Huge thanks to the team from Hosa Technologies for custom making us the two 100' instrument cables for this video! If you need great cables, check out: https://hosatech.com/
You’d think a long guitar cable would be a more useful investment than a short one, right? Well, there’s a reason you rarely see guitar cables longer 25 feet. There’s a very important reason for this, and in this video we’ll be using two 100-foot-long cables from Hosa Technology to show you exactly how cable length affects your guitar tone.
As you listen to the sound examples, you’ll hear that as the cable gets longer, there’s less and less top-end on the signal. This “darkening” of your guitar tone happens because of something called capacitance. To keep it simple, think of it this way: The longer the cable, the more capacitance is introduced. The higher the capacitance, the less high-end in your guitar tone.
One way to deal with this loss of high frequencies is to add a buffer pedal to your signal chain. Guitar effect pedals are either buffered bypass or true bypass, so you’ll need one with a buffered bypass to do this. While adding a buffer between two 100-foot cables won’t make it sound like you’re playing with 10-foot cables, it’ll still make a noticeable difference and minimize the signal degradation you’re experiencing.
Now that you’ve heard the differences between cable lengths, try experimenting with your own rig to find that “sweet spot” and achieve the guitar tone you’re chasing.
Enter your email address below to get Ayla’s free 6 lesson plan and start playing songs on the acoustic guitar in no time!