Instrument vs Speaker Cables: What's The Difference?
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- Опубликовано: 18 окт 2024
- Instrument and Speaker cables may look the same, but they couldn't be more different. They are devices specifically designed for different purposes and getting the two mixed up can be dangerous for your equipment.
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Alternate title: How to make a new guitarist immediately paranoid!
I had my brand new Blackstar HT1RH MKII conected to the speaker with an instrument cable 😫
@@Estuardino71 fuck
@@Estuardino71 What potential risks are there doing that?
@@leahrosesounds no risks (I’m sure) but it just affects ur tone when I started using the speaker cable I heard frequencies with my amp I’ve never heard lol it’s a good switch but don’t trip if u can’t do it right away :)
I am having this issue. I just got a joyo head with a hb 212 vintage and ive b3een told that the cable that said it was for speakers was instrument. Having alot of buzz. Hoping speaker cable will fix my problem
This video should be shown to Guitar Center employees globally.
Scottish Accent: Do I need one?
Scottish Accent: I've got one but where should I put it on my pedal board?
I definetely need it
Only if you want to be haird.
If you want to have a foreign accent just move somewhere and learn the language, I never hear the end of how cute it sounds when I speak french in france lol.
If you're mad about irn bru, then yes a scottish accent is important.
Haha good call. My HT40 was saved by the store guy who sold me my loadbox. I was ready to pay when he asked not so innocently "you have a speaker cable right? -a what now? -ok no you don't." And he explained. I was absolutely ready to plug that thing with an intrument cable. I like it when store people activate their noob detector to actually prevent bad things to happen (instead of trying to sell them the whole gadget department).
Colin, thank you for putting out useful and straight to the point content. CSGuitars is one of the only channels where I don't have to watch 15 minuts of useless filler to get an educated anwser. keepin' it loud!
Joseph Clay hey hey guys Marty music!
I once grabbed a long lead from someone's bag at the side of the stage so I could move around a bit on stage at the gig we were about to do. Went on stage, plugged in my guitar and proceeded to howl and feedback my way through the entire set, much to the joy of the punks thrashing about in front of me.
After, the PA guy took me to one side and 'had a word'. Me, unable now to hear anything, got him to show me what he was so upset about. I had used a 30 foot unshielded, 2 core speaker cable for my guitar to amp cable. I probably could have played that whole gig without touching the strings by just running about on stage..... The next day I blew a chunk of my student grant on a set of KLOTZ cables which I still have nearly 40 years on and they still work :)
"Instrument cables can damage your speakers and amplifer"
*Checks 5150iii.... Shuts down computer instantly to Guitar Center*
god bless u CSG
Exactly what I was looking for. I got a speaker cable and I was worried because it is not shielded. But now I feel better knowing that shielding in speaker cable is unnecessary. Thanks a lot!
for many years, ive been using instrument cables for everything, guitars, amps, cabs. time to hit the shop for speaker cables. great explanation video and keep it short. thanks
Videos like this are why I'm subbed to this channel. It's the little things, man.
Better go buy some new cables this weekend! Thanks for knowledge.
That explains the costant hum!!! The more you know...
I love this channel because its like only channel that you can find science and music within the same topic on the same video! I love it!!
Sounds so simple, but believe it or not I was once in a guitar shop looking to buy a speaker cable, I explained that it was to connect my head to my cab. The shop manager tried to sell me an instrument cable, claiming it was the same thing. I explained that it wasn't, and asked what did they give someone who bought a marshall stack (There was one right next to where we were having the conversation). He said "One of these" holding up an instrument cable. Always be on watch.
Thank you. I just got my first head/cab set-up, and thanks to this I will avoid using instrument cable to connect the head and cab. Cheers!
And that is why my band and I always label and keep our cables separate from one another!
Glad I searched this!!! Excellent Video!!! THX!!!
Simple, cold hard facts & explanation with no technical jargon that only causes confusion to some, especially me lol, FIRST CLASS!!! I rate this BEST EXPLANATION VIDEO!! with no fancy rubbish
Wow, over 15 years in and although I’ve used the right cables, mostly, I’ve never known why it mattered. Nicely delivered info!
Information that may seem basic to us old guys, but extremely important to go over for those new to the game. Cool video! Now for a quick story. One time at a gig, I had left my speaker cables for my two 4x12 cabs at home. With nowhere open to buy new speaker cables, I made my own. The club we were playing had some old lamps in their storage in the back room. I cut the electrical cords off, stripped the ends and used some clamp on 1/4 inch connectors I had in my trusty repair kit and made two 4 ft. Cables!! I used them for a few shows and it sounded great actually!
Oh my god I can't tell you how many times I've heard in music stores ''UGG I'm using guitar cable for my cab and head, you won't have any problems, I've used guitar cable for years'' -.-
thanks Colin... big two-finger salute to you. your explanation and time to explain it was just fantastic. it's almost common sense the difference between instrument and speaker cable but you broke it all down and took the time to do it... thanks again!
How do I tell the difference without opening them up then? Like, if there is little to no outside indicators, labels, that kind of thing.
You can't.
Any decent cable will be well marked on the outer sleeve to let you know what is inside.
If you come across a cable with no outside markings to determine its purpose, you will have to open it up to find out.
CSGuitars could a multimeter reading tell some info?
Just do open them up. Shouldn't be a problem to unscrew the cover of the plug, and screw it on again, you won't damage anything and have your info in a second.
Of course, ok. Thanks
Will Ehrendreich cables care usually marked, instrument or speaker right on the jacket. Many cables have shrink tube over the housing.
love your channel, i learn something new every video. keep it up, nobody else i've found actually gets into WHY and HOW things work differently.
I have been using an interment cable for the past couple year and holy crap my amp sounds SOOOOOOOO much better now! Thanks!
Direct & straight to the point. Thanks
As you already made an intrument/patch cable tutorial, can you make a SPEAKER cable tutorial?
Everything I need to know, and well delivered! Cheers
*i have been using an instrument cable from my amp to speaker for the past year*
Either you're using a solid state amp, a low output valve amp or a low power amp in general. Instrument cables are far too thin to carry the amperage from a high powered valve amp to the speakers. This means those cables get hot, the internal separation of the leads is made up of plastics with a very low melting point. If they melt, a short results and your amp will be damaged. This is not at all the same as commercial audio amps for say a home stereo which have high impedance/low voltage/amperage outputs to the speakers generally passed through a transformer. Another complication is the impedance of the cables, speakers and output transformers in your amp. 4/8/16 ohms are the norms for most valve amps. Improper cables effects the ohms ratings (impedance) which results in signal loss and heat.
Robert King im using a micro dark at low volume so yes
Even at full volume the micro dark won't be enough to fry the cable unless it's really cheap.
Me too
Same here, I have a Peavy 5150 II and luckily I watched this before starting to record. While practicing I haven't really cranked it which probably saved some things. :D
You've come a long way man. Be proud!
Brilliant. Always known this, and still surprised walking into electronic stores that sell both speaker and instrument cables, asking for an instrument cable and being handed a speaker cable and being told "they are the same thing".
Thanks for your detailed explanation!
Awesome info and very helpful .
Thanks! This was a really nice video
I'm American so I have no idea what you're saying, but you sound like you really know what you're talking about. Great video!
thank goodness I saw this! I will go an buy an speaker cable ASAP as I have just ordered my first amp head and speaker cab.
I bought a used set of Yamaha DTX electronic drums with a powered speaker. Speaker sounded very ordinary so I checked the cable and found it to be an instrument cable. Made a new one from an extension lead by cutting off the plugs and earth wire and fitted quality jacks and bingo! Big improvement.
Super straight forward & very helpful!
incredibly helpful Colin, thanks so much
what AWG does speaker cable need to be? would 20 AWG be enough for a 50W amp ?
I remember back when i had my first guitar cab and used an instrument cable, noise gate couldn't silence it and nearly got a jolt when i touched the cables input jack grip and felt my hand fly back
Very clear & precise thanks for the great explanation.
Holy Crap. I've been using short guitar cables to connect my two speaker cabinets for quite some time. I mean it sounds fine, but i think i'm gonna change them now. Thanks for the video.
I am digging your channel more and more lately. I personally feel this is an issue that does not receive enough attention. Cheers !
really cool, I really like learning these cool elements about instruments, gear and just the electrical work you do on this Channel.
Like always, very well explained.
Finally, some good advice... To those asking, a speaker cable is a much heavier gauge cable than an instrument cable. While the connectors are identical, the cables are not and frankly impossible to confuse due to the girth of the speaker cable itself. Unlike your home audio cables which might be simple 16/20/24 gauge wire, amplifier speaker cables are at minimum 16 gauge which is still far too thin for most valve amplifiers.
For those of us who have accumulated a stash of varied cable over time...
From the outside it can often be difficult to determine whether a particular cable is a speaker cable or a guitar/instrument cable. Once I know for sure I then attach a zip-tie near the jacks of all my speaker cables. Now there is no more confusion and I can quickly grab the appropriate cable type with no confusion.
@CSGuitars I have to correct a bit of info from your video. The signal coming from the output transformer is a low voltage, high current signal, not high voltage. The high voltage, low current signal coming from the power stage gets changed to be suitable for a speaker, which is all about current to drive the voice coil.
Secondly, the average instrument cable is rated to handle a surprising amount of current. Typically, they can safely dissipate heat for up to 5 amps. A 25 watt amplifier will push up to about 2 amps of current. For anything but the loudest amps, an instrument cable is completely fine.
Otherwise, great presentation. Love your videos.
Colin, thank you so much for all the great videos. Especially those where you break down stuff like this!!
Well, this is very valuable information as I was using regular instrument cables (most precisely guitar pedal cables) to hook the guitar amp head to the cabinet on some of my amps (luckily at very low volumes at home), thanks.
Thank you so much! This is a big help!
Thanks man you saved me a lot of reasons why my guitar pedal was sending somewhat weak signal
Thank you Colin. You are religiously helpful and have been for years. Keep it up big dog
Great video sir! I recall learning this the hard way as a young boy that ruined an expensive amp
moral of the story. play through combo amps
Nah, combos are heavy and less versatile (for recording). Great for practice, though.
Depends what sound you want. Plus you could argue combo's are more versatile for recording as nearly all combo's are open back, which gives you much more mic position options.
Brian Torres still a cable connecting the speaker so no difference
Combo amps are the ones where the speakers are in the same unit as the electronic bit (Idk the word, sorry). Speaker cables are used to connect heads to speaker cabs. In other words, if there are two parts to the amp, it needs a speaker cable, if it's all in one unit, it doesn't.
playingforbritain an amplifier, whether part of a combo or a head is designed to power a load, speaker, regardless of being contained in one housing or not. There will be a cable connecting the amp to the speaker.
I also mark my speaker cables with neon duck tape. Did we both learn that from somewhere that I've long since forgotten or is it just a coincidence?
i used to use a patch cable to connect my tube amp to my cab... this video saved me
Wow, SUCH useful and *valuable* information! After all, they both look like TS cables, and once the box or wrap is removed, I'm not sure I can tell one from the other! Hmmm, come to think about it, how can I tell?
By Odin, I never knew this... Allfather bless you for this information, went earlier and bought this as soon as I saw this video.
Thank you for the informative video. Nice job!
woah, I can't believe no one told me about that before!
Thanks for the video!
This is helpful. I knew the information in essence but didn't know the diagram of what they look like inside.
It really is obnoxious that cable manufacturers make the two types of cable to look and feel identical. I wish there was some sort of color convention or something to distinguish. Until then I'll have to label them myself and make sure none of my band mates touch. haha
very good and useful video. well done.
Good video man very intelligently put.
Great video, and information...Thanks
so let's hope I got this right...
I use the instrument cable from guitar to amp and the speaker cable from amp to cabinet? is that right? :D good vid btw like always. :)
It's a tricky concept, but I think you might have got it.
Hi Colin, at which university did you study Master Physics?
Of course it is, i'm sure Colin mentioned studying physics to get a degree previously in a comment section.
Haha, yeah i'm applying for physics courses too
I studied at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.
Thank you much 🤌🏻
Great video, thanks for the knowledge 🙏🏼
I don’t know if anyone
has already said this, but; assuming that the electrical current level isn’t
high enough to melt the solder in the instrument cable when used as a speaker
cable and the cable is of sufficient length, it will cause noticeable high
frequency roll off. This is what coaxial cables always do but because the “bleeding”
of high frequency to ground is directly related to voltage, the losses are more
noticeable and could sound really “Muddy” at the speaker. The output of an amp can be 30+ VAC. When the
signal levels are at a normal value for instrument cables, say 1-2 volts, the high
freq. roll off for cables under 25 feet will not normally be detectable by ear
but all cables are NOT created equal to say the least. Just my 2 cents.
Super helpful! Cheers.
Thank you for straightening me me out.
Does it matter with a solid state amp? I modded my katana 50watt to have a box where you can unplug the speaker and plug it into a cabinet but I'm using a patch cable to connect the two. Haven't had any issues yet but wondering if I should make a speaker style patch cable instead. I think I will just in case.
I want this channel to grow superlarge!!!
Big Big Help Thank you !!!
Thanks mate
Awesome video. Luckily I just figured this out before I plugged in my 1960s tube amp into a new speaker I bought for it. I would have been pretty sad if I broke everything. Thank you for saving me some serious anger.
great explanation!
GREAT vid! Thanks!
oops.... I'll go unplug my long patch cable that's connecting my amp to my cab then lol good video. cheers
I've been using instrument cables between the amplifier and my bands stage monitors for like two years, I could never figure out why the monitor volume would be fine during a sound check, but as soon as we start playing the monitors would completely disappear. Adding these to the list of shit I need to buy haha
Thanks!
Colin,Random question. What are the panels on the wall behind you? I assume acoustic panels but I’ve had no luck finding that particular style. Thanks in advance for your help and thanks for the videos!
Ohh this was new to me. So what cable should I use out of my Kemper when I plug it into my interface? I'm not using the 600W spekar output for that. I'm currently actually running a instrument cable for that.
Love your videos man!! Keep ip the good work!! Thank you!
Thank you for the info!!!
like I said Colin, you likely spared me damage to my amps and I'm a new sub Curt Pozzi
Thank for the info Colin. Who knows...this can spare me from not getting the most out of my amps (Marshall 100 w dual reverb and EVH lbx 1) and possible damage to either! I'm now a subscriber. Remember ...if it's not Scottish...it's crap!!!
great video man!
So do you use instrument cable from pedal to amp?
Yes, everything connecting your guitar and effects to your amp should be instrument cables.
From what I understand, the fx loop is between the preamp and power phase of the amplifier. Because it isn't taking the full power of the amp, it should be an instrument cable
The short answer is: use instrument cables everywhere EXCEPT from amp to speaker cabinet.
I have two questions
1. I have ran everything ever with instrument cables and everyone I know (incl not one teacher) had also. Nothing went wrong as far as I can tell. I gather it would be better quality if we did the proper way? Because even though I understood your point, common experience suggests otherwise.
2. Most cables have absolutely 000 indication of which type they're. How do sound people (stage hands etc) tell them apart?
Always good info and videos ... right to the point! Question for you: does this apply to jacks already installed on back of combo amps. to connect to external extension cabs.? Will there be any damage to just go ahead and use the "speaker type" to add the extra cab.?
Love your vids, you're my hero!
Great job ... thx !
Hey Colin, Eric here. Got a question for you...
We all know it'll kill your guitar speakers if you play bass through them (the exception is Lemmy of course). But I was wondering if it would hurt a solid state guitar head running into a bass cab if you play bass through it?
Won't be an issue. any decent engineer will make sure that the amp can't blow itself up, either by input protection, or frequency filtering. might not sound as good though.
you can even use a tube guitar head, and a bass cab, fluff has a video where he uses a dual rec and a bass cab for bass, sounded good
If I want to use Cab Sim plugin through USB audio interface, should I still use speaker cable?
Still waiting for it to shred
Would you still need a speaker cable if going from a solid state or digital amp to a speaker cabinet? Or do you only need that higher capacity cable for valve amps?