Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsCables are the lifeblood of your tone - these don't compromise
Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2013
I should begin by mentioning that I am a bit of a cable snob. My rig whether for recording or playing out is all mogami gold cables through and through. Choosing to go with Mogami has been expensive, but at least I don't have to worry about my cables being an issue. Recently I've decided to incorporate an effects loop into my live rig rather than just do the old fashioned guitar-pedals-amp approach. The idea of shelling out $120 or so on 2 long enough Mogami cables turned me off to the idea, $120 would buy me a darn good pedal rather than some boring cables.
Fortunately I came across these. I just bought the one to see how good they are, if it ended up being a big compromise from Mogami Golds I would just keep it as a living room guitar cable or give it away to someone who isn't a cable snob. Turns out these are excellent cables and I'm buying another to make the loop.
I A/B'd this 20' cable with a Mogami Gold 18'. The difference was very subtle, with the Planet Waves having a more poppy high end with slightly scooped mids and the Mogami's having a more flat and neutral EQ. Again the difference wasn't much at all, but I would say on the whole that the Mogami's are more transparent. For live guitar though, I actually would prefer the more excited high end from the Planet Waves so they really work for me. I may not use them for recording as I don't like to have any sound coloration that I don't explicitly plan on having.
Regarding noise, both cables seemed equal here, which is to say that they do not pick up interference and add noise to your signal. A definite must have feature for me. The tip locking aspect of the planet waves also works very well. I had bought a planet waves cable about 5 years ago that had a feature like this but instead it just ended up getting really stuck inside guitar jacks. I'm glad they fixed this. These cables also don't have a serious tendency of getting knotted up as they have a bit of a stiffness to them, although not too much so as to be too rigid and heavy. I can't speak for long term use quality as I just got one, but they seem very well built.
Overall I would recommend these to anyone, whether they are a discerning pro with lots of funds or a starting musician on a budget. I especially would recommend these to a starting player since usually the cheap cables you buy to spend more on other stuff end up choking your sound to a significant degree. Also these are made in America - that's why I was inclined to give them a shot even though they didn't say mogami on them. Very glad I did. If only they sold pedal patch cables like these, I might end up switching to Planet Waves entirely for live and keeping my expensive Mogamis for recording work only.
