stack amp cable question (for guitarists)

kigcatkigcat Posts: 298
edited October 2003 in Musicians and Gearheads
ok here goes ive been playing electric guitar for the last 15/16 years. For 90% of that time ive been playing through a vintage fender combo transistor amp but i have just purchased and am presently waiting awaiting the arrival of a marshall MG100dfxh valvestate 100watt head and a mg4x12 angled cabinet the question i have for you guys out there is this..... Looking at online pdf manual for this amp it says that the head has to be connected to the cab using a "UN SHIELDED" jack plug..... Ive never known of anyone using a groundless cable on a cab will it be ok using a standard jack to jack cable i.e. normal guitar/patch cable or do i really need a special cable that has no ground. in other words is this just marshall trying to get me to spend more money on there products.
I'm not saying stupidity should be a capital offence, but what say we take the safety labels off everything and let nature run it's course?
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • exhaustedexhausted Posts: 6,638
    no.

    use a speaker cable. you're dealing with a much higher voltage and current level. a guitar cable won't cut it.

    the connection between a head and a speaker is the same as between a PA amp and it's speakers.

    you want a speaker cable.

    a 2-3 foot speaker cable isn't going to cost that much.
  • Pacomc79Pacomc79 Posts: 9,404
    speaker cable for the love of pete. Please don't hook it up with a guitar cable your head will blow up.
    My Girlfriend said to me..."How many guitars do you need?" and I replied...."How many pairs of shoes do you need?" She got really quiet.
  • mccreadyisgodmccreadyisgod Bumfuq, MT Posts: 6,395
    My drummer once pulled a nice little trick on me...

    He picked up a monitor wedge for use in our practice space, and needed a speaker cable to connect the monitor to the amp. So he took my speaker cable for my extension cabinet, and wired up his monitor. He then proceeded to plug my amp into my cabinet with a cheap RadioShack coiled instrument (guitar) cable. We practiced later that afternoon. We played for about an hour, went out for a cigarette, then came back into the practice room. I plugged in, turned the amp on, and *white smoke*. It fried the curcuit board in my amp. Literally melted the board through in several places. And it never even blew the fuse! It was the right-amperage fuse and everything.

    I guess I can't hold it against him, though... it was a Fender solid-state screaming heathen that sounded like absolute crap. I went over to tubes soon after, and never turned back.

    Anyways, get something like this:
    http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/sid=031019225658150131025216218149/g=guitar/search/detail/base_id/35558
    The 18-guage 6-footer should work fine. Your local music store will have these cables, too. They might have heavier-guage cables that cost more, but it doesn't hurt anything to have a bigger cable than you need.
    ...and if you don't like it, you can suck on an egg.
  • mccreadyisgodmccreadyisgod Bumfuq, MT Posts: 6,395
    Just found this on Sal Trentino's page about amp care. He's the guy who takes care of all of Pearl Jam's amplifiers, and built Stone and Mike's custom amps for Riot Act and the 2003 tour.

    "Use a thick wired zip cord for speaker hookup. Don`t use thin coaxial guitar cables as speaker wire if possible. This is specially true for bass, where damping factor, tone and watts could be easily lost. However, if your are experiencing radio or T. V. interference, a shielded guitar cable might help out with this problem, as the culprit interfering radio frequency energy could enter your amp through a speaker cable, as well as through the input cables. Additionally, shielded coaxial cables used in the speaker path might cause some amplifiers to break into uncontrollable and dangerous oscillations. Caution is advised here. If the amp doesn't sound right or if it behaves oddly after installation of a shielded coaxial speaker cable, go back to using the zip cord type. " from http://trentino.best.vwh.net/
    ...and if you don't like it, you can suck on an egg.
  • kigcatkigcat Posts: 298
    thanks for your help and advice you guys:) amp turned up today and there was a speaker cable in the box with the cab!!! The guy on the phone at the company i got it from lied to me when he said it wasnt included:) just gave it a quick blast and oh my god im in heaven!!! Got band rehearsal in an hour so its all packed in my car ready to go make some noise;) i aint told anyone in the band about it so i cant wait to see there faces!!! hahaha gotta go raise the roof off our rehearsal place now:)

    yipee!!!
    big ass amp for the kigcat;)
    I'm not saying stupidity should be a capital offence, but what say we take the safety labels off everything and let nature run it's course?
Sign In or Register to comment.