Dumb Q - guitar cable vs speaker cable

[Member 37136]

What exactly is the difference between an instrument cable and a speaker cable? Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[teleman1]

Speaker cables is like lamp cable,two exact size wires .Guitar cable is like coaxial cable,a center copper stranded wire surrounded by meshed aluminum wire.

 

[Member 37136]

Thanks, 1Two. That's what I was wondering.

 

[trap]

And... They are not interchangable! A quick way to ruin a transformer is the use instrument cable to carry a 100 watts of speaker output.

wow! thanks for that tidbit! i wonder how many amps have been ruined.

 

[bosstone]

A big thing to know is that guitar to amp cable is subject to picking up Radio Frequency interference "noise" that is going to be greatly amplified by the amp. Speaker wire conducts signal to the speaker that has already been amplified and not susceptible to RF noise.