# cheapest place to get decent guitar cables?



## iblastoff (May 14, 2011)

either pedal patch cords or 10' guitar cables and up. the only place i know of is stringsandbeyond.com which has basic planet wave 10' guitar cables for $9.95 (+2.00 or +4.00 for 15' and 20') and then they have free shipping over $35. 

any other places online to order?


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## ezcomes (Jul 28, 2008)

tagging only to know for myself


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Buy yourself some decent cable, some Switchcraft plugs, and some heat shrink tubing, and make your own. Not all that hard. You can make them to your desired length, and if they fracture from bending too much, you simly clip the wire, strip the ends and resolder. I'm using cables made that way that I originally built in 1979.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

mhammer said:


> Buy yourself some decent cable, some Switchcraft plugs, and some heat shrink tubing, and make your own. Not all that hard. You can make them to your desired length, and if they fracture from bending too much, you simly clip the wire, strip the ends and resolder. I'm using cables made that way that I originally built in 1979.


1+ to this. Making cables is probably the single easiest thing you can do with a soldering iron. I've repaired a few cables in a past year for absolutely nothing, while the other guitarist in my band has spent at least $100 on cables this year alone.


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## iblastoff (May 14, 2011)

i have absolutely zero interest in making my own cables. although if that changes, where might one order switchcraft/cable/heat shrink tubing for cheap then? whats 'decent' cable to get?

i'm looking at redco.com and it doesn't seem like i'm saving any money at all. 10 feet of mogami cable is $8.00. two of the cheapest male TS connectors are about $1.10 each. plus shipping, thats already more expensive than the $9.95 planet wave cables except they come with a lifetime warranty and i don't have to sit there and solder/heat gun/etc crap.


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## CSBen (Mar 1, 2011)

_You get what you pay for_....and unfortunately, it couldn't be more true with instrument cables. Same thing goes for patch cables. This isn't to say that Planet Waves are cheap cables, but there is better out there.

I would *strongly* suggest that you save up for higher end cables and no you don't have to spend $150 for a 10' cable that's for sure.

I know Todd of PCNS. Great guy to deal with. His prices and quality are excellent. Can't go wrong. 
Procables N Sound Main Page of Audio Cables

There are other companies out there that I am sure that others will be able to provide references too; PCNS is mine.

Cheers
Ben


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

iblastoff said:


> i have absolutely zero interest in making my own cables. although if that changes, where might one order switchcraft/cable/heat shrink tubing for cheap then? whats 'decent' cable to get?
> 
> i'm looking at redco.com and it doesn't seem like i'm saving any money at all. 10 feet of mogami cable is $8.00. two of the cheapest male TS connectors are about $1.10 each. plus shipping, thats already more expensive than the $9.95 planet wave cables except they come with a lifetime warranty and i don't have to sit there and solder/heat gun/etc crap.


80 cents a foot is pricey, but I guess that would depend on the contet you operate in. If you're aiming for ultra-clean studio quality wide-bandwidth stuff, then $0.80/ft is probably cheap. Switchcraft plugs can be gotten at Electro-Sonic, though a trip down to either the corner of Spadina and College, or to Sayal, may get you what you need. The Sayal out in Mississauga is at the same strip mall as several other electronics places, so you may be able to comparison shop there.

For finished products, Parts Express seems to have some decent choices and prices on ProCo, Audio-Technica and Peavey cables: 1/4" Guitar Cables, Guitar Cables of Various Lengths and Gauges, 1/4" Instrument Cables, Professional Musician's Cables


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## iblastoff (May 14, 2011)

CSBen said:


> _You get what you pay for_....and unfortunately, it couldn't be more true with instrument cables. Same thing goes for patch cables. This isn't to say that Planet Waves are cheap cables, but there is better out there.
> 
> I would *strongly* suggest that you save up for higher end cables and no you don't have to spend $150 for a 10' cable that's for sure.
> 
> ...


thanks for the link. i honestly do not need really high quality cables though, especially for a minimum of $30-75 range for a 10' cable. in this case i'd most definitely rather build my own than spend that much.


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## iblastoff (May 14, 2011)

mhammer said:


> 80 cents a foot is pricey, but I guess that would depend on the contet you operate in. If you're aiming for ultra-clean studio quality wide-bandwidth stuff, then $0.80/ft is probably cheap. Switchcraft plugs can be gotten at Electro-Sonic, though a trip down to either the corner of Spadina and College, or to Sayal, may get you what you need. The Sayal out in Mississauga is at the same strip mall as several other electronics places, so you may be able to comparison shop there.
> 
> For finished products, Parts Express seems to have some decent choices and prices on ProCo, Audio-Technica and Peavey cables: 1/4" Guitar Cables, Guitar Cables of Various Lengths and Gauges, 1/4" Instrument Cables, Professional Musician's Cables


yah i don't need ultra-clean studio quality stuff. just some cables that are minimal on noise when moving around. i'll check out parts express though and see what the shipping total comes to. thanks! are ProCo's pretty decent cables?


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

iblastoff said:


> are ProCo's pretty decent cables?


Though a great many of us know Proco primarily through the Rat pedal, their bread and butter for the last 35 years has been signal distribution, including snakes, cables, interfaces, etc. They know what they're doing. They have a nice white paper, available from their site, on instrument cables: http://www.procosound.com/download/whitepapers/Understanding%20Instrument%20Cables.pdf


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

iblastoff said:


> are ProCo's pretty decent cables?


Though a great many of us know Proco primarily through the Rat pedal, their bread and butter for the last 35 years has been signal distribution, including snakes, cables, interfaces, etc. They know what they're doing. They have a nice white paper, available from their site, on instrument cables: http://www.procosound.com/download/whitepapers/Understanding Instrument Cables.pdf


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## jimsz (Apr 17, 2009)

mhammer said:


> They have a nice white paper, available from their site, on instrument cables: http://www.procosound.com/download/whitepapers/Understanding Instrument Cables.pdf


Excellent read, thanks for posting that.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Thanks to the OP for prompting me to stumble onto it. I concur with jimsz, a very nice read that covers a great deal and explains it clearly, without feeling like a here's-why-you-should-buy-OUR-products bit of infotainment fluff. The Proco site has a bunch of very nice "white papers" and technical docs, along with that one, available from this page: Pro Co Sound - Downloads


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## zurn (Oct 21, 2009)

Last week I ordered some good cables from the GC Shop, I have a couple of Evidence Melody makers on the way and a Evidence Forte. I spent 2000+$ on pedals and amps so why not splurge a little on some good cables?


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## flashPUNK (Feb 16, 2006)

I generally use planet waves cables because If they break or stop working in any way, L&M will replace them with no questions asked.


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## iblastoff (May 14, 2011)

flashPUNK said:


> I generally use planet waves cables because If they break or stop working in any way, L&M will replace them with no questions asked.


i assume you have to buy them from L&M in the first place? i think they only have the custom series of planet waves which are $25 or something and up for 10'. i want to get a bunch of the classic series which are only $9.95 each and also with a lifetime warranty (from the site i mentioned in the very first post). i don't think L&M stocks them though.


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## bcmatt (Aug 25, 2007)

I do the same, but with Yorkville cables. You can always bring those in with no receipt and L&M will give you a new one to walk out with. It keeps it simple, since L&M is the only decent music store anywhere in the area and they are in every major city. 
I've made a few of my own, that I'll keep up myself, but I have several Yorkville cables that eventually get swapped out whenever one goes wrong, so it's an endless supply of new cables from them. If I were to do it over, I'd probably just do the Yorkvilles exclusively; I find 1/4" plugs the most annoying things to solder ( a third hand would make it way easier).


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## CSBen (Mar 1, 2011)

zurn said:


> Last week I ordered some good cables from the GC Shop, I have a couple of Evidence Melody makers on the way and a Evidence Forte. I spent 2000+$ on pedals and amps so why not splurge a little on some good cables?


I couldn't agree with you more Zurn. I don't know if I'd say its a "slurge" though. You've invested in quality gear, why the heck would you want to connect it with the cheapest cables..totally beats me.


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## flashPUNK (Feb 16, 2006)

iblastoff said:


> i assume you have to buy them from L&M in the first place? i think they only have the custom series of planet waves which are $25 or something and up for 10'. i want to get a bunch of the classic series which are only $9.95 each and also with a lifetime warranty (from the site i mentioned in the very first post). i don't think L&M stocks them though.


They carry all the planet waves stuff, if they don't have it, you should be able to ask to have it ordered in. A lot of times when I take cables in to be exchanged, they have to order them - they haven't been carrying the 20ft Right angle cables which I usually get lately.


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## iblastoff (May 14, 2011)

CSBen said:


> I couldn't agree with you more Zurn. I don't know if I'd say its a "slurge" though. You've invested in quality gear, why the heck would you want to connect it with the cheapest cables..totally beats me.


hey if someone wants to spend $100+ on a friggin 10' cable go ahead. currently i'm just jamming on my own but even when i was in a touring band going across the entire US multiple times, i never had any issues whatsoever with whatever 'cheap' cables i could get. so to me, its completely pointless to spend that much.


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## theroan (Oct 7, 2008)

Ebay.

There's a store called SRH Audio. I've bought a bunch of mogami cables with neutrik ends for less $20 a piece.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

iblastoff said:


> hey if someone wants to spend $100+ on a friggin 10' cable go ahead. currently i'm just jamming on my own but even when i was in a touring band going across the entire US multiple times, i never had any issues whatsoever with whatever 'cheap' cables i could get. so to me, its completely pointless to spend that much.


The two things musicians want and need from cables, in varying amounts, are durability/ruggedness and clarity/bandwidth. Both of these add value, but how _*much*_ value depends on the context. 

Guitar signals have fairly limited bandwidth, and go into limited bandwidth rigs. Moreover, it is in the nature of most (though certainly not all) contemporary guitarists that they tend to pervert the signal and aim for signal degradation. That's not intrinsically bad or good, but it does mean that the sonic properties of cable are much less likely to have any sort of benchmark to aim for in the live gigging context. And even if they did, the house PA is still quite capable of detracting from it! 

What does matter in the live gigging context is ruggedness. One wants a plug that makes a secure wobble-free connection, a wire/plug junction that handles physical stress well and does not succumb easily to regular bending and fracture, and something that coils up nicely at the end of the gig. And quite frankly, there is something comforting about the heft or weight of good plugs, much like the solid thunk of a car door closing on a quality auto. Finally, decent shielding properties are important. Nobody likes the sound of poorly received radio stations through a Marshall stack.

In the studio, it's another matter. One aims for the greatest audio clarity, lowest noise, and widest bandwidth. The ruggedness is still useful but not quite as much, since an indoor environment won't subject it to temperature extremes, and chances are that the user won't be running around trying to touch as many hands as possible while flinging their hair, Andrew W.K. style.

So, I don't begrudge people wanting to spend big money on high-end cables, assuming they make a sonic difference. But I also fully understand and respect the desire to just have something that sounds good enough, holds up well to regular use, and is cheap enough that there can be standby cables just in case.


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## iblastoff (May 14, 2011)

theroan said:


> Ebay.
> 
> There's a store called SRH Audio. I've bought a bunch of mogami cables with neutrik ends for less $20 a piece.


i just looked it up. thanks!


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