Speaker vs. guitar cables

[Craig Walker]

In terms a ordinary Joe can understand, what's the differences in speaker cables vs. guitar cables?

For instances, I know it's bad to use guitar cables on PA speakers, mixing board, etc. Why??

Also, use a speaker cable between a head and cabinet, right? Not a guitar cable? But you use guitar cables between pedals, but once it gets to the head, then you go to speaker cables......

Just give me a generic explaination........thanks so much for feeding the numbskull.

[VaughnC]

Guitar cables are designed to carry very low current and thus tend to have very thin conductors. A guitar cable doesen't work well as a speaker cable because at higher speaker currents they are very lossy and the center conductor can actually melt if pushed hard enough. And, in a guitar cable, the internal resistance can be high enough that the an amp's output stage thinks it's looking into a higher impedence load, which can create other problems. Unlike speaker cables, guitar cables are shielded to prevent outside intereference from getting into your amp. Also, while guitar cables could be used in patching PA gear together, just don't use them for any speaker connections.

Speaker cables are designed to carry the higher current needed to drive a speaker and thus have thicker conductors. Also, they are typically unshielded so they wouldn't work very well as a guitar cord....unless you like lot's of noise.

Hope this helps.....

[John Phillips]

Two fundamentally different types of system.

Guitar cables are 'signal cables' and only have to handle very tiny currents, and must be shielded to prevent noise getting into the system. All the cables between the guitar and the amp, including any between effects and any in the amp's effects loop, need to be this type.

Speaker cables are 'power cables' and need to handle large currents, but don't need shielding.

You can't safely use a guitar cable for a speaker cable, because the fine conductors in this type of cable won't be able to stand the high currents and may simply melt - or damage the insulation and short out. There is also a risk to the amp even if the cable survives - because a shielded cable has quite a lot of internal capacitance, it can interfere with the correct loading of the amp.

You can safely use a speaker cable as guitar cable, but you will get a terrible hum and buzz problem because there is no shielding.

Actually, you can use guitar cables for signal connections to and from a mixing board, but not PA speakers.

This is really a 'historic' problem caused by the same type of connectors being used for both purposes... if they had entirely different plugs, no-one would worry about mixing them up! This is one reason I like to use gray or orange power cable for my speaker cables - you aren't going to mistake them for signal leads or vice versa.


(edit) Rats, Vaughn beat me too it... should have typed less... but I always was too verbose.

[Craig Walker]

How can you identify a guitar vs. speaker cable by looking at it?

Are George L's acceptable b/t a head and cab?? I assume they are guitar cable, and the answer is no.

[John Phillips]

Originally posted by Craig Walker
How can you identify a guitar vs. speaker cable by looking at it?

It can be difficult. Often, speaker cables are actually labelled as such in fine print on the cable itself, but if you really can't tell by looking from the outside, you have two ways: open up the plugs - look for two plastic-insulated wires of the same diameter and parallel to each other for a speaker cable, or an 'inner' plastic-insulated and an 'outer' bare metal (often braided) shield for a guitar cable; or you can connect it between a guitar and an amp... if you get a lot of hum and noise, it's probably a speaker cable, but be careful, because it might simply be a faulty guitar lead.

Don't ever use a suspect or unidentified cable for a speaker connection, because if it fails in use it can cause very major damage to the amp.


No, George Ls are not suitable for speakers.

[VaughnC]

Originally posted by Craig Walker
How can you identify a guitar vs. speaker cable by looking at it?

Are George L's acceptable b/t a head and cab?? I assume they are guitar cable, and the answer is no.

Sometimes you can visually identify each type:

If the plug is the type where you can screw off the rear shell:
1) if it's a guitar cable you will see a braided wire shield soldered to the ground side of the plug and one small wire soldered to the center terminal of the plug.
2)If it's a speaker cable, there will be no braided wire shield but two equal sized wires, one soldered to each terminal.

If the cable itself looks like lamp cord with 2 obvious equal sized conductors, then it's a speaker cable.

If the cable has a round jacket with molded end plugs, there's no way for the average guy to tell which type it is unless you cut one plug off and examine the wire, then replace the plug with a solder type. Of course, if you try it between your guitar & amp and it's noisy, chances are it's a speaker cable....BUT never take a chance with a speaker cable if you are uncertain what type of cable it is because you can cause some expensive amp damage in the process if it's the wrong type.

Also, it's important to note here that speaker wires come in different guages and their guage should be selected based on their length & the amount of amplifier power being applied to them. However, without getting too technical, generally speaking the heavier the guage, the better. Personally, I wouldn't use ANY speaker cable less than 16 guage.

To the best of my knowledge, George L's are designed so you can make short cables to run between effects pedals or PA patching and, being the shielded type, are not intended for speaker connections.

[Craig Walker]

Thank you all, very much !

[bobotwt]

I'm interested in running my head into a hot plate set to load, running from the line out into some delay/reverb effects, then to a Ultra-g cab sim/di box, then to board. I play in churches mostly and they just will not let you run very loud. Can I do this safely? What type cables (speaker or guitar) should I use where?

Also is there a way to run out of the hot plate and into effects, then to speakers? I'm just trying to find a way to add post effects.

Thanks,

Josh

[John Phillips]

You MUST use a speaker cable between the amp and any attenuator. This cable is taking the full power of the amp just the same as if it was going to a speaker.

You should use guitar-type (shielded) cables for the other connections.

If you want to run more speakers from the 'post' effects, you'll need a power amp of some sort - or just any other amp set clean.

[bobotwt]

thanks for the help. I appreciate it.