when comes to cable, whats important is the reliablity of the plug(wont tarnished easily), the solder joint(proper soldering with no cold joint and lumpy soldering lead) and low capacitance(ensure the signal is passed thru enitrely instead of losing the high frequency to capacitance)
A proper guitar cable is best that doesnt colour the sound and allow geetar signal to pass through entirely to the pedals and to amp.
To get a good "tone" the last place we wanna, is to have a cable that alter the inherent characteristic of the geetar. Most wont want a cable that "colour" the sound, of course unless all the "tone" we wanna, is partly, based on the cable. Try googling for long coiled cable, jimi hendrix etc
For cable thats spoilt easily, sometime it aint the cable itself, but the way which the plugs are soldered to the cable itself and the quality of the plug itself. To save money, one way is to cut away the plug, buy new plugs, resolder it properly(provided the cable is still working fine. Using a multimeter and test for continuity first). I have been using canare cables for few years with mixed of cheapo china made plug and more expensive plugs. Both has lasted till now except the china made one get tarnished more easily.
For those solderless type, its reliability also have to depend on the users. If the cable is done correctly and never shifted about regularly(constant plugin in and out when changing pedals on the board or shifting round when place in pedalboard and moved about, it can last as well.
For cable like george l, evidence etc, some users(including me) noticed an "increased" in the hi frequency characteristic(clearer sounding) when just switched over from cheapo cable. This response prolly due to the lower capacitance compared to those cheapo cable, thus allowing "more" of the geetar signal to pass through.
And it die die wanna use cable to get warm tone, heh, go solder a small value of capacitor in the region of picofarad perhaps to the cable. It will be warm tone all the way. But do note that no one will prolly do this coz its more of a joke then to really do it
