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Are 60 bucks monster guitar cables worth it??


Jav

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All cables i have ever played stop working after a certain time, it seems something natural to me, but alot start making noise when you bend the cable part near the jack and start loosing sound quality real fast, by the way i wanted to ask, i have heared the noisses that occurs when you do that can damage the amp or guitar, is any of these true??

 

But my actual question is if these really expensive cables are worth it, will they last as much as 3 2o bucks cables?

I move around alot in rehersal and more live, so i dont treat my cables very well.

 

thanks in advance

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No and no. At least that's been my experience with gigging out with them for the past 4-5 years. They don't last nearly as long (I'm talking about the older and the 'updated' versions), although you can get them replaced for free no questions asked if they break. Also, I don't know about the other series of cables, but the Monster Rock cables have this annoying mid spike to them that I think is like the cable equivalent of a Vintage 30 speaker. That might be your thing but I hated it.

 

YMMV.

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Originally posted by Zakko

I love being able to walk into nearly any music store in North America and being able to get a new one if mine happened to break the night before.


Oh yeah, for free.


Monster cables on tour = priceless.

 

 

Yeah, that's pretty cool. And that nifty trick you showed us about guitar pickups too! LMAO!!!

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thanks for your experience

 

i am from mexico and its not that comfortable to be sending the broken cables and receiving the new onse becasue mexicos mail serivce sucks!!!!

 

SO i will not buy one and thanks!

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Legally, they're douchenozzles. They've slapped lawsuits on anyone using "Monster" in the title. Something like 180 seperate filings as of 2004. We're talking everything from Monster.com to Monster Garage and everything in between. Which is weaksauce.

 

However, the whole free exchange of cables, no questions asked, and more importantly, no receipts required is nice. Other companies have this, but aren't as distributed as Monster.

 

...which is why I have a Monster as my main instrument cable. Last $50 I'll have to spend on it. Some people have complained about the quality, but I've had mine for several years now without incident, so I've got no opinion about that.

 

I dunno if I'd buy a Monster cable again, but the one I have seems to do fine by me.

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I say no. Monster is snake oil. I don't see anything about them that justifies their absurd prices.

 

CBI cables are pretty cheap, and they have 10 year warranties. None of mine have ever screwed up.

 

The thing is, they just don't double the prices on them as they start to get longer. That's how cables SHOULD be. If it's twice as long, it does not cost anywhere near twice as much to make. You can buy really good cable yourself for about $0.30 a foot, and it costs manufactureres even less, yet Monster turns around and charges you several dollars for no reason.

 

Other companies also have lifetime warranties. Almost any time a cable starts to screw up, in all liklihood, you just have to resolder one of the connectors to fix it.

 

And there was also the business where they were threatening to sue and extorting money out of anyone who had the word "monster" in their company's name or any product they sold.

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Hmm, I've been thinking about getting a monster cable or a bullet cable. I think getting the monster would be a good idea to get just because of the warrenty. Eh I dunno, it'll be a week or so before I order.

 

What are the noticable differences between the jazz and rock cables?

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There is a noticeable difference in sound between Monster cables and inexpensive cables such as "Live Wire."

 

I have Monster Jazz and Monster standard speaker cables and they provide a more clean, bright sound which seems to have more harmonics.

 

Now, if Monster didn't offer free replacement, I could not justify the price.

 

I say, either buy cable and ends by the bulk and make your own custom cables, or

just buy what you feel comfortable spending money on.

 

It's really not that hard to make and repair instrument cable.

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I buy cheap cables like Fender and Peavey stuff. If they break, I don't feel bad. I can just get another one, and they don't usually break that often. It's usually just the connections at the input thingies that goes bad. If one of mine gets a broke connection in the middle I snip the thing in half and find which side is good, then I take the bad side and snip it in half to find teh bad piece, leftover I've got some cool different sized cables to use with pedals and stuff like that.:)

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Depends.

 

If you like the look of them and have the cash to spare, go for it.

 

If you're like 99% of the world and care more about the quality to price ratio, here's what you do.

 

Go to Radio Shack, buy a cheap soldering iron and some solder (about $15). Then go to Google and search for instructions on how to solder.

 

Go to Markertek. Browse for "Canare" cables and "Neutrik" connectors.

 

I just built (2) twenty-foot guitar cables, (2) one-foot patch cables, and (1) five-foot speaker cable for a buddy of mine for about $40. They all have top-notch Canare cabling and die-cast Neutrik phone plugs with gold contacts. Plus, if they ever break, 99.99999% of the time it will be in the contact itself and I can resolder it.

 

"Roll your own."

 

As for the rest of Monster's "features"...well, I won't say specifically, but a buddy of mine works as a training/sales rep for them. He has hung out with the founder/president of Monster. It's a full pant load. Do any kind of Google search on audio cables, and you'll find there's no science backing up any of their claims. Time-correct winding, directional cables, all of that is crap. I use good quality cables and connectors to prevent failure and breakdown, and that's all that Monster's got going for it.

 

BTW, bandmates have had Monster cables go down at the same rate as other cables. Took five minutes and a soldering iron to fix. Again, 99.99999% of the time it's at the end of the plug.

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Originally posted by Jarick

Do any kind of Google search on audio cables, and you'll find there's no science backing up any of their claims. Time-correct winding, directional cables, all of that is crap. I use good quality cables and connectors to prevent failure and breakdown, and that's all that Monster's got going for it.


BTW, bandmates have had Monster cables go down at the same rate as other cables. Took five minutes and a soldering iron to fix. Again, 99.99999% of the time it's at the end of the plug.

 

 

Exactly. It's snake oil. They throw around all these fancy terms, but they're still just cables, and considering their prices and business ethics, I would NEVER buy them.

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Cables do make a difference. Its not a matter of opinion, its a simple fact. For home and car audio, Monster is inferior to many other brands but since they are so commonplace they are generally thought of as high end cables. I dont know about the guitar cables, but I bet the same is true. Over-rated and over-priced. The guitar carries mostly mid-range frequencies, so you dont have a lot of the same concerns as you would with normal full range audio interconnets. Still, things like quality of material matter including:

 

Wire material:

high purity(1500 grain) copper

OFHC wire (40 ppm vs 200+ppm)

LGC wire OFHC with longer grains

LC-OFC (less than 70 grains per foot)

FPC (nearly one grain)

FPS (silver of same quality)

 

Number of Conductors and their geometry:

Personally I have never seen multi core guitar cables, but i suppose they might exist.

 

Insulation:

PVC vs Teflon or some dielectric insulator material like polypropylene.

 

Directional:

all cables are directional. It there is an indicator on the wire, thats a bonus.

 

Connections:

Solder is the least desireable. Resistance welding connects are ideal.

If its solder, and most are, it should be a small ammount, not big fat globs. Dont confuse quantity with quality on solder joints. Silver solder is superior to rosin. Also, the "gold plated" is not really all that great. Gold is a nobel metal which actually causes distortion in the signal. Thick silver plating connector would be better quality or very thin plate of gold to cause minimal distortion.

 

I have never owned any good guitar cables. I get the ones with the lifetime warranty and return them when they break. I dont think there has ever really been a market for high quality instrument cables until recently.

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why do people want their cables to colour the sound? doesn't anyone know that adding capacitance = signal loss :confused:

 

 

when it comes to cables the best thing is a FULL braid ground and the usual stranded hot BUT all the wire needs to be coated in nickel! (or whatever metal that is)

 

 

cables break because of crappy plugs (so get switchcraft) and improper strain relief. You need a lot of high quality shrink tube supporting the bend point...you need one shrink tube sleeve over the shaft of the plug that extends down to the cable, then once the plug cover is on is on, you put some tube on that extends from the tube all the way to the cable

 

 

a cable like that will last 20years

 

monster is snake oil...I've looked at an metered those things, and their nothing amazing, they're actually pretty average

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Real quick, at least on Markertek's website, here's the prices for parts:

 

Neutrik 1/4" Black/Gold phone plug - $2.45/ea.

 

Canare 4S6 Speaker cable - $0.24/foot.

 

Canare GS-6 Guitar cable - $0.54/foot.

 

And I think the Nickel-plated plugs are about $2.00 or so.

 

What's that, about $10 for a 20-foot speaker cable and $15 for a 20-foot guitar cable?

 

Yep, that's what I do. And I'll bet all the infrasonic measurements would slaughter Monster. Key word: INFRASONIC.

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Originally posted by typedeaF

Cables do make a difference. Its not a matter of opinion, its a simple fact. For home and car audio, Monster is inferior to many other brands but since they are so commonplace they are generally thought of as high end cables. I dont know about the guitar cables, but I bet the same is true. Over-rated and over-priced. The guitar carries mostly mid-range frequencies, so you dont have a lot of the same concerns as you would with normal full range audio interconnets. Still, things like quality of material matter including:


Wire material:

high purity(1500 grain) copper

OFHC wire (40 ppm vs 200+ppm)

LGC wire OFHC with longer grains

LC-OFC (less than 70 grains per foot)

FPC (nearly one grain)

FPS (silver of same quality)


Number of Conductors and their geometry:

Personally I have never seen multi core guitar cables, but i suppose they might exist.


Insulation:

PVC vs Teflon or some dielectric insulator material like polypropylene.


Directional:

all cables are directional. It there is an indicator on the wire, thats a bonus.


Connections:

Solder is the least desireable. Resistance welding connects are ideal.

If its solder, and most are, it should be a small ammount, not big fat globs. Dont confuse quantity with quality on solder joints. Silver solder is superior to rosin. Also, the "gold plated" is not really all that great. Gold is a nobel metal which actually causes distortion in the signal. Thick silver plating connector would be better quality or
very
thin plate of gold to cause minimal distortion.


I have never owned any good guitar cables. I get the ones with the lifetime warranty and return them when they break. I dont think there has ever really been a market for high quality instrument cables until recently.

 

 

Bah, just play yer damn guitar, and stop getting so caught up in numbers:)

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