]

Hey guys i was just doing some research on patch cables the other day...and i got to a/b some george Ls, premium boss patches from my old bcb-60 pedalboard and Canare GS-4s.

I used them after a buffered pedal into true bypass pedals to hear the differences....and here's what i found:

George Ls: bright and trebly, little ice picky and even slightly thin sounding
Boss Premium Patch: dark with slightly increased bass and reduced treble
Canare GS-4: kinda balanced compared to the above 2....perhaps with a bit more upper mids.

I realised that using a good patch cable after the first buffer in the chain can make quite a difference to the overall tone...its subtle but you can tell. My guitarist who used to use el cheapo plastic patches also noticed that his tone was much clearer after switching the patches on his entire rig to Proel flatheads... His comment was "just noticeably clearer, not sharper"....i assume he means its not trebly by any sense of the word.

Some brands:
Canare
Lavacable
Evidence Audio
George L's
Bill Lawrence
Proel

I know that there are quite a few patch cable brands in the market so i dont think that is the full list... but the question is, what do you use for your rig and why? Share your experiences with certain brands too if you got the chance to try them with your setup.

 

[Whitestrat]

I like them BOSS ones (from BCB60), but never bothered to compare.:mrgreen:

 

[Benster]

im not really particular about cables.. cant really hear the difference enough to be fussy! im no EJ! haha

i currently use Canare GS4 for my patch cables. they are soft, flexible but tough, and sound very neutral to my ear. they're not cheap but not expensive either, and you can get them easily made to your specs by guys like TY Music. the generic chinese flat head jacks are pretty good, no complaints so far.

i used to use George L's.. they did sound brighter than other cables, which can be good or bad depending on your taste. i ditched them due to reliability issues.. while the design makes it easy to replace cables/heads, they just didn't stand up to gigging life. and they are $$$ just for the cables alone, and that is not yet considering the price of the heads ($8 each!).

don't really see the point in having the whole board wired up in high end cable like Evidence, etc.. it would cost hundreds, if not a thousand, just for patches alone! and can you or your audience hear the difference? hehe

from my point of view, it makes more sense to use a neutral sounding cable for the board and from board to amp, and if you like a high end cable, just use one high end cable from the guitar to the board. the sonic signature of the high end cable should make it to the amp through the rest of the neutral sounding stuff. this is just my opinion. hope i don't sound too crazy here lol

 

[ShredCow]

If its just one patch cable (up to 1 feet) then I might not be too concerned about the (usually minimal) tone shaping that happens. However, on a pedal board with 10 - 14 pedals, the number of interconnection patches increases and can really add up.

I just use Belden patch cables because they have the lowest capacitance and they are lightweight/thin - easier to move around. However, I don't know about their shielding - they can pick up hum from power cables so I have to watch that.

I have a 2 ft Lava ELC "patch" cable that I use to connect my wah (its off board) to the board and that one is very well shielded. I can wrap it around power supplies, adapters, multi-plugs and no hum intrudes.

Same results for the instrument cables, I have a 15 ft & 12 ft Lava ELC cable - superb shielding. The tone is pretty good too. The tone difference between a 12 ft Lava ELC & a 20 ft (yes, its longer) Planet Waves cable is shocking, to say the least. Even a non-guitarist commented on how brittle the PW cables sounded.

That said...

I'd be more concerned with reliability and shielding than capacitance because I just want my signal to get thru - what's the point if my board crackles, spits & hisses? Nothing musical comes forth. (I bet Pathein can make music from that though) So another major thing to ensure - a good soldering job.

So, my patch cables have a heat shrink tubing around the neat, clean & shiny solder joints.

 

[Kimmi]

haha,i did comtemplate on getting GL for my board but the whole reliability issue and price made me think twice and thrice.

is it possible to bring my board down to tymc and have them customized the patch cable on the spot?would that be too kuku or kiasu?haha

i have trust and faith in tymc cable..flat or canare..so far,both have served me well...

 

[Ized]

I'm very interested in trying out the Lava or Belden Shred...heard alot about them but never got a chance to try them out.

I did have george Ls, but they were super unreliable even on a pedal board....they tend to induce noise cos of the non-soldered ends and not to mention they take up more space on my pedaltrain since its not really the flathead type...and my pedals are really tightly packed together in a pt-jr. And tugging on them to make them work gets really fustrating at jams, so i relegated them to backup patches.

My board is currently wired up with Canare GS-4s...which i bought off a softie for cheap. It sounds pretty neutral...but i found something interesting...when i introduced a BOSS premium patch on my board to the last buffered pedal (a boss dd7) with the rest canare GS-4s my tone became slightly darker with more bass, it becomes especially apparent with the seventheaven on. On cleans its less obvious though. And i kinda like the darkening effect...makes my distorted tone sound slightly thicker, especially since im a strat user. well i shall keep experimenting to see

 

[gsonique]

There is only one proper way to shield a cable and Belden do them pretty good.
It's an industry standard where the shield is a web just after the first insulation.
Some cheaper cables do not have this web shield but a dual insulated core in a single cable...but hey they still work!
I don't understand how a cable can pick up hum?
I use the same Beldens ...and my wshop is a mess with all kinda cables...i got no hum...sad

 

[jskadiang]

My rig is wired up with George Ls, but only because they're solderless and I can custom cut them myself. I must say, the constant cable testing after making a wire is really frustrating though. I've been looking to try Lava ELCs but not sure where to get those, plus I don't know what I'll do with my 40 feet of George Ls. :S

 

[Benster]

My rig is wired up with George Ls, but only because they're solderless and I can custom cut them myself. I must say, the constant cable testing after making a wire is really frustrating though. I've been looking to try Lava ELCs but not sure where to get those, plus I don't know what I'll do with my 40 feet of George Ls. :S

you can actually solder George L's you know..

 

[ShredCow]

I don't understand how a cable can pick up hum?
I use the same Beldens ...and my wshop is a mess with all kinda cables...i got no hum...sad

I dunno leh Goose... I'm probably using the wrong word though. Its the same kind of noise that happened when placing the 7th on top of the PP2+ power supply.

Underneath my PT-2, there's a mess of power cables & the beldens, right? So what happens is, when the belden crosses some power cables, there's this hum that comes in - only when gain is on.

So basically, its the signal path where I have all my dirt pedals.

When I pulled the power cables away from the belden - the hum/noise disappeared. So I cable-tied the power cables in a neat pony-tail (of sorts), away from the belden that is patching my dirt boxes together.

Does that make sense? I hope it does...

 

[ShredCow]

you can actually solder George L's you know..

Do you think its kinda odd to... have to solder G Ls when they are meant to be a solder-less design?

That said - Have you check out Lavaman's solder-less patch cables? Pretty interesting! You really pull like crazy on them and the thing does not come loose... but its still easy to work with. Pretty impressive.

 

[Benster]

Do you think its kinda odd to... have to solder G Ls when they are meant to be a solder-less design?

That said - Have you check out Lavaman's solder-less patch cables? Pretty interesting! You really pull like crazy on them and the thing does not come loose... but its still easy to work with. Pretty impressive.

hey man.. i *did* have to resort to soldering my George L's before! yes! and they became more reliable that way... but still not very.. LOL

 

[widdly]

George Ls: bright and trebly, little ice picky and even slightly thin sounding
Boss Premium Patch: dark with slightly increased bass and reduced treble
Canare GS-4: kinda balanced compared to the above 2....perhaps with a bit more upper mids.

How can a cable increase the bass? That is physically impossible.

 

[dudelove]

how come no one has mentioned the canare gs-6?

i haven't the time to a/b them with the canare gs-4. but if i do, i'll let u guys know.

currently my whole board is connected by gs-4s. and one gs-6, cos i was lazy to change it to a gs-4.

 

[j_m_s]

How can a cable increase the bass? That is physically impossible.

Maybe he didn't mean literally increase bass? Prolly a better bass response. Or more bass is let thru the signal.

Like how George Ls let more treble through?

Im using Bill Lawrence cable now with both the solderless heads and the flatheads soldered on to them.

Previously, I had used George L cables, the coloured crap patch cables (that spoil very fast if you jam/gig alot) , canare GS6, GS4 and klotz lagrange.

Bill Lawrence came out tops. Why? thin, sleek, can fit into most places, if you've seen my boards you'd know i maximise the space to the max.

After i recabled, i noticed a significant difference in tone. It was more, true to my guitar > amp tone. More "open" and clear.

They're also much more reliable than GLs, ive tugged the cables out by pulling the cable, not the plug. Still working fine.

 

[gsonique]

When I pulled the power cables away from the belden - the hum/noise disappeared.

Ah so ...the power cables are lousy then.
Maybe can throw the beldens away already...

 

[gsonique]

How can a cable increase the bass? That is physically impossible.

Magic...Mojo ...heard of those kinda things?

 

[Ized]

How can a cable increase the bass? That is physically impossible.

It has a darker sound...if you read carefully...reduced treble...which gives the impression of increased bass

I find George L's a little too bright sounding, especially since im using a strat with true single coils, and it thins out my tone a little. Maybe using one after a buffered pedal will help but a whole board with George Ls is asking for it. And since we'r on the subject of eric johnson i find his tone is rather wooly sounding due to the fuzz and the butler he uses, hence i think the presence of treble in George L's work better for him.

For me im primarily a high gain player....so too much treble becomes really overbearing.

 

[jskadiang]

Actually I use Planet Waves for guitar > rack and rack > amp, but George Ls for everything in between, it does get a little bright but then again it's the price for convenience. Also, soldering the George Ls kinda defeats the purpose >_<

 

[PatheinRaindropMoe]

soldering georgeL is pretty logical if to consider the amount saved on the solderless plug.

the price of the solderless plug has increased more than double/trippled the price as of now when compared to 2003(when i bought it)

if just wanna use GL cable, but not the sodlerless plug. Just getting the cable and some other plug(at cheaper price is the way to go)

The material of the plug wont affect the sound to the extend of hearing it so clearly, unless having bat ears.

So if wanna use GL cable, but not the solderless plug. Using a cheaper plug and just solder the cable is another alternative.

i have been using mic cheapo plug for soldering of George L cable, it works. Tone? Duhhhh, try having a blind test and analysing the waveform, then we can come back and talk about the differences.

Any test of cables knowing in advance what are the cables used, often might not be a good gauge.

imho