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My recollection is that they were popular in the 60s (eg, Hendrix at Woodstock), not so much now. Also widely used for telephones (which were also more popular in the 1960s). In the back of my head I seem to recall objections that they are not hifi enough, but guitars and basses are not hifis (ie, would they roll off a frequency that a guitar player would care about?). Are they less dependable?
I have been using one lately just for the convenience of it. Easy to stow away, less likely to get tripped over or stepped on.
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06-24-2018 09:16 AM
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I have some coiled cords in case I catch a gig where I need to play into a wah wah and a Marshall stack.
I am not sure straight cords would yield a faithful Hendrix tone with that setup.
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I have the one my father was using in the '70s.
Made out of a former Canadian Military Forces communication cable and it is quite big and heavy.
I swapped the old Electro Harmonix connectors for Neutric ones and used it quite intensively in the late '80s early '90s.
Nowadays I keep it as a memorabilia more than anything because it is far too bulky and I got a Mogami Gold
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I won a free coiled cable a couple of years ago in a giveaway from a now defunct guitar shop.
It's a pretty gourmet cable -- as I recall they cost over $60 at the time. I would never have bought it myself, but having used it some, I do think it has a certain mojo. I know that's not exactly scientific, but I already threw away the cable's packaging explaining all of the coolness . . .
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I got mine on a MF "stupid deal," so it was cheap but decent quality. It was "fender vintage" or something like that, so that is the marketing angle. But it is also easy to use with no obvious downside, so I was curious why they have gone out of favor.
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Divine Noise takes them seriously.
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The problem with coiled guitar cables, especially the cheap ones, is that they have unmercifully high capacitance. If you use a high capacitance cable, it's the same as slapping a tone-control capacitor across the guitar's output. The result is, you lose a lot of highs. I've tried a few more expensive coiled cables and they have the same problem - the capacitance is too high. And another problem is the length of the cable. If a coiled cable is 10 feet long coiled up, it's probably well over 20 feet stretched out. And the longer cable, the more capacitance.
I won't use ANY high capacitance cable - most cheap ones and even some "brand name" ones, just because they lose the highs and muffle the guitar tone too much.
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Here's the one I have
Retro Coil – Lava Cable, LLC
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I have a couple of coil cords that I used precisely for their capacitance. I favor a warm, sustaining tone and some amps could use a little high-end roll-off. They also tend to snag less and are easy to store. I also favor lengthy cloth-covered cheapos for the same reasons. Their unusual appearance also makes them less likely to mysteriously disappear after a gig.
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In the 60's and early 70's, coiled cable was all I ever saw. I think SRV insisted on using them because of the 'sound' of the cable.
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Loved the old Whirlwind Cobra coiled cables.
They weighed a ton, and pulled so much on the stamped Switchcraft right-angle plug that it tended to develop an intermittent ground failure.
Good times.
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I am sure it is a fine cable. But you need to love when a product lacks actual data on something (like capacitance) yet claims perfection in this exact regard.
Originally Posted by Longways to Go
But “made in the USA”!!!! So must be great right?
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Probably a perfectly fine cable, but what a pantload in the description of its properties.
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If you don't like losing highs due to cable capacitance, don't use cables. Wireless technology has come a long way, and I've stopped using cables, except for very short ones to connect the wireless receiver to the amp. I think wireless is wonderful.
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Hey, what can I say? It was a freebie Originally Posted by ptchristopher3
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I bought a somewhat expensive coiled cable for the convenience of not tripping on a straight cord hanging off of my guitar and being stepped on! It made my Fender BF amp sound like my old Gretsch amp - all mids! Now I did like the tone of my 1961 Gretcsh amp, all middy and snarly with an early breakup, but that's all I got from it. So, it was unusable for me, and sold.
The coil cord I got gives me that Gretsch/Valco/Supro tone with the reliability and versatility of my Fender amp. Look out Jimmy Page!
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Not since about 1972......
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One of Berstein's musical scores is written for "Electrical Guitar." I would definitely use a coiled cord on that part to feel the right mojo.
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Yes definitely if it works for you that is great. Originally Posted by Longways to Go
Hey, what can I say? It was a freebie
Just was funny to read the absurd info-free claims.
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"Back in the day" I used to use the Whirlwind cable that was half straight ( I plugged that end into the amp) and half coiled. Not sure what it did to the tone, but my guitar sounded good and it was so cool. I still play in rock bands and move around a lot...kinda wish I still had one.
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Gilpy: Lava Cable makes one of those. Pricey, but......if that's what you need, it's there.
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There are different viewpoints about them. They produce a more midrange-y sound. Here's Bill Lawrence's take on this:
High-capacitance cables shift the resonance towards the lower frequencies which dramatically alters tone. For example, Jimi Hendrix used a coiled cord with 3,000 picofarads (.003 microfarads), shifting the resonance below 2,000 Hertz on his Strats. This was the secret of Jimi's tone. Shifting the resonance frequency at 2,000 Hertz has a similar effect to a midrange boost. However, when he recorded and needed a typical Strat sound for some tracks, Jimi switched to a short, low-capacitance cable.
From: Bill Lawrence WebsiteLast edited by wildschwein; 06-27-2018 at 09:51 AM.
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Mine was stuffed in the back of my Super Reverb when I got it. I keep it around as a retro wall hanger.
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Wow, what a flashback! Haven't used coiled cables, Vox Distortion Booster or Arbiter Fuzz Face since the 70s . . . but still playing my 68 Les Paul.
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Yeah, that's the thing every cable is a part of the tonal equation. Some are more transparent than others, others provide more coloration, usually because of the capacitance. Originally Posted by citizenk74
I've been told the capacitance and the accompanying HF roll off of a coiled cable is an important part of the Hendrix tone chain, warming up what could be too bright otherwise. That makes sense to me.
That said, I don't use a coiled cable myself.
There was a great shoot out in Guitar Player magazine about 10 years ago. After they tossed every cable that didn't pass their durability/construction quality test, they basically came to the conclusion that there was no best cable, only about 10 that they particularly liked. Each one had different qualities, and was suggested for different occasions, but they all had in a common of feeling of being fun to play. As unscientific as it was, it totally makes sense to me.
I ended up using a George L's .255 cable for most situations since it was very clear, but I also picked up the Spectraflex Fatso flex for it's quality of fattening up tone, for occasions where I'm not getting enough bass (i.e. outdoors, etc.).
I've never needed the kind of HF roll off from a coiled cable, but I you know I had a friend growing up with a blonde wood 60's strat reissue that was unpleasantly bright and we never knew what to do with it. A coiled cable might have made it usable.
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Electrically, I think the only meaningful difference in quality cable is due to capacitance. Capacitance doesn’t only roll off highs but can interact with pickup impedance in more complex ways. But if you like the result, high capacitance cable is fine.
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