Effects Bay

Our friend Gil Divine of Divine Noise (out of Portland, Oregon) sent a press release announcing a new cable they’re promoting. This is for the 50/50 instrument cable. 50/50 because half of it is straight, while the other half is coily! I’m a big fan of Divine Noise cables, Gil does fantastic work and he builds cables to function and last. Simple philosophy that is golden!

Here is the official press release:

DIVINE NOISE ANNOUNCES “50/50″ CABLE

Portland OR, (December 6, 2011) – Earlier this year, Divine Noise launched their line of cables, developed and all handmade by long time touring guitar tech Gil Divine, used by: Yo La Tengo, Nels Cline, Jeff Tweedy, The National, and Lucinda Williams to name a few. Now, Divine Noise is announcing their new 50/50 cable, for those who cant decide if they prefer a curly or a straight cable. This newest addition to their line of cables has 22 feet of coiled cable and 8 feet of straight cable- the best of both worlds.

The cable utilized is the same exact guitar wire as their popular straight and curly cables. This wire is custom made with the highest quality materials available, including low capacitance 20 AWG pure copper stranded center conductor, heavy-duty PVC jacket and is assembled using the highest quality silver solder. These features ensure a low-noise, reliable product guaranteeing the best tone available, perfect for heavy touring. All of their cables come standard with G&H Industries plugs (Neutrik MP2X-AU-SILENT ends by request) Completely made by hand in the USA.

Shop Phone: 503.819.1279
www.thedivinenoise.com

If you’re in the market for speaker, patch or instrument cable, definitely give Divine Noise a serious look. Don’t skimp on your cables. You pay thousands for guitar.. amp.. and effects, using a $10 instrument cable won’t help you in the long run. A quality cable should last you a long long time and your tone will be great.

Popularity: 3%

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Recently I got in contact with Dustin at Armor Gold Cables and he sent us a cable to try out. Last night we recorded a couple of upcoming pedal demos and we used the Armor Gold instrument cable, and it looked, sounded and worked like a champ. I wanted to send some questions to Dustin regarding Armor Gold.. and their cables, and here were his responses.

- When you started Armor Gold Cables what did you set out to achieve?
The primary goal was to produce an extremely durable cable. But it also had to sound great and be reasonably priced.

- How are your cables different than the rest of the market?
The first thing you’ll notice is the polymer outer mesh. This mesh is common in industrial and aerospace applications were high durability is required. It helps prevent slicing and impact type damage. It also looks cool and improves visibility on a dark stage. The second thing is we prefer medium-low capacitance, as opposed to low capacitance. Most your guitar gear (guitar, amp, pickups, effects, etc.) was designed, tested, and tweaked with medium to high capacitance cable (30-50pf). So when you use low capacitance cable, you’re adding substantial treble to the recipe, which can sound too bright and harsh. Our cables measure 33pf per foot, which gives a nice combination of warmth and clarity and stays true to the original design intention of your gear.

- Where do you feel other cable manufacturers fall short when manufacturing cables?
Cheap cables often use unreliable plugs, poorly shielded wire which is noisy, poor soldering technique, and overall low quality control.

- What is the number one reason for cable failure?
I don’t know the number one reason, but there are many ways for a cable to fail. Plug tip breaks off, cable gets yanked out of the plug body, inner hot wire breaks from poor strain relief where it leaves the plug, cold solder joints, high impact or slicing of the cable, poor wire dressing technique inside the plug can cause the shielding to short out on the hot wire, etc.

- How important should it be to guitarists to use quality cables?
It’s important for two reasons: reliability and tone. Obviously, having a cable fail in the middle of a performance sucks. Tonewise, it’s no longer myth that cables make a noticeable difference. Anyone can compare a 20 foot long 20pf cable to a 50pf cable and easily hear the difference.

- What are your thoughts on cable impedance and the use of buffers?
I don’t think you need a buffer in your guitar unless your running a super long cable. Most pedals have buffers in the bypass… some make your tone brighter, some duller, the better ones are neutral. It’s just something you have to consider and work with. The advantage is you can run a long cable from your buffered pedal to the amp and not have to worry about treble roll off.

- Tell me a little about your company
We are a growing USA company. Our Founder and Designer is Joe Naylor of the Naylor Amps, Reverend (Guitars, Amps, Basses, Pedals) fame. All of our products are designed and made in the USA. Our HQ is in Orange County, California, and we also have roots in Nashville and Detroit. Our cables are used by people all over the globe from a tone seeking bedroom picker to Grammy award winning artists.

- Any new designs coming out in the near future?
We don’t like spoiling surprises! The ideas are flowing and there will be new products out this year. Stay tuned…

The cable I received had the mesh, quality plugs and sounded great. It was a 20′ cable, and didn’t notice any signal dulling/capacitance with it. Their prices are nice as well. This 20′ version can be purchased direct for $44.99, not bad. All their instrument cables have lifetime warranty, and have a 60 day trial period. I also thought it was interesting that it landed in the Guitar Player’s 49 guitar cable winner’s circle.

If you get a chance, check out their website and like/follow them on Facebook and Twitter. Make sure you let them know that EffectsBay sent ya!

Popularity: 5%

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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

Popularity: 4%

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