Electric Guitar Accessories
Electric Guitar Cord Facts
Two things are important in assuring a long cord life and the proper transfer of the guitar’s signal to the amp. First, you need a good cord at the outset, and second, you must properly treat it and maintain it. To get a good cord, you must know what you’re looking for. Basically, you will want something that can clearly transmit your guitar’s signal to the amp. That seems like a simple request, right? But surprisingly, there are many cords that, even when brand new, will not give you a true sound. Why a cord will or won’t give an accurate sound is due to a number of factors related to the construction of the cord and the properties of electricity.
A Brief History of Electric Guitar Cords and Leads
Without your guitar you couldn’t strum a single note. If you’re an electric guitarist you also must have a means of getting the guitar’s sound to the amp; otherwise, nothing that you strum will be heard. Unless you can afford a wireless transmitter to link the guitar with the amp, you will have to do what most electric pickers do – plug in a cord.
If you have been playing electric for any amount of time, you know how important a cord can be to your sound. If you’ve ever forgotten to bring one to a jam session, practice, or gig, you can remember how your wellspring of tricks, technical wizardry, and hot licks had to go untapped (unless another player happened to have a spare cord to lend). It’s hard to believe that a simple length of wire with a plug at each end could be so important, so needed. But it’s a fact of life that electric guitarists must face if they want to convey their music to an audience. The guitarist, the guitar, the strings, pickups, cord, and amp all comprise a system. If any part of the at system is missing, nonfunctional, or otherwise put out of commission, the end product of all your practicing will be nothing.
Almost every guitarist who has played an electric has uttered on at least one occasion, “I’d give anything for a good cord,” as their failing cords caused their amps to crackle, whistle, and pour forth sighs of weird hisses. Everyone has their own set of priorities, and for guitarists one that sits at the top is obtaining dependable equipment. No one can get up onstage and just hope that their gear is going to work. A musician must know that everything will function correctly. Of course there has to be a certain margin that allows fro the unavoidable frustrations – strings that break, PA’s that howl from feedback – but only so much patience can be expected from an audience. It’s part of your job to keep your guitar, amp, and peripheral equipment in good working order. When things break down, your listeners are generally only aware of the end result – flawed music. If things keep going wrong in a performance it makes you look bad, too.
In a guitarist’s setup, one of the most common items
to self-destruct is a cord. It’s no real wonder, either, when you consider
that in a given performance a cord will be yanked upon, twisted, stepped
on by any number of people, and in general exposed to more potential hazards
than you could ever foresee. Such wear and tear on a day-to-day basis
takes its toll: Almost every guitarist has had a cord crackle, act as
a radio antenna, or do absolutely nothing. They’ll curse the cord, or
curse themselves for not having a spare, even though they’re rough on
their gear. Even if you do little playing outside of a few slow shuffles
at home once a month, chances are your cord will eventually give you some
trouble.
The signal put out by a guitar’s pickups is an electrical representation
of the sound being produced by your strings. This electricity is in the
form of low-level alternating current (usually less than one volt) with
a frequency corresponding to that of any note played on the guitar. Your
amp boosts this signal and converts it back into sound. If anything should
happen to the signal on the way from the guitar to the amp, either the
volume or the tone will be impaired.
Try out a cord that is the length that you need. Cords over 20 feet long, no matter how good they are, can start to have a degrading effect on your sound. A bad cord will start to change your guitar’s tone at much shorter distances. If you don’t need a really long cord, don’t buy one. In fact, don’t even bother trying one, because you want a cord that sounds best for what you are actually going to be doing. Also, if you are looking for cords to patch between effects such as fuzztones, phasers, etc., try to use the shortest possible. If, say, your fuzztone is only 10 inches away from your phaser, you don’t need a 12-foot cord. The longer the cord, the greater your chances are of introducing unwanted signals into the system.
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