While shelling out your hard-earned cash for quality guitar cables isn't exactly exciting, spending vastly more on your guitar and gear and getting sub-standard results is downright devastating. Lucky for you, the solution is simple and the results are impressive. What's more, Sweetwater carries a wide selection of some of the best guitar cables and quality instrument cables to choose from.

Good Guitar Cables vs Budget Guitar Cables

If you're asking yourself what the difference is between good guitar cables and budget cables, it's really not a bad question. After all, guitar cables all more or less look the same and do the same job. However, the difference between some of the best guitar cables and their inexpensive counterparts is far more than skin deep.

There are three major differences between budget guitar cables and their high-end cousins. First, there's the wire itself. While most guitar cables are made from 99%+ oxygen-free copper, the construction of the multi-strand wire itself differs greatly.

High-end guitar cables often use varying gauges for the individual copper strands to keep the conductivity solid while allowing the cable to flex without wearing out. There are more than a few proprietary technologies that go into the winding and construction of these cores, but they play a huge role in maintaining the best possible connectivity.

Next you have the connectors themselves. While many people argue about the merits of gold-plated connectors, experts and artists alike testify to the enormous difference this can make. Guitar cables with cheap connectors can pose real limitations on dynamics and frequency response.

This loss of dynamics and high frequencies may also be the result of the kind of unrefined automated soldering found in cheap guitar cables, while premium guitar cables are either soldered by hand or using extremely precise instrument. One way you can almost always spot a cheap guitar cable with questionable connectors (even gold ones) is if it has molded plastic ends. These are mass produced and rarely stand up to any kind of wear.

Guitar Cable Shielding

Speaking of wear, one additional thing you pay for when you invest in quality guitar cables is the shielding. Shielding comes in two parts: the ground wire and the outer insulation. Cheap guitar cables may include patchy ground-wire shielding that doesn't fully cover the inner cable and lets in radio frequency (RF) noise.

Alternatively, the inner shielding that separates the ground shield from the lead may be thin and flimsy. This kind of poor inner insulation is the major culprit for the kind of mechanical handling noise that you can hear when someone steps on or moves your guitar cable. Conversely, the outer shielding may not be dense enough to block out RF or electromagnetic frequencies, effectively turning your budget guitar cable into a noisy radio antenna. We cover all of this and more in our inSync article, What’s the Difference Between Speaker and Guitar Cables?

One of the hallmarks of a cheap guitar cable that's trying to look like a nice one is a thick yet inflexible outer shield that's hard to coil. This tends to indicate low-quality plastics that don't do a wonderful job shielding the wires, plus they're a pain to work with, especially if you move around a lot onstage. Ultimately, what you want is a thick yet supple guitar cable with non-molded ends and gold-plated connectors.

Pro tip: there's a simple rule about cabling that all top performers and engineer follow. It's that you should always use the shortest guitar cables you can get away with. Guitar electronics haven't fundamentally changed in about 60 years, and they still use high-impedance signal that degrades quickly over even relatively short distances, particularly in the upper frequencies. The less distance your signal has to travel, the less dull your tone will be.

Buy the Best Guitar Cables Online

If you have any further questions about buying the right guitar cables to meet your needs, then don't hesitate to get in touch. You Sweetwater Sales Engineer will help you get the right guitar cables for your rig. And if you want to learn more about cables, then be sure to check out our Cable Buying Guide which is loaded with fascinating and useful information.

What are the most popular brands for Guitar / Instrument Cables on Sweetwater.com?

Lava Cable Guitar / Instrument Cables
Gator Guitar / Instrument Cables
Fender Guitar / Instrument Cables
D'Addario Guitar / Instrument Cables
Pro Co Guitar / Instrument Cables

What are the most popular Guitar / Instrument Cables on Sweetwater.com?

Pro Co EG-10 Excellines Straight to Straight Instrument Cable - 10-foot

★★★★½ 69 reviews
$15.99
Mogami Gold Instrument 10 Straight to Straight Instrument Cable - 10 foot

★★★★★ 71 reviews
$67.95
Mogami Gold Instrument 10R Straight to Right Angle Instrument Cable - 10 foot

★★★★★ 55 reviews
$74.95
Ernie Ball P06081 Braided Straight to Right Angle Instrument Cable - 10 foot Black

★★★★½ 14 reviews
$26.99
Mogami Platinum Guitar 12 Straight to Straight Instrument Cable - 12 foot

★★★★★ 31 reviews
$126.95

Why shop Guitar / Instrument Cables at Sweetwater.com?

With a massive selection of Guitar / Instrument Cables, free shipping, a free 2-year warranty, 24/7 access to award-winning support - and more - Sweetwater gives you more than any other retailer! If you have any questions about Guitar / Instrument Cables, make sure to give your personal Sales Engineer a call at (800) 222-4700.