Lava Mini ELC or Evidence Monorail? The definitive thread

[jamison162]

What made you go with the BL? More to the point: can you describe the difference you heard?

Honestly, the difference was so subtle it's really hard to put into words. There was more of an audible difference between the BL & GL than the BL and Monorail. If anything, I would say the mono seemed tighter, or faster in it's response...probably due to the solid center conductor. I wasn't crazy about the solid core when using solderless cable. Plus the BL cable is easier to work with and cheaper.

 

[LavaMan]

Honestly, the difference was so subtle it's really hard to put into words. There was more of an audible difference between the BL & GL than the BL and Monorail. If anything, I would say the mono seemed tighter, or faster in it's response...probably due to the solid center conductor. I wasn't crazy about the solid core when using solderless cable. Plus the BL cable is easier to work with and cheaper.

Just for educational purposes there are NO significant design differences between GL's and BL's cable - they are essentially the same cable: 75 ohm, 7-strand coax....so they are going to sound very, very similar. The only difference at this point is that they are now most likey made by different cable factories and there was just one cable between these two companies 20 years ago or so...

 

[musickbox]

Thanks Mark for the Monorail cables!

 

[Ben C.]

Just for educational purposes there are NO significant design differences between GL's and BL's cable - they are essentially the same cable: 75 ohm, 7-strand coax....so they are going to sound very, very similar. The only difference at this point is that they are now most likey made by different cable factories and there was just one cable between these two companies 20 years ago or so...

So could the tonal difference really be in the plug construction / composition?

 

[jamison162]

So could the tonal difference really be in the plug construction / composition?

Good question, because there is definetely an audible difference...and I'm not talking splitting hairs either. The BL cable is balanced whereas the GL is bright and thin...you can really hear it. Also the chord clarity with the BL is just noticably better, it's excellent, the GL is smeared.

 

[dB]

I'd be surprised if the plug construction itself was the problem...especially since Evidence uses the same plug as GL. I would think that they would have done some research already. The tonal difference may be in the amount of core or ground contact made with the plug during assembly.

But who knows...

 

[dB]

I have some monorail on the way that I'll be trying with all my GL's plugs

 

[livingstone]

This thread died way too soon. I've tried the Monorail (soldered) and I'm now thinking about getting some mini ELC. Has anyone tried/compared these two?

 

[dupedd]

I agree, Livingstone. I'd like to read comparisons between the two as well..

 

[livingstone]

While I hope to do a more complete evaluation for a full-range comparison, a guitarist I often work with, and I, came to this conclusion about the mid-range tone through these two cables. Using my MTD 635 bass, Eden Metro bass amp, and a 12 foot cable of each, we heard a bit more low-mids/growl through the Monorail and more upper-mids through the mini ELC. For the bass tone I like, so far it looks like the Monorail does it better (for a pedalboard) and my guitarist friend is voting for it as well.

 

[Cruz Azul]

Hey guys,

I currently have george l's on my board and love the right angle connectors for space reasons etc although it looks like the lava elc are quite a small plug and can be manouvered pretty easy?

I'm now really considering redoing my board with it after all the talk of improved tone etc.

Should I go for it?

Nick

 

[Sniper-V]

Can anyone say and describe why, which of the mentioned pedal cables is the most transparent and brings you closest to the "plug-straight-in" tone?

 

[coolhand78]

what plugs do you need to solder the monorail cable... I wanna make the switch from george l's...

 

[Dexter.Sinister]

After being a diehard GeoL for over a decade, after many miles on road, many load in and out, failure-free performance (except for cords changed frequently...Elmer's or locktite fixed that as problem), I decided to try monorail last year. I soldered up a board worth and did sisde-by side comparisons with EA monorail and GeoL with duplicated pedals when possible (a few). Also just overall sound of boards. Swapped pedals...etc.

Anyway, not science, just trying to satisfy my curiosity. I decided the monorails won by a bit. I hear a better low mid range response and "sweeter" top (maybe more of the sheen is lost, but that lives in digital hash land for me mostly).

Happy with the swap, and no problems yet. Still like GeoLs, though, and they are much faster to build. Have not tried other solderless cords and have not tried monorail as solderless cord.

DS

 

[gtrtone41]

Would anyone be willing to add to all the info already provided on these cables? I specifically want to know what people's findings have been between the Bill Lawrence cables and the EA Monorail; what about the ELC Mini patch kit? Thanks!

 

[aron]

I have measured the monorail. It has around twice the capacitance of the Bill Lawrence cables. That comes down to: 52pf/foot.

So it cuts off more highs than Bill Lawrence cables for sure per foot. According to this page, it's even higher per foot than most run of the mill cables.

http://terrydownsmusic.com/technotes/guitarcables/guitarcables.htm

The analysis cable I had was around 91pf/foot. So maybe people like to have the highs "rounded off" a bit.

 

[Bloomfield fan]

I own both and use the Lava. The have had a lot of problems with the Evidence cable and the connectors. The few that have worked sound very good, but overall I really like the sound of the Lava and eventually switched all of my cabling to Lava ELC, tweed and coil.

 

[JKoeth]

Use your ears and judge first. I'd like to see what Tony at EA says about the actual capacitance of his cables. His are the most well rounded and clear I have found. The George L's for example had more highs and sounded thin as hell.

 

[eaudio]

Aron I think you are confusing two things:

a) The filtering effects of capacitance on high frequencies and;
b) Changing the resonance peak of the RLC circuit


When you say a higher capacitance cable "rolls off" the higher frequencies relative to a lower capacitance cable, in fact the filtering effects are typically far outside the frequency range produced by a guitar, and often our range of hearing in the lengths used by guitar cable.

The relevant effects of capacitance are dependent on other things than just the cable, and can not be predicted to be the same between various guitars and input circuits.

Picking a cable by looking at the capacitance value is about as relevant to your sound as picking a cable by the color of the cable's jacket, all capacitance values being within a "reasonable" window.

As stated in the article you sourced from Mr. Downs, you can buy a low-capacitance cable to help keep the resonant frequency as high as possible IF that is what you are looking for.

But I would avoid the suggestion that you are moving the brick-wall filtering effects of capacitance into a frequency range relevant to a guitar signal by using a ten foot 91pf/ft cable over a ten foot 21 pf/ft cable.

 

[eaudio]

Oh, and... this discussion is relevant only to a cable out of a guitar with passive pickups.

On a pedal board (or once buffered) the difference in capacitance does nothing to the resonance peak any longer. So deciding between a 2 pf/ft cable and 100 pf/ft cable means ****-all.

Aron I think you are confusing two things:

a) The filtering effects of capacitance on high frequencies and;
b) Changing the resonance peak of the RLC circuit


When you say a higher capacitance cable "rolls off" the higher frequencies relative to a lower capacitance cable, in fact the filtering effects are typically far outside the frequency range produced by a guitar, and often our range of hearing in the lengths used by guitar cable.

The relevant effects of capacitance are dependent on other things than just the cable, and can not be predicted to be the same between various guitars and input circuits.

Picking a cable by looking at the capacitance value is about as relevant to your sound as picking a cable by the color of the cable's jacket, all capacitance values being within a "reasonable" window.

As stated in the article you sourced from Mr. Downs, you can buy a low-capacitance cable to help keep the resonant frequency as high as possible IF that is what you are looking for.

But I would avoid the suggestion that you are moving the brick-wall filtering effects of capacitance into a frequency range relevant to a guitar signal by using a ten foot 91pf/ft cable over a ten foot 21 pf/ft cable.