Coiled cable

Posted by Laudanum (A) on July 9, 2016 at 03:32:52

Strange question here. I haven't used a coiled guitar cable since the 70's or 80's. I picked one up for ease of packing up a practice and pedal testing board/case. It's 20 feet of raw cable that's coiled to about 3 or 4 feet long. Capacitance is about 30 pf per foot. The cable I was using was about 10 feet long and about the same capacitance per foot, so roughly half the capacitance of the coiled cord. The strange thing is that the coiled cable is, maybe a touch brighter, but moreso, it's a little more detailed (or a bit less "muddy"). But there doesn't seem to be a loss of bottom end so I don't think it can be explained as just being lighter in the bass. More than anything, it just seems to have a bit more clarity while not lacking anything else.

Were talking about guitar here, not high end home audio, so I don't want to go overboard into a boutique cable discussion. Just wondering if there may be something going on with the fact that the cable is coiled. Maybe inductance due to the coil that is causing some type of filtering? If that's not possible on it's own, the cable hits a buffer early in the pedal chain. Could there possibly be a different effect due to the coiled construction and the interaction with the buffer?

These are probably dumb questions but if there is any electrical explanation, I'm curious about it. I cant say that I have ever heard any definitive differences between guitar cables that couldn't be attributed to length and/or capacitance differences, or noise rejection (mainly handling noise). This cable isn't particularly special. It wasn't expensive and it's typical coaxial instrument cable construction with a braided shield plus conductive pvc (over dielectric). Looks like PE or PP dielectric, not foamed. Standard fare for guitar cable.

Appreciate any insight or even educated guesses.

Thanks

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Topic - Coiled cable - Laudanum 03:32:52 07/09/16 (0)

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