It was great to feature Cordinated Cables during Free Shirt Wednesday with their pins. Juli sent over a couple of cables for me to check out, so I thought I would take the opportunity to give the cables a pretty thorough ride to see what they’re all about and see how they hang with the ‘big boys’.

Now before I get into that, I wanted to quickly describe what/why/how Cordinated Cables came about.  Both Juli and her husband (Dan) have both been musicians for 15+ years. She is a graphic designer and Dan is an engineer by trade. Dan started to make cables and Juli was involved with knitting about other things, and discovered that the two can be combined to give something boring (cables) something with some unique character and individuality.

I definitely like the angle of where they’re coming from. But the bottom line.. how do they sound? They sent me two cables to check out, the ‘Top Notch‘ and ‘Classic‘ cables. The ‘Top Notch’ is their boutique series cable, with Neutrik X-Series or C-Series 1/4″ plugs and using highly shielded, low capacitance cable. The ‘Classic’ uses standard plugs and and standard cord stock.

When it comes to instrument cables and the differences between them, I look for two basic items. Quality of the plugs, and if the signal is close to unaffected as possible. With lengths of cables, you will always encounter capacitance which will eat up your high end and create a ‘darker’ tone. It’s usually more evident the longer your go, and to test this, you need to run your guitar straight into the amp, without any buffering or additional pedals to affect the path.

Initially, I thought the cable sounded great, but the switching of cables on the fly seemed to have a psychological affect and the time to switch between would fuzzy the memory a bit. Thought it was time to call my good friend Jimmy Rolle to help with testing. I knew we could get a good recording of several cables, play a similar riff, play through the same amp.. same guitar and hear for ourselves. We had a total of three cables for this comparison. All clips were played with a Les Paul Elegant Custom Shop into a Matchless DC30.

Here were the cables involved (it has to be noted that the Cordinated was the shortest of the three, so it’s not a true apples to apples comparison):

- 15′ Top Notch Cordinated Cable
- 21′ DiMarzio Cable
- 21′ Colossal Cable

Cordinated Cable Clip

DiMarzio Cable Clip

Colossal Cable Clip

As you can hear the differences are subtle, and definitely held up to these other brands/builders. Now, we’re just talking about the tone/signal/quality of the cable, with Cordinated Cables you also get the ‘look’.  These cables are meticulously wrapped in colorful acrylic/wool yarns. They are all Scotch Guarded to help protect from staining. I have to return these cables, but I would have loved to do a few PBR beer spill tests and a practice or two with me stepping all over them to see how the held up.

There is a great selection of ‘wraps’ you can find on their Etsy site, which is their primary store site. You can also get custom wraps! If the wrap is not your thing, but like to get some high quality instrument cables, you can purchase ‘bare’ cables from them as well. So if you get a chance visit their various sites.. and let them know that EffectsBay.com sent ya!

ETSY: http://cordinated.etsy.com
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/cordinatedcable
FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/cordinated
MAILING LIST: http://eepurl.com/fLEx

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Over the years, I’ve played in several bands and owned a small recording studio in my time. During this, I’ve seen countless musicians on stage, studio and even counting myself using crappy instrument cables. Early on in my guitar playing days, I understood the importance of a good amp, good guitar, but never put much stock in the cables combining the two. I was poor, just like many musicians today, and could not understand the logic of paying $30+ for a cable, so I always opted for the cheap $5 cable.

The problem with buying a cheap guitar cable is.. you get exactly what you pay for, a $5 piece ‘O crap connecting your guitar to your amp. Problems that would often arise with a low quality cable are:

1. Hum caused by broken ground
2. Static or crackling caused by broken ground
3. Dull tone or loss of signal
4. Poor contact between jack and input causing cracking or popping when moved
5. Poor wiring at the jack connection causing cracking or complete loss of signal

I remember having to buy cables often to replace the bad cable or having to pull the soldering iron out to repair jack connections, that would inevitably break down the road anyway.

About 10 years ago, I thought I would shell out $40 for a 20′ guitar cable by DiMarzio. I thought that was a little crazy, but after reading about the cymbal test (where they drop a cymbal guillotine style on a cable.. and passing) I figured it would be a good cable. My particular DiMarzio had the ‘fat’ plugs (I can’t remember what those plugs are, but I’m pretty sure they’re Switchcraft) and has treated me well. That cable has been my primary instrument cable over the next 10 years. I have NO problems with it. No cracking, no signal loss. I have never touched the jack wiring. I know I would have spent WAY more money buying crap over the years instead of shelling out for a decent cable. I’ve bought several other DiMarzios over the years (primarily so I don’t have to unplug between instruments or connecting to other heads) and have no problems with them. Looking at Musician’s Friend, I’m seeing they have a sale on these DiMarzio cables, but they don’t seem to make the ones with the fatty plugs any longer.

The other cable that I would have to recommend because a good guitarist friend has been using them for years with similar experience is the Monster cable.

I have to mention that the quality cables should not stop with your instrument cable but also should include your ‘jumpers’ between effects unit. This is a area that is very easy to skimp on, but you have to consider that you’re building a chain where your tone is in the balance. You don’t want any weak links in your tone chain, so buy some good jumper cables. These cables usually hold up pretty well since they’re not stepped on or moved very often. I like to make sure that the input jack seat tight in the stompbox.

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