vintagefan Messages: 166 Registered: March 2014 Location: Dallas
Senior Member
Anybody into cords and particular about tones? I've found different cords can really change the tone playing in a closeup room situation and when playing clean only and at low volume. My question is can anyone recommend a spool of cord and plugin connectors that I can build my own cords with that will produce the most shimmering high's and tight twangy mids?..On my cables, I use straight plugins into the Kustom and right angles into the guitar.
The best cord I've found for under $50 are the discontinued Elixir cords which makes the tone have tighter twangy mids and shimmering glassy highs with my Fender American Special Telecaster. They are unavailable now.
By Googling Elixir cords, all I can find about the design is an early article from Elixir cord Designer Craig Thoran who says "I can't share a lot of the design details, because we've applied for a patent, but I can say that we use a high strength alloy conductor rather than plain copper," Theorin explained. "And to get the capacitance down, you need to build a lot of air into the dielectric." This design consideration adds more separation between the shield and the cable's center, making for a thicker cable.".....(from http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/guitar-cable-roundup-p art-two-page-3#elixir)
I need to add that the discontinued Elixir cords I found only came with only straight plugins ends. For the end that goes into the guitar, I installed a right angle plugin. I went thru 3 different brands of right angle plugins from Fleabay and finally the last one added more shimmering highs and twangier mids whereas the first two were muddier. I don't know the brands or their materials as the ads didn't say. But on the one with the more shimmering highs and tighter twangy mids, on the connector where I solder the leads, I scraped it with a knife and I think it looks like steel. Whereas scraping the other two plugin connectors it appears there's a different color metal under the exterior metal coating.... I'm guessing they're nichol coated.....
We used to carry George L cable and solderless ends. The cable is low capacitance and the brass ends worked pretty well.
In side by side tests, it was cleaner and brighter than most of the pre-packaged cables that we had. It was a bit more expensive, but not that much so. While we don't carry it anymore, I think that it might still be available out there.
vintagefan Messages: 166 Registered: March 2014 Location: Dallas
Senior Member
Thanks Chicagobill.....I see them online both as premade units and spools available by the foot with plugins available so I can make lengths I want.... I'll give them a try. Good reviews online too......
stevem Messages: 4728 Registered: June 2004 Location: NY
Senior Member
Kendrick Amps carry cords that he makes from Klotz cable made in Germany which ie very low in cap.
A 20 footer is 90 bucks.
I use Carol cable when I make mine and use silver solder, the cable is not the lowest that can be had in the cap factor but it plenty good enough for the frequencys we deal with being outputed by guitars.
stevem Messages: 4728 Registered: June 2004 Location: NY
Senior Member
He use to sell just the cable by the ft, but no longer.
Take note that in terms of connectors, myself and others have been having issues with many brands of ends due to their over sea's construction and a minor change in overall shank lenght.
The lenght change is just short enough to make the female contact in some jacks short across both the tip and the shank.
This is even happening with the switchcraft 90 degree 226 end which is very popular for making short jumper cables for linking up stomp boxes .
vintagefan Messages: 166 Registered: March 2014 Location: Dallas
Senior Member
I like the George L cables....I bought one with brass connectors and one with nickle plated connectors with .225 cable. The brass exhibits the best bright twangy mids and best shimmering highs with my telecaster. Noticable improvement over half a dozen other brands I've bought including Elixir.....thanks.