In a world of snake oil surrounding cables how do you know you are spending your money on what matters? OFC and Gold Connectors: Do they really matter? Perhaps, but likely not for the reasons you are thinking... Hosa Cables - hosatech.com/ Other CSGuitars cable videos: Instrument vs Speaker Cables: What's The Difference - ua-cam.com/video/JhbG_WQ7ORo/v-deo.html Balanced vs Unbalanced Cables: What's The Difference? - ua-cam.com/video/leTqWEZeVM4/v-deo.html #Cables #Hosa #CSGuitars More from CSGuitars: Gain access to exclusive content at: www.patreon.com/csguitars Buy CSGuitars Merchandise: www.csguitars.co.uk/store Website: www.csguitars.co.uk Contact: colin@csguitars.co.uk
@@ScienceofLoud the amount of times I have looked that up and never found a specific answer is at least double digits. I always assumed. Thanks mate, great video
Even the unscripted format was so educational. As someone with an education degree, I love how you inform even when no one asks. You get why teaching exists and I love your channel for it
Can definitely confirm about the oxidation on old game cartridges. I inherited a bunch of my grandfather's old game systems when he passed away last year, and none of the cartridges worked until I popped them open and had a go at the contacts with some rubbing alcohol and just a little brasso. Every single one I've treated this way so far has worked flawlessly.
I am SOOOO happy that someone else understands all of this stuff, and is willing to share with others who may not be in "the know". As an amplifier technician I am very regularly explaining and communicating stuff like this to people. Knowledge is power.
Neutrik phono plugs are extremely long lasting. But it it isn't just the materials, it's the design. There's no separate solder lugs to get loose, instead you solder directly to the contact. My two main guitar leads are well over 15 years old and are still going strong. (I gig, tour and teach professionally). I made them with Neutrik jacks and Canare cable. Also, they are bright red, so get trodden on much less. OFC will also tarnish much more slowly, so the conductor lasts longer. Thanks for your excellent content!
Fantastic info as ever. One point about cables never talked about is right angle vs straight. I use nuetrick right handle attached to all my guitars. Like many I loop my cable back through the strap, it helps reduce the problem of stepping on the cable and it bending /snapping in the socket. That's also why I use right angled ones too. I even use with a Strat socket as actually it makes the cable be at an angle back to to strap.
EE here, gold plating has one obvious downside: it can be short lived. Many equipment have pretty harsh connector contacts. full of grime and rough surfaces after decades of use, and often the connector spins about in the connector during use (guitar cable for exaple) and this can scrape off the gold plating from the connectors in short order. Gold plating is best when you connect it ONCE and once only and it'll stay reliable for decades. With repetitive use, it can scrape off. Hard gold plating is exceptionally expensive, i'm not sure even Neutrik uses that in their connectors.
I just had to get 2 new cables one was a 10 ft from the mid 80s the other I bought in the 90s they wore out at the same time. They outlasted all my later purchased cables
TL;DR Don't buy expensive cables for any touted tone difference, buy expensive cables because they have a lifetime warranty and you won't ever have to *buy* a replacement. If there is a tonal difference, it's nothing that can't be achieved by tweaking the EQ on your amplifier.
Excellent video, as always! I'm still using my nice, flexible, good sounding Zeck Audio cables from the 90's. They just don't die, and they do not seem to degrade. How did they make them that good?
TATA! Preamplifying in the guitar itself with a super opamp (AD797). Make all pickups active, forget about cable length. Dangers on the actual amplifier, benefits on distortion. Just how much gain though?
But the gold connector is there for the reason I suspected. I'd also suggest the malleability of gold versus steel/copper allows for a better physical contact, but I don't know how much difference that would ever make unless the jack or socket were damaged.
Got disagree about the gold - it's a soft metal and the very thin layer wears off on any cable I've ever had or seen. Having standard plug being inserted and removed would keep them clean of corrosion too.
I know that I’m off topic, but I recently did some work on my dad’s acoustic the strings that came off were strange to me... instead of the normal ball ends these had what appear to be brass slugs on the end. I have never seen these before and am wondering what manufacturer uses these, my dad says he only uses Ernie ball extra lights... but I can’t seem to find any reference to Ernie ball using these ends.
Great video - I'm sold! Almost. Is there any chance you could do a comparison with respect to noise? A Hosa cable vs a 'regular' cable? Any noticeable audible reduction in background hiss/noise?
Here's a question. I've never believed that extra conductivity's ever a reason for gold plated contacts. Ive always thought that extra conductivity at the tip won't matter because the rest of the cable is made of less conductive material. How does this work electrically and does the gold actually make any difference (even if unnoticeable) when your signal is just going through less conductive [other material]‽
@@PooNinja I have used 14 and 16 AWG zip cord for years as speaker cables. The biggest deal is the price savings, especially when you buy big rolls from the electrical supply place vs the highly marked up cable in the stereo/music industry. I also like how the neutral lead has some type of ribbing on the insulation that never wears off and I always make that my positive speaker lead.
I think I heard that he has a degree in electrical engineering. Also has built guitars and amps if I'm not mistaken. Certainly knows his stuff and presents it very well.
Yes, and not really. Any coaxial cable (one wire inside another, not just cable TV wire) will have a certain amount of capacitance per foot. The longer the cable, the more the capacitance. A long cable will have a small resistance from the copper in parallel with that capacitance and could become a RC circuit that could shape your tone. Practically speaking, If you think you can hear it just buy shorter cables.
Actually, the cable capacitance WILL always make an RC circuit with the ohmic resistance in the chain, but the shorter the cable the smaller the capacitance and therefore the lesser the treble loss...
the deal is when you do the math to calculate the time constant of your little low pass filter, you will see it affects very high frequencies which is not noticeable in the context of the guitar's frequency range. Stereo guys duke it out all the time on this topic, but stereos have to reproduce 20khz+ very accurately. Schmoe makes a good point: keep your signal cableing as short as possible.
I have a pair of more than decent monitors (not in use though) having gold plated connectors. Guess what. Oxidation! And plenty of it. Are some gold better than others? : )
if it's oxidizing it's not gold. Either your "oxidation" is actually a buildup of something else (Dust perhaps?) or they sold you brass connectors and called it gold (they look quite similar when the brass is still shiny, but unlike gold, brass will readily oxidize). I have seen brass connectors in some plugs I got from the dollar store...
I do like "future Colin", he seems to be very slightly smarter than "current Colin" yet always ensures the viewer has the correct info before the end of the video. He always has "current Colin's" back; he's nice that way!
Other than build quality, the main thing that matters in a guitar cable is capacitance. When plugged into a guitar with passive pickups, the cable can add a significant amount of capacitance to ground. Cables can vary from around 60pf/meter to over 300pF/meter. The effect this has is like swapping out a different value tone capacitor. Higher capacitance shifts the pickup's resonance peak to a lower frequency. Using a long, high capacitance cable can significantly darken your tone.
A few ohms resistance in a signal cable means nothing in a high impedance guitar circuit. There's somewhere around 10kOhm inline resistance in a guitar pickup. It does make a difference for speaker cables.
Only you could make a 10+ min "ramble" about cables interesting enough to a noob like me to watch it all! Just noticed my cable is not gold plated and now i'm sad.
This was so cool man, and you didn't lose anything in terms of impact or learning experience by being unscripted. You might feel a drag towards perfectionism sometimes, but if you just want to talk about something, as yourself and unscripted, don't ever think it's not good enough. Amazing video, learned a huge lot and loved the different style 😎
Gold is LESS conductive than copper. Gold plating was originally used as a very thin plated coating on connectors that would not normally be unpluged. When plugged in, the gold is supposed to move aside and allow copper to copper connection while protecting against contact oxidation. While silver will oxidise (tarnish), the oxidised silver will still have better conductivity than copper. "Heavy Gold Plating" is a marketing ploy to charge more for the product.
Oxygen in copper causes oxidation over time and turns your conductors in your cable all green and crumbly. That oxidation will impede the conductivity by a fair bit. Effects on longer cables even more noticeable. But more importantly oxidation causes the cable to break easily when flexed. Not something you would want on stage.
That can actually be valid at times, especially if you compare them to like 40 gauge chinese crap which of course they don't tell you is 40 gauge. The connector quality is importnat too for high power applications. Of course, you have the snake oil category in every industry, but that's still always better than the cheapest crap on the market
The problem with your theory with gold plating making the cables better Colin is that gold is a very soft metal and the thickness of the plating is so ridiculously thin. So after only few dozen times you plug and unplug the cable, the gold plating quickly begins flaking off and it totally mitigates the advantage of having the gold plating in the first place. Also, the only way a gold-plated connector could be beneficial is if both the lead and the jack that you're plugging the cable into are BOTH gold-plated. Which on guitars, pedals and amplifiers, they almost never are. I suggest reading this article instead. Which imo, discusses the topics covered in this video 100x better: zerocapcable.com/?page_id=213
My dog pissed on my Monster cables that were plugged into my Boss pedal board outputs and they corroded inside the jacks ruining the cables and the pedal board jacks.🤦🏻♂️😎🎸 Rock n Roll
Silver and copper have both better conductivity as gold and are way cheaper. But, as Colin also mentioned: gold doesn't corrode which is an important factor with connectors. However it is a soft material, and a thin layer can erode quite quickly, especially in applications like guitar cables that are often plugged and unplugged. Btw. with some basic soldering skills you can make your own guitar cables for way cheaper than what companies ask for ready-made cables.
Sounds to me like you could go down a grade in copper and keep the good connectors. Trouble is, no manufacturer is going to drop the marketing value of OFC. At least if the example here is any indication. And, to make the assumption that if it's OFC the rest of the build is good? Dude, I pegged you for smarter than that.
So all this mumbo jumbo is about durability and longevity, and marketing I suppose, not necessarily sound quality? Makes sense. I’m still not paying the price for Mogami and other high end cables. That’s a bit much. 🤨👍
The biggest problem with audio connectors I have run across is that cheap, foreign made connectors are not built to tight tolerance. I have used brand new foreign made 1/4" plugs that were horrible, due to the fact that they were not of the exact size specs. Use good quality cables and keep them clean. Gold plating ant OFC will not make enough difference in sound unless you are working in the most high end recording studio.
Disagree with you Colin, guitar cables do affect frequency and levels and are even microphonic. I didn't really care in the beginning but did later change most of them in my chain to higher quality and with less high frequency damping by shortening them as much as possible. Not spending a fortune on them but Hosa, Fender and similar are making a huge difference from the cheap ones.
I wouldn't trust a company not to make a bad cable out of the best copper... is there an objective measure of cable quality? and what's the point of using gold plated connectors when the plugs themselves are not gold plated? thanks for a great show ^_^
Like you said, gold plated connectors do not corrode like nickle plated ones over time, therefore are more durable., in theory. My 20-30$ planetwave cables last a very long time and sound good and are not gold plated...the build quality is there however so paying premium prices is ridiculous... don't buy cheaply bult cables because they just fail and are more unreliable but there is no need to spend a fortune on cable also.
Thumbs up if you are old enough to remember when Hosa was considered utter trash, that only the lowest end musicians, producers, and engineers would even consider using. And people would try to hide their Hosa cables, and deny they use them, even if they did. Remember that? Thumbs up!
we use Deox-it in avionics repair world. we use it to clean electrical contacts which routinely get exposed to rain water, salt air, etc. it allows you to clean the connectors with out having to resort to a wire brush or anything else which could damage the thin gold layer on the contacts. where i could see it being useful is if you play outdoor shows, sweat tons onto your guitar, or spill beverages where they don't belong. i bet Angus Young's guitar tech uses it by the case :) Deox-it is usually paired with preserv-it: deox-it cleans while the preserv-it protects
Chrome resists oxydization as well as gold but it's much harder and resists wear better. Conductivity is not issue since the plating is so thin there is not a measurable difference. Chrome plating is at least as good as gold and much less expensive.
The gold coating on a cable is so thin it really makes no difference. It very quickly wears off so the corrosion resistance really isn't that great. It also does not increase conductivity. It would decrease conductivity because now the electrons have more material to travel through. You cannot add to what is already lost through the cable. You can only reduce losses.
Neutrik connectors are made of win. They are near indestructable. I like the ones with an automatic switch on the end so it mutes the signal when you unplug a guitar. No nasty noises during a hurried guitar change, particularly if you forget to stand on your tuner.
PREACHING THE TRUTH. You are absolutely right that “higher quality” cables aren’t designed for better sound (even though that’s how they are marketed) I completely agree with everything you said.
I have to say, I have usually avoided Hosa cables as it felt to me to be an "Amazon brand". By that I mean, it appeared (to me) to only exist in the realm of Amazon, but if I am honest I was under that impression because I didn't do any research on the manufacturer, or who uses Hosa cables. Now that I have seen this video, I will be giving them a try. The Edge series seems to rival my Mogami Gold cables, and I would love almost anything to stop using Monster cables (such fluff from Monster.. good cable, but over the years have shifted to more of a money grab than a quality thing). GLS and now Hosa, IMHO, are using the same tech as Mogami is, for about half the price. If I can get the same quality for less, I am sold! Thanks for the video, I have always enjoyed your content, as it's right up my alley man. Keep on Keepin on!
Gold is not a good conductor, in fact it is very bad. Silver and copper are better conductors than gold, in fact putting gold connectors makes having copper cable with low OFC useless, since the conductivity is low at the ends and the connectors are the signal input. Both silver and copper have very low levels of oxidation and are better conductors, so both metals would be equal to or better than gold in connectors, but gold is used because people think gold is better.
Gold is the 3rd most conductive metal behind Silver and copper. Copper literally turns green when in contact with air and moisture, it oxidises readily. Gold is used because it tarnishes less than silver. 30 seconds on Google will confirm to you these facts. Sit down.
Very nice video, I agree with almost all points :). I install a lot of technology in events venues, and you have to keep one thing in mind when it comes to gold plated cables: Yes they don't corrode, but they react to nickel plated jacks and you end up with galvanic corrosion and that reduces the connectivity drastically. We have had to change a lot of jacks in amps and other places, where the jacks of the devices were nickel plated, but the plugs used were gold plated. They weren't working properly anymore and have caused a lot of connectivity issues over the years. So my rule at work is just to mate gold with gold and nickel with nickel wherever possible. Most guitar amps and guitar pedals are nickel plated, so I would certainly just use nickel coated Neutrik plugs instead of gold, just to prevent any faults in case it is touring equipment and it sees a lot of different temperatures and humidity levels in its time. And another fun fact: Oxidised Nickel is as conductive as fresh Nickel, just doesn't look as "good" anymore. So I would just worry about using decent cable with amazing shielding like you did and decent Neutrik plugs as you said as well. And when choosing the right cable I would look at the capacitance of the cable. That usually ranges from 60pf/ per metre to about 300pF/per metre. If the cable has a higher capacitance, then it tends to give you a slightly darker tone.
Gold cables would be the best but , based on materials, a 2 meter cable would cost roughly $27,000. It would last potentially thousands of years or until it got stolen.
Thanks for this. I've been saying this for years. "Nice cables are worth it because they don't break or corrode!!!" I'd rather drop $300 on a cables for my rig once than $50 every few years when the cheap ones fail...or worse: fail in the middle of a gig. Remember: "Buy nice or buy twice."
Let's be real, most cable failures are either going to happen during your gig, or close enough before it that you don't notice until you're on sound-check and your signal keeps cutting out...
Learn to solder and cut the price of those cables by 2/3! High-end DIY cables are a very economical solution to paying the mark-up for premium commercial cables even when using the same exact components.
Every cable I've ever owned broke at the jack somewhere. Usually from being stepped on. If you break tip you are done. I do think the Nuetrik connectors make a difference but these get worn just anything. I do have some Planet Waves (now Diddario) that have soldered jacks that you can easily clip and reattach but the tips wear out on those as well. I just keep a box of quarter inch jacks and a soldering gun handy.
I used to just buy whatever cables I could get, usually vox or fender ones, ended up breaking within about 6 months or so. one of my bandmates that worked at a studio told me to look for van damme cables with neutrik heads, so I just found a cable builder online that made guitar cables of that spec and shelled out about the same price I'd paid for a fender cable.. that was in early 2018 and they're still going strong *touch wood*. good to have the gold neutrik heads explained and what the advantages are.
10:20 agreed. My pedalboard has like $300 worth of cable/connectors for that very reason. Super high quality connectors and cable so that I don't have to deal with it. I switched to wireless for instrument cable cause I don't like to sit still.
i love music and and i Love science its the constant battle for passion in my world and now there is this channel (that i've been watching for a year now) but still I LOVE THIS CHANNEL MORE SCIENCE AND GUITARS
I just stumbled across your channel coz a student asked me if it's worth buying a Donner guitar to start on. Found this vid after. Could listen to you ramble about physics, chemistry and music all day. Do you have a cable wrapping video?! I'd love to share that with my students
3/2023: Good Day. I meant to mention this previously, but, Love your Dinosaurs. Quality and Attention to Detail account for everything. I do buy good quality cables, for the reasons that you mention. Thank You once again for this fine tutorial. I really enjoy them and learn from them. Best Regards
So the trick is to buy the best quality cables you can find NOT advertised as OFC. They are likely to be the best value for money. BTW OFC cables do have better signal transfer (at frequencies ABOVE about 100kHz). Even a dog couldn't tell the difference.
Hey Colin. I I'm a bit sceptical about deoxit degreasers, but if you haven't already you should definitely check out stuff like Servisol ipa170, SAS10 and WD40 fast drying contact cleaner, they're just fantastic! They clean out electrical stuff (and can even clean motherboards sometimes) without damaging anything. To give an example, I literally brought a few unusable pieces of outboard gear back to life with the WD40 version. The pots basically didn't work with all the dust and grim built up inside them, but I sprayed it right into the pots (behind the face plate) while turning them until the crackling was gone, and they're now back on the rack in a commercial studio and work perfectly.
The only thing I believe, is material and build quality. Using my knowledge of automotive electrical systems, I'm calling bullshit on oxygen free copper. It would be cheaper to use larger cables. If you have a size 00 AWG (American Wire Gage) cable, it's going to conduct electricity better than say 14 AWG. Larger diameter=Lower resistance. What are the voltages and amperes measurements coming out of passive pickups? Probably a hell of a lot lower than what your standard 1/4" guitar cables can really handle. Electricity travels at 9/10 speed of light (which is 186,000 miles per second) and every car in every country has more electrical signals traveling through it than you can shake a stick at. I guarantee you, car manufacturers are all using the cheapest shit they can find when they're building their wiring harnesses. I'm no expert but, I would imagine that shit like Supplemental Restraint System (SRS Airbag) wiring is just a little bit more important than musical clarity or perfectly transmitting righteous riffs from pickups to amps. When cable companies claim that this cable or that cable transmits your signal better than their competition, I think back to Automotive mechanic school, and I start calling bullshit on these false advertising motherfuckers. Besides, how the hell do I know that that cable is really oxygen free? I can't exactly test it out to see how much oxygen is in the copper inside the cable. What am I supposed to do, cut it open to find out? That won't work. Quality of materials? Most likely true because that's easy for somebody with too much time on their hands to go and test. I'll believe it. Better build quality? You can see it in this video. Obviously, I'll believe this, too. But, transmit your tone better? BULLSHIT! Copper is copper and any company can hire any electronics nerd and hire any metallurgist and pay them to put their heads together and find the best material or alloy for making cables.
Really nice video! I live by the principle to buy good quality once rather than cheap stuff several times. Our world suffers greatly from cheap low quality products thrown out in the millions to maximize company money. Love the message, keep it up mate!
How much gain/distortion is too much? I use a Mesa Boogie with an OD but I feel like after listening to other peoples tone that they're a lot more cleaner than me. Howdy from Texas!
In a world of snake oil surrounding cables how do you know you are spending your money on what matters?
OFC and Gold Connectors: Do they really matter? Perhaps, but likely not for the reasons you are thinking...
Hosa Cables - hosatech.com/
Other CSGuitars cable videos:
Instrument vs Speaker Cables: What's The Difference - ua-cam.com/video/JhbG_WQ7ORo/v-deo.html
Balanced vs Unbalanced Cables: What's The Difference? -
ua-cam.com/video/leTqWEZeVM4/v-deo.html
#Cables #Hosa #CSGuitars
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Are patch cables coax like instrument cables or speaker cables?
Patch cables are just very short instrument cables.
@@ScienceofLoud the amount of times I have looked that up and never found a specific answer is at least double digits. I always assumed. Thanks mate, great video
Every gold plated connector I have has had the plating wear off after moderate use.
Its a nice feature, but don't expect it to last.
doesn't stop the inside of the jack socket corroding either!
Starts talking about guitar cables, ends up talking about particle accelerators and retro video games. Never change, Colin, never change.
Hey CSGuitars, Collin here!
@@AnotherAnon lol vsauce
Even the unscripted format was so educational. As someone with an education degree, I love how you inform even when no one asks. You get why teaching exists and I love your channel for it
Can definitely confirm about the oxidation on old game cartridges. I inherited a bunch of my grandfather's old game systems when he passed away last year, and none of the cartridges worked until I popped them open and had a go at the contacts with some rubbing alcohol and just a little brasso. Every single one I've treated this way so far has worked flawlessly.
I am SOOOO happy that someone else understands all of this stuff, and is willing to share with others who may not be in "the know". As an amplifier technician I am very regularly explaining and communicating stuff like this to people. Knowledge is power.
Neutrik phono plugs are extremely long lasting. But it it isn't just the materials, it's the design. There's no separate solder lugs to get loose, instead you solder directly to the contact. My two main guitar leads are well over 15 years old and are still going strong. (I gig, tour and teach professionally). I made them with Neutrik jacks and Canare cable. Also, they are bright red, so get trodden on much less. OFC will also tarnish much more slowly, so the conductor lasts longer. Thanks for your excellent content!
I personally love this off the cuff style video. I honestly prefer it to your scripted style videos. They're faster paced and there's more character.
Referendum time, man. Great videos as usual - I always appreciate the technical details as they dispel so much “bunk”. Cheers!
Just a note to say i appreciate your channel. Good info.
Fantastic info as ever.
One point about cables never talked about is right angle vs straight. I use nuetrick right handle attached to all my guitars.
Like many I loop my cable back through the strap, it helps reduce the problem of stepping on the cable and it bending /snapping in the socket. That's also why I use right angled ones too. I even use with a Strat socket as actually it makes the cable be at an angle back to to strap.
I have been lied to all my life!
Thank you so much for educating us on this.
EE here, gold plating has one obvious downside: it can be short lived.
Many equipment have pretty harsh connector contacts. full of grime and rough surfaces after decades of use, and often the connector spins about in the connector during use (guitar cable for exaple) and this can scrape off the gold plating from the connectors in short order.
Gold plating is best when you connect it ONCE and once only and it'll stay reliable for decades. With repetitive use, it can scrape off. Hard gold plating is exceptionally expensive, i'm not sure even Neutrik uses that in their connectors.
I just had to get 2 new cables one was a 10 ft from the mid 80s the other I bought in the 90s they wore out at the same time. They outlasted all my later purchased cables
TL;DR Don't buy expensive cables for any touted tone difference, buy expensive cables because they have a lifetime warranty and you won't ever have to *buy* a replacement.
If there is a tonal difference, it's nothing that can't be achieved by tweaking the EQ on your amplifier.
Yea Hosa edge cables are really nice. I've been slowly upgrading for awhile now
I seem to be cable cursed... will try a couple of these for sure!
Another awesome video. Always informative and always fun to watch. Thanks Colin!!🤘
Excellent video, as always!
I'm still using my nice, flexible, good sounding Zeck Audio cables from the 90's. They just don't die, and they do not seem to degrade. How did they make them that good?
TATA! Preamplifying in the guitar itself with a super opamp (AD797). Make all pickups active, forget about cable length. Dangers on the actual amplifier, benefits on distortion. Just how much gain though?
But the gold connector is there for the reason I suspected. I'd also suggest the malleability of gold versus steel/copper allows for a better physical contact, but I don't know how much difference that would ever make unless the jack or socket were damaged.
how important or otherwise have you found the capacitance per unit length of cable to be?
Very helpful stuff. Thanks for the info
Got disagree about the gold - it's a soft metal and the very thin layer wears off on any cable I've ever had or seen. Having standard plug being inserted and removed would keep them clean of corrosion too.
I know that I’m off topic, but I recently did some work on my dad’s acoustic the strings that came off were strange to me... instead of the normal ball ends these had what appear to be brass slugs on the end. I have never seen these before and am wondering what manufacturer uses these, my dad says he only uses Ernie ball extra lights... but I can’t seem to find any reference to Ernie ball using these ends.
Great video - I'm sold! Almost. Is there any chance you could do a comparison with respect to noise? A Hosa cable vs a 'regular' cable? Any noticeable audible reduction in background hiss/noise?
Here's a question. I've never believed that extra conductivity's ever a reason for gold plated contacts. Ive always thought that extra conductivity at the tip won't matter because the rest of the cable is made of less conductive material. How does this work electrically and does the gold actually make any difference (even if unnoticeable) when your signal is just going through less conductive [other material]‽
Copper is more conductive than gold.
The gold is more conductive than a normal connector.
I hope this clears things up.
Oxygen free way to be! Just like outside here on the moon 🤘🏽
I still like cheap heavy gauge copper lamp cables for speaker cables cause I’m cheap🤑
Is that wrong and if so why?
Two core power cable makes very excellent speaker cable.
CSGuitars good to know thank you Sir
@@PooNinja I have used 14 and 16 AWG zip cord for years as speaker cables. The biggest deal is the price savings, especially when you buy big rolls from the electrical supply place vs the highly marked up cable in the stereo/music industry. I also like how the neutral lead has some type of ribbing on the insulation that never wears off and I always make that my positive speaker lead.
Do you have a background as an electrician or is it just the enjoyment of learning how things work? Love your stuff, keep it up!
I think I heard that he has a degree in electrical engineering. Also has built guitars and amps if I'm not mistaken. Certainly knows his stuff and presents it very well.
It's important to have some oxygen content in your copper in order to let your tone breathe.
Did he say switches or sweat cheese?
Im a poor fan . Seems u got alot can I just have the old cables u will replace Sir ? Im from Manila
You only notice cables when they're bad.
Do cables vary in capacitance and does that make a difference in the context of playing guitar?
Yes, and not really. Any coaxial cable (one wire inside another, not just cable TV wire) will have a certain amount of capacitance per foot. The longer the cable, the more the capacitance. A long cable will have a small resistance from the copper in parallel with that capacitance and could become a RC circuit that could shape your tone. Practically speaking, If you think you can hear it just buy shorter cables.
Actually, the cable capacitance WILL always make an RC circuit with the ohmic resistance in the chain, but the shorter the cable the smaller the capacitance and therefore the lesser the treble loss...
the deal is when you do the math to calculate the time constant of your little low pass filter, you will see it affects very high frequencies which is not noticeable in the context of the guitar's frequency range. Stereo guys duke it out all the time on this topic, but stereos have to reproduce 20khz+ very accurately. Schmoe makes a good point: keep your signal cableing as short as possible.
I have a pair of more than decent monitors (not in use though) having gold plated connectors. Guess what. Oxidation! And plenty of it. Are some gold better than others? : )
if it's oxidizing it's not gold. Either your "oxidation" is actually a buildup of something else (Dust perhaps?) or they sold you brass connectors and called it gold (they look quite similar when the brass is still shiny, but unlike gold, brass will readily oxidize). I have seen brass connectors in some plugs I got from the dollar store...
@@reaganharder1480 You are most likely right on that. I think someone here (a large german monitor manufacturer) cut the corners.
These cables are still expensive
Says he will be rambling, but speaks more fluent than 99% of all youtubers 😊
I've had a lot of practice at this now, I know to stop before I tangent too far.
"It never WAS dust"
You know how many childhood illusions you just shattered? Lmao. Thanks for another great video.
I do like "future Colin", he seems to be very slightly smarter than "current Colin" yet always ensures the viewer has the correct info before the end of the video. He always has "current Colin's" back; he's nice that way!
Other than build quality, the main thing that matters in a guitar cable is capacitance. When plugged into a guitar with passive pickups, the cable can add a significant amount of capacitance to ground. Cables can vary from around 60pf/meter to over 300pF/meter.
The effect this has is like swapping out a different value tone capacitor. Higher capacitance shifts the pickup's resonance peak to a lower frequency. Using a long, high capacitance cable can significantly darken your tone.
This!
...and shielding!
Noob here. I made my own patch cables and they seem really great. Can I check capacitance with a volt meter?
Trying to work out the damage my nephew would do in that room trying to play with the dinosaurs.
Probably no more damage than I do when I'm playing with them.
@@ScienceofLoud lol
A few ohms resistance in a signal cable means nothing in a high impedance guitar circuit. There's somewhere around 10kOhm inline resistance in a guitar pickup.
It does make a difference for speaker cables.
Only you could make a 10+ min "ramble" about cables interesting enough to a noob like me to watch it all!
Just noticed my cable is not gold plated and now i'm sad.
Hey Colin....love to see your take on those Rick Beato vids about string gauges. Give us the CSG treatment on that topic!
Joe Satchton funyou should say that... ua-cam.com/video/SlTsMtVohwA/v-deo.html
Another day, another video filled with stuff I didn't know. Thank you so much for these 🖤
ETB: enters the battlefield.
Duh
Mtg
@@mattwilliamsonguitar which?
I've heard that rubbing your Cables with Sanke Oil with increase the Sound Quality.
Is that a Finnish oil ? Or do you rub it on at the start?
The Swedish one is said to be very good, too!
I fi had gold i woul sel it an dmake a on eof money. I don tlike copper it sounds like a broken mikrphones.
This was so cool man, and you didn't lose anything in terms of impact or learning experience by being unscripted. You might feel a drag towards perfectionism sometimes, but if you just want to talk about something, as yourself and unscripted, don't ever think it's not good enough. Amazing video, learned a huge lot and loved the different style 😎
You said raw copper. I heard “Rock opera”
Gold is LESS conductive than copper. Gold plating was originally used as a very thin plated coating on connectors that would not normally be unpluged. When plugged in, the gold is supposed to move aside and allow copper to copper connection while protecting against contact oxidation.
While silver will oxidise (tarnish), the oxidised silver will still have better conductivity than copper.
"Heavy Gold Plating" is a marketing ploy to charge more for the product.
How often do you recommend I change the snake oil in my cables?
Once a week, and don't feed them after midnight.
Cool. I just bought a Silent guitar cable with gold connectors..amazing!
9:27 “Sweat Cheese in Pots” all jokes aside, great video. Im currently obtaining my own cables for a pedal rig. Great info
So glad I'm not the only one who had to sift through the accent. Lmao
That caught my attention as well... Thankfully, I was able to extrapolate the correct words.
Oxygen in copper causes oxidation over time and turns your conductors in your cable all green and crumbly. That oxidation will impede the conductivity by a fair bit. Effects on longer cables even more noticeable. But more importantly oxidation causes the cable to break easily when flexed. Not something you would want on stage.
Well, at least we're not talking about people claiming power cables improve the sound quality of equipment.
What do you mean? Did I spend $100000 for no good? I think I hear the difference... :D
That can actually be valid at times, especially if you compare them to like 40 gauge chinese crap which of course they don't tell you is 40 gauge. The connector quality is importnat too for high power applications. Of course, you have the snake oil category in every industry, but that's still always better than the cheapest crap on the market
The problem with your theory with gold plating making the cables better Colin is that gold is a very soft metal and the thickness of the plating is so ridiculously thin. So after only few dozen times you plug and unplug the cable, the gold plating quickly begins flaking off and it totally mitigates the advantage of having the gold plating in the first place. Also, the only way a gold-plated connector could be beneficial is if both the lead and the jack that you're plugging the cable into are BOTH gold-plated. Which on guitars, pedals and amplifiers, they almost never are.
I suggest reading this article instead. Which imo, discusses the topics covered in this video 100x better: zerocapcable.com/?page_id=213
3 excellent horror movie posters.Forbidden Planet,Devil Girl From Mars,Invasion Of The Saucer Men.
PATREON NOTIFICATIN SQUAD
Ah yes, the famous notificatin !
My dog pissed on my Monster cables that were plugged into my Boss pedal board outputs and they corroded inside the jacks ruining the cables and the pedal board jacks.🤦🏻♂️😎🎸 Rock n Roll
"Gold is used so much because it won't oxidize...Hosa also sells this snake oil to protect the gold from.......things."
Silver and copper have both better conductivity as gold and are way cheaper. But, as Colin also mentioned: gold doesn't corrode which is an important factor with connectors. However it is a soft material, and a thin layer can erode quite quickly, especially in applications like guitar cables that are often plugged and unplugged. Btw. with some basic soldering skills you can make your own guitar cables for way cheaper than what companies ask for ready-made cables.
Sounds to me like you could go down a grade in copper and keep the good connectors. Trouble is, no manufacturer is going to drop the marketing value of OFC. At least if the example here is any indication. And, to make the assumption that if it's OFC the rest of the build is good? Dude, I pegged you for smarter than that.
So all this mumbo jumbo is about durability and longevity, and marketing I suppose, not necessarily sound quality? Makes sense. I’m still not paying the price for Mogami and other high end cables. That’s a bit much. 🤨👍
The biggest problem with audio connectors I have run across is that cheap, foreign made connectors are not built to tight tolerance. I have used brand new foreign made 1/4" plugs that were horrible, due to the fact that they were not of the exact size specs.
Use good quality cables and keep them clean. Gold plating ant OFC will not make enough difference in sound unless you are working in the most high end recording studio.
Disagree with you Colin, guitar cables do affect frequency and levels and are even microphonic.
I didn't really care in the beginning but did later change most of them in my chain to higher quality and with less high frequency damping by shortening them as much as possible.
Not spending a fortune on them but Hosa, Fender and similar are making a huge difference from the cheap ones.
I wouldn't trust a company not to make a bad cable out of the best copper... is there an objective measure of cable quality? and what's the point of using gold plated connectors when the plugs themselves are not gold plated? thanks for a great show ^_^
Like you said, gold plated connectors do not corrode like nickle plated ones over time, therefore are more durable., in theory. My 20-30$ planetwave cables last a very long time and sound good and are not gold plated...the build quality is there however so paying premium prices is ridiculous... don't buy cheaply bult cables because they just fail and are more unreliable but there is no need to spend a fortune on cable also.
Personally, I just build my own cables. This way I can use 70/30 rosin core solder and have the thing last longer than me.
Thumbs up if you are old enough to remember when Hosa was considered utter trash, that only the lowest end musicians, producers, and engineers would even consider using. And people would try to hide their Hosa cables, and deny they use them, even if they did.
Remember that? Thumbs up!
we use Deox-it in avionics repair world. we use it to clean electrical contacts which routinely get exposed to rain water, salt air, etc. it allows you to clean the connectors with out having to resort to a wire brush or anything else which could damage the thin gold layer on the contacts.
where i could see it being useful is if you play outdoor shows, sweat tons onto your guitar, or spill beverages where they don't belong. i bet Angus Young's guitar tech uses it by the case :)
Deox-it is usually paired with preserv-it: deox-it cleans while the preserv-it protects
Chrome resists oxydization as well as gold but it's much harder and resists wear better. Conductivity is not issue since the plating is so thin there is not a measurable difference. Chrome plating is at least as good as gold and much less expensive.
I would highly recommend learning to solder your own cables. You can get the best connectors and the best cable for next to nothing.
That's how I save a lot of money on cables. I'm only using Neutrik connectors though so they are still not cheap.
The gold coating on a cable is so thin it really makes no difference. It very quickly wears off so the corrosion resistance really isn't that great. It also does not increase conductivity. It would decrease conductivity because now the electrons have more material to travel through. You cannot add to what is already lost through the cable. You can only reduce losses.
Neutrik connectors are made of win. They are near indestructable. I like the ones with an automatic switch on the end so it mutes the signal when you unplug a guitar. No nasty noises during a hurried guitar change, particularly if you forget to stand on your tuner.
Excellent video dispelling myths about cables!
Also:
Switches= SweatCheese
Nice.
PREACHING THE TRUTH. You are absolutely right that “higher quality” cables aren’t designed for better sound (even though that’s how they are marketed) I completely agree with everything you said.
I have to say, I have usually avoided Hosa cables as it felt to me to be an "Amazon brand". By that I mean, it appeared (to me) to only exist in the realm of Amazon, but if I am honest I was under that impression because I didn't do any research on the manufacturer, or who uses Hosa cables. Now that I have seen this video, I will be giving them a try. The Edge series seems to rival my Mogami Gold cables, and I would love almost anything to stop using Monster cables (such fluff from Monster.. good cable, but over the years have shifted to more of a money grab than a quality thing). GLS and now Hosa, IMHO, are using the same tech as Mogami is, for about half the price. If I can get the same quality for less, I am sold! Thanks for the video, I have always enjoyed your content, as it's right up my alley man. Keep on Keepin on!
Gold is not a good conductor, in fact it is very bad. Silver and copper are better conductors than gold, in fact putting gold connectors makes having copper cable with low OFC useless, since the conductivity is low at the ends and the connectors are the signal input. Both silver and copper have very low levels of oxidation and are better conductors, so both metals would be equal to or better than gold in connectors, but gold is used because people think gold is better.
Gold is the 3rd most conductive metal behind Silver and copper.
Copper literally turns green when in contact with air and moisture, it oxidises readily.
Gold is used because it tarnishes less than silver.
30 seconds on Google will confirm to you these facts. Sit down.
Now I know why the particle accelerator I'm building in my garden is not working!
my studio setup is wired with a bunch of Hosa cables and they work great!
Very nice video, I agree with almost all points :).
I install a lot of technology in events venues, and you have to keep one thing in mind when it comes to gold plated cables: Yes they don't corrode, but they react to nickel plated jacks and you end up with galvanic corrosion and that reduces the connectivity drastically.
We have had to change a lot of jacks in amps and other places, where the jacks of the devices were nickel plated, but the plugs used were gold plated. They weren't working properly anymore and have caused a lot of connectivity issues over the years. So my rule at work is just to mate gold with gold and nickel with nickel wherever possible.
Most guitar amps and guitar pedals are nickel plated, so I would certainly just use nickel coated Neutrik plugs instead of gold, just to prevent any faults in case it is touring equipment and it sees a lot of different temperatures and humidity levels in its time. And another fun fact: Oxidised Nickel is as conductive as fresh Nickel, just doesn't look as "good" anymore. So I would just worry about using decent cable with amazing shielding like you did and decent Neutrik plugs as you said as well. And when choosing the right cable I would look at the capacitance of the cable. That usually ranges from 60pf/ per metre to about 300pF/per metre. If the cable has a higher capacitance, then it tends to give you a slightly darker tone.
Good to see Hosa switched to Neutrik connector. Or is these only on a specific range of cables they have?
Gold cables would be the best but , based on materials, a 2 meter cable would cost roughly $27,000. It would last potentially thousands of years or until it got stolen.
Lol, I'm surprised there aren't any multimillionaire Rockstars that have done this
I've got guitar leads that are over 25 years old and still work perfect. How you wind 'em up is a big factor
StewMac will sell you a 36" radius winding reel xD
@@BinarySecond well I do it like a sailor coils up rope and they unfurl effortlessly. The cable has outlasted the plugs on some which have worn thin..
Thanks for this. I've been saying this for years. "Nice cables are worth it because they don't break or corrode!!!" I'd rather drop $300 on a cables for my rig once than $50 every few years when the cheap ones fail...or worse: fail in the middle of a gig.
Remember: "Buy nice or buy twice."
Let's be real, most cable failures are either going to happen during your gig, or close enough before it that you don't notice until you're on sound-check and your signal keeps cutting out...
Learn to solder and cut the price of those cables by 2/3! High-end DIY cables are a very economical solution to paying the mark-up for premium commercial cables even when using the same exact components.
Every cable I've ever owned broke at the jack somewhere. Usually from being stepped on. If you break tip you are done. I do think the Nuetrik connectors make a difference but these get worn just anything.
I do have some Planet Waves (now Diddario) that have soldered jacks that you can easily clip and reattach but the tips wear out on those as well.
I just keep a box of quarter inch jacks and a soldering gun handy.
Maybe don't step on your cables and they won't break.
@@ScienceofLoud haha. I wish. Between poor lighting, being rushed and mild inebriation there's little hope for that.
So much eloquent wisdom coming out of this beautiful man. Thank you for sharing, sensei.
I used to just buy whatever cables I could get, usually vox or fender ones, ended up breaking within about 6 months or so. one of my bandmates that worked at a studio told me to look for van damme cables with neutrik heads, so I just found a cable builder online that made guitar cables of that spec and shelled out about the same price I'd paid for a fender cable.. that was in early 2018 and they're still going strong *touch wood*. good to have the gold neutrik heads explained and what the advantages are.
Cables. Always boring. Always necessary. Definitely a sleeper subject, with lots of superstition.
Hello can you make a video of power conditioning/line conditioner/surge protector or anything related to dirty power?
10:20 agreed. My pedalboard has like $300 worth of cable/connectors for that very reason. Super high quality connectors and cable so that I don't have to deal with it. I switched to wireless for instrument cable cause I don't like to sit still.
i love music and and i Love science its the constant battle for passion in my world and now there is this channel (that i've been watching for a year now) but still I LOVE THIS CHANNEL MORE SCIENCE AND GUITARS
You're a great educator. Thanks!
I just stumbled across your channel coz a student asked me if it's worth buying a Donner guitar to start on. Found this vid after. Could listen to you ramble about physics, chemistry and music all day. Do you have a cable wrapping video?! I'd love to share that with my students
3/2023: Good Day. I meant to mention this previously, but, Love your Dinosaurs. Quality and Attention to Detail account for everything. I do buy good quality cables, for the reasons that you mention. Thank You once again for this fine tutorial. I really enjoy them and learn from them. Best Regards
So the trick is to buy the best quality cables you can find NOT advertised as OFC. They are likely to be the best value for money. BTW OFC cables do have better signal transfer (at frequencies ABOVE about 100kHz). Even a dog couldn't tell the difference.
Hey Colin. I I'm a bit sceptical about deoxit degreasers, but if you haven't already you should definitely check out stuff like Servisol ipa170, SAS10 and WD40 fast drying contact cleaner, they're just fantastic!
They clean out electrical stuff (and can even clean motherboards sometimes) without damaging anything.
To give an example, I literally brought a few unusable pieces of outboard gear back to life with the WD40 version. The pots basically didn't work with all the dust and grim built up inside them, but I sprayed it right into the pots (behind the face plate) while turning them until the crackling was gone, and they're now back on the rack in a commercial studio and work perfectly.
I'm an electrician and I've handled miles upon miles of copper wire in varying gauges. The amount of it that's OFC...0%
The only thing I believe, is material and build quality.
Using my knowledge of automotive electrical systems, I'm calling bullshit on oxygen free copper. It would be cheaper to use larger cables.
If you have a size 00 AWG (American Wire Gage) cable, it's going to conduct electricity better than say 14 AWG.
Larger diameter=Lower resistance.
What are the voltages and amperes measurements coming out of passive pickups? Probably a hell of a lot lower than what your standard 1/4" guitar cables can really handle.
Electricity travels at 9/10 speed of light (which is 186,000 miles per second) and every car in every country has more electrical signals traveling through it than you can shake a stick at. I guarantee you, car manufacturers are all using the cheapest shit they can find when they're building their wiring harnesses.
I'm no expert but, I would imagine that shit like Supplemental Restraint System (SRS Airbag) wiring is just a little bit more important than musical clarity or perfectly transmitting righteous riffs from pickups to amps.
When cable companies claim that this cable or that cable transmits your signal better than their competition, I think back to Automotive mechanic school, and I start calling bullshit on these false advertising motherfuckers.
Besides, how the hell do I know that that cable is really oxygen free? I can't exactly test it out to see how much oxygen is in the copper inside the cable. What am I supposed to do, cut it open to find out? That won't work.
Quality of materials? Most likely true because that's easy for somebody with too much time on their hands to go and test. I'll believe it.
Better build quality? You can see it in this video. Obviously, I'll believe this, too.
But, transmit your tone better? BULLSHIT! Copper is copper and any company can hire any electronics nerd and hire any metallurgist and pay them to put their heads together and find the best material or alloy for making cables.
Really nice video! I live by the principle to buy good quality once rather than cheap stuff several times. Our world suffers greatly from cheap low quality products thrown out in the millions to maximize company money. Love the message, keep it up mate!
How much gain/distortion is too much? I use a Mesa Boogie with an OD but I feel like after listening to other peoples tone that they're a lot more cleaner than me. Howdy from Texas!