Mogami Gold Guitar Cable?

[Josh O]

I need a new guitar cable (from guitar to first pedal), my setup is full of Lava ELC cables and they are very good for what I need and the obvious answer would be to go back to Lava Man and order another one or maybe pop for the Lava Soar. But I'm having a "I want to walk into a store today and buy something" day. I've read up on Lava's site that the Mogami sits in the midrange of his cable offerings. Any thoughts? My Lava ELC cables right now are used in a four cable setup with my Axe-Fx and also the output of my one effects pedal that is in front of the Axe input.

My gut tells me to just order a new Lava cable but is the Mogami really a downgrade?

[MRCHILL4]

i love my mogami cables. i use canari,monster, and mogami. must be in my head, but to me the mogami is quieter and sounds clearer than the monster cables. it is right on par with the canare cables. the monster is my least favorite. i have not tried lava cables yet.

[78deluxe]

Originally Posted by Josh O

I need a new guitar cable (from guitar to first pedal), my setup is full of Lava ELC cables and they are very good for what I need and the obvious answer would be to go back to Lava Man and order another one or maybe pop for the Lava Soar. But I'm having a "I want to walk into a store today and buy something" day. I've read up on Lava's site that the Mogami sits in the midrange of his cable offerings. Any thoughts? My Lava ELC cables right now are used in a four cable setup with my Axe-Fx and also the output of my one effects pedal that is in front of the Axe input.

My gut tells me to just order a new Lava cable but is the Mogami really a downgrade?

I would order the Soar, fantastic cable for the money. To my ears it is a clear jump up in quality from Mogami and Canare.

Since guitar to 1st pedal is your most important cable, I personally wouldn't want to compromise on it if you have the funds.

[turtleheadblues]

I am sure its a great cable. The Soar is a solid core cable though.

[meterman]

I use Mogami for all my home studio connections, very nice cable in general. I use Lava for my guitar rig but would not hesitate to use Mogami there if I needed to. Pre-made Mogami cables from GC etc are not cheap either though...the Soar looks nice

[78deluxe]

Originally Posted by turtleheadblues

...The Soar is a solid core cable though.

A very flexible solid core cable I might add.

[richpjr]

Originally Posted by Josh O

I need a new guitar cable (from guitar to first pedal), my setup is full of Lava ELC cables and they are very good for what I need and the obvious answer would be to go back to Lava Man and order another one or maybe pop for the Lava Soar. But I'm having a "I want to walk into a store today and buy something" day. I've read up on Lava's site that the Mogami sits in the midrange of his cable offerings. Any thoughts? My Lava ELC cables right now are used in a four cable setup with my Axe-Fx and also the output of my one effects pedal that is in front of the Axe input.

My gut tells me to just order a new Lava cable but is the Mogami really a downgrade?

I don't think so - I'm using Lava patch cables and Mogami Gold to the board and I am quite happy with the sound. But if it will bug you and always leave you wondering, then it's best to just order one...

[jnepo1]

Josh O, w/ you living in Conn., take a ride down to Stratford to Redco and buy some Mogami 2497 cable and build yourself a good cable. Just thought I'd pass that along. The 2497 is the step up from the 2524, I believe that is what is used in the Platinum series Mogami instrument cables. Redco sells them in bulk.

[Josh O]

In contrast to my usual gotta have it now approach, i decided to hold off and will probably order something from Lava. I will say I was surprised to see Mogami Platinum at GC today but $100 for 12ft sobered me right up knowing I could get something like the Lava Soar or Sommer Grindy Cop Beast for somewhat less and longer footage. Plus if I got another Lava ELC, it would be less than Mogami Gold at GC.

jnepo1, thanks for the heads up on Redco, that's in the back of my mind as well although it looks like on their website they only have 2524 and 2319.

[Occam]

I found the Mogami's highly colored but in a good way like how a good tube screamer. You might like the coloring (to me it was pronounced mid's) but I can see many not.

[strings2wood]

Originally Posted by 78deluxe

I would order the Soar, fantastic cable for the money.
Since guitar to 1st pedal is your most important cable, I personally wouldn't want to compromise on it if you have the funds.

I did this based on the ELC's on my board as well as Lava service, communication etc.
I might one day try the Lyric cables, but Mark marketed the Soar as Lava's addition to the high end cable market at a competitve price. So it seemed a good way to go for me. Hope to receive my order very soon.

[78deluxe]

Originally Posted by strings2wood

I did this based on the ELC's on my board as well as Lava service, communication etc.
I might one day try the Lyric cables, but Mark marketed the Soar as Lava's addition to the high end cable market at a competitve price. So it seemed a good way to go for me. Hope to receive my order very soon.

I have a Soar and a Lyric HG of the same length...after I spend more time with the Soar, I will be sure to write a review.

From my experience thus far with the Soar, Mark isn't over-hyping it, the Soar is a high end cable at a very competitive price.

Be sure to report back with your thoughts on the Soar.

[strings2wood]

Originally Posted by 78deluxe

Be sure to report back with your thoughts on the Soar.

Happy to that 78deluxe.

[chervokas]

You should know that the Mogami 2524 is a fairly high capacitance cable, at 39 pF/ft and will likely make your system sound darker than cables which have lower capacitance, of which there are many including many competitively priced vis a vis the Mogami.

The Canare is even higher capacitance and personally I'd stay away from it unless I was looking to try to make a bright system sound darker.

It's a little hard to predict how a cable will sound in a circuit. The most important factor is capacitance. Here's the primary way cable capacitance effects guitar tone with passive pickups: together with the inductance of the pickups and the resistance of the pots, the capcitance of cables forms an oscilating circuit with a resonant peak of a certain width and height at a specific frequency with a sharp roll off of frequencies above the peak. The higher the capacitance, the lower the resonant frequency (the width and height also change).

This is a dyanmic and complex interaction so the effects of changing cable can be hard to predict--impossible to predict without knowing the inductance of the pickups--and changeable as you play different notes or roll back the volume knob. But generally the more capacitance--either because of long cables or higher capacitance cables or both--the darker your system will sound.

There are other factors that may effect the sound of cable--the purity of the copper, the nature of the conductor geometery. And many other things that effect noise--the nature of the shielding, twin ax vs. coax construction. But the most important factor to the "sound" of a cable in a passive guitar circuit is capacitance and its interaction with pickup inductance and pot resistance.

[Brassmaster]

Nothing beats Mogami in terms of durability and as a gigging musician they are the only cable I will ever purchase