Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: Antag on June 25, 2008, 12:30:52 AM
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Thought this deserved a thread of its own after we discussed it in a recent (http://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=13155.0) thread.
Ordered a couple of Cleartone cables from Award-Session (http://www.award-session.com/cleartone_cables.html) on Thursday PM. I had emailed asking for the price on some non-standard lengths & they responded within a few hours with a quote. Their site says that they try to ship in 2 business days & sure enough, the cables arrived this morning :)
No fancy packaging to get rid off, just the cables wrapped in a single rubber band in a padded envelope - like they say, the best way to reduce waste is not to create it in the first place.
The cables look tidy, well put together & feel solid. Here's a pic of the 5 cables I ordered: 3 leads with my pedals + another short lead for my rack & a speaker cable. At less than £30 (inc P&P) they are a bargain IMO
(http://s252.photobucket.com/albums/hh23/george204/th_Pedals1.jpg) (http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh23/george204/Pedals1.jpg)
Had a good long play, swapping between the ClearTones, Monsters & Spectraflex cables between my pedals. Just for a laugh I also dugout the cheapo £1-from-the-bargain-bucket patch leads I used to use. There's certainly a noticeable difference with the cheapies - a loss of both clarity & responsiveness - even little short patch leads CAN suck the life out of your tone. But I really cannot percieve ANY drop in sound quality between the ClearTones and the more expensive Monsters/Spectraflexes.
Conclusion? They are nice cables, seriously good value for money & the service from AwardSession is outstanding. I won't be changing all my Spectraflex cables - they are very nice & I like them - but I will definitely buy more ClearTone cables. Being able to order exactly the lengths I want should help me seriously tidy up my rack & recording setup, plus it will be nice not to have any Monster cables :-)
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Yep.
Yesterday I bought another one, 6 meter with a silent angled jack from Vintage and Rare on Denmark street. Sounds and works great. Cost me a little extra to get it from them, but it was an impulse buy since I was in there trying a Stingray allready.
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I think i'm gonna have to invest in a few. My main problem, is would they be tough enough to gig with? If yes, i'l have to get some!
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Ben_W: go for it!
Especially for gigging, I wouldn't use the silent jacks (speaking personally here, I don't have specific information, but a friend had a problem with these and now only uses the traditional jacks). It seems to me that the silent ones only have another bit "to go wrong" so it's better just to use the normal ones, especially when gigging IMO.
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Agreed. Regular jacks are fine, Cleartones have Neutriks. I just use my tuner to mute when I swap guitars.
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Ahh i bought a couple of silent jack cables.... If those cables broke (i have a lifetime warranty) would i be able to switch them for the less expensive normal jack version as opposed to the silent jack version?
Also do silent jacks make any difference to overall sound?
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sounds good... i'll get round to ordering some... eventually...
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Duly added to shopping list.
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Re the silent jacks;
I bought a slew of Clear Tone cables about 18 months or so ago when they were reviewed in Guitar And Bass Magazine. After a few months the 2 I bought with Silent Jacks on 1 end developed issues. I spoke to Award Session (who make the cables) and they said that Neutrik had informed them of a manufacturing issue with some of the early Silent Jacks.
Award Session took the cables back, swapped the Silent jacks for new 1s with no issues and then reimbursed me for postage etc.
I used those cables on over 70 gigs and never had any issues with them, AFTER the jacks had been swapped that is :)
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Re the silent jacks;
I bought a slew of Clear Tone cables about 18 months or so ago when they were reviewed in Guitar And Bass Magazine. After a few months the 2 I bought with Silent Jacks on 1 end developed issues. I spoke to Award Session (who make the cables) and they said that Neutrik had informed them of a manufacturing issue with some of the early Silent Jacks.
Award Session took the cables back, swapped the Silent jacks for new 1s with no issues and then reimbursed me for postage etc.
I used those cables on over 70 gigs and never had any issues with them, AFTER the jacks had been swapped that is :)
That is excellent to know Brow - thank you!!
Roo
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I'm definitely going to have to check these out! Thanks for posting the link Antag, I've been after an angled jack speaker cable since I got my new amp, and they do one! :)
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Re the silent jacks;
I bought a slew of Clear Tone cables about 18 months or so ago when they were reviewed in Guitar And Bass Magazine. After a few months the 2 I bought with Silent Jacks on 1 end developed issues. I spoke to Award Session (who make the cables) and they said that Neutrik had informed them of a manufacturing issue with some of the early Silent Jacks.
Award Session took the cables back, swapped the Silent jacks for new 1s with no issues and then reimbursed me for postage etc.
I used those cables on over 70 gigs and never had any issues with them, AFTER the jacks had been swapped that is :)
Awesome thanks! I didn't mean to buy silent jack leads - i was in a rush to buy some leads and i just picked them out... Kind of a stupid idea as i use on of the silent jack leads to plug my pedal board into the amp which defeats the purpose of the silent jack...
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I just got a batch of these.
They absolutely blew my planet waves out of the water. Much clearer, much less fizzy. The difference is sort of like ew strings Vs 2 month old strings. Very good cables, ridiculous price for the quality.
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I just got a batch of these.
They absolutely blew my planet waves out of the water. Much clearer, much less fizzy. The difference is sort of like ew strings Vs 2 month old strings. Very good cables, ridiculous price for the quality.
Pretty much sums them up.
Am probably going to buy a few short ones to sort my pedals out - My current patch cables are abysmal.
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Small update:
I changed the cables hooking up my EQ in the FX loop of my powerball and of course the inst cable to the guitar to ClearTone
Now, I used to have a 4.5 or so db cut in the 6khz to tame fizz.
No need any more. Took that straight out. All just bright, cutting crunch, like the Metal God intended.
I need a speaker cable from them now.
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Hey guys, I was just wondering how long it took your cables to arrive as I've got a gig on Wednesday and I need a new long cable but I don't want to buy a cr@p cable from a shop when I might be able to get a Cleartone.
Cheers.
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next day form an early afternoon order!
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Excellent, I've just ordered 2 4.5 meters, can't wait to try these.
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I ordered some short cables for the ''practice room'' yesterday at 2pm and they were waiting for me when I got home today which was superb service.
Oh and I totaly agree they blow away the 'ordinary' cables i was using a definate improvement in clarity (Of course the cables aren't adding anything but the ones they replaced were obviously taking away.)
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I ordered some short cables for the ''practice room'' yesterday at 2pm and they were waiting for me when I got home today which was superb service.
Oh and I totaly agree they blow away the 'ordinary' cables i was using a definate improvement in clarity (Of course the cables aren't adding anything but the ones they replaced were obviously taking away.)
Exactly
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I bought some of these after seeing this thread, and they are brilliant quality. I would have been happy to pay £30 for this quality cable - and it only cost £5 odd!
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Check out http://www.lavacable.com/
They supply high end cable with a buyers guide. The guy is very good and is happy to discuss your requirements.
I happen to be using Canare GS6 and this works OK for me.
The other cable that a good one to look at and makes a good difference is from Amp to Speaker one. The Cardas Crosslink is a good all rounder.
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Something that made me laugh, I just ordered a few more cables & at the bottom of the confirmation email it said
Join the debate about ClearTone™ Custom cables!
http://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13252
(i.e. the pre-forum upgrade link to this topic :))
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Just ordered a 4.5 metre, right angle to straight cable, with silent connectors
Outstanding service!
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Something that made me laugh, I just ordered a few more cables & at the bottom of the confirmation email it said
Join the debate about ClearTone™ Custom cables!
http://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13252
(i.e. the pre-forum upgrade link to this topic :))
Haha!
That's ace!
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Good one. We are being watched :o
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:lol:
I also like: -
"SILENT Jack Plugs
The new SILENT jacks AUTOMATICALLY prevent those horrible squeals and
farting noises when you unplug a lead from an instrument, without first
unplugging at the amp end. Brilliant! Your audience will love you for buying
these... so will your guitar amps speakers!"
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Something that made me laugh, I just ordered a few more cables & at the bottom of the confirmation email it said
Join the debate about ClearTone™ Custom cables!
http://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13252
(i.e. the pre-forum upgrade link to this topic :))
That may have been my fault - I told them I heard about them here, and the main guy (ClearTone-Tim, as he shall be known, but I think hes called Stewart), said he popped in and had a look, but thought that it would be inapropriate to join the discussion. So I guess he just invited people to join it. Seems reasonable enough to me (good for BK and good for them). Not plugging - just pointing to other users talking about them in an unbiased environment.
There isnt much of a debate, though - everyone seems to love them :lol:
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Have just jumped on the band wagon by ordering a few of these... We will see!
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yeah, i saw that in the email too (though the link didn't seem to work for me, just took me to the BKP forum homepage... :? ).
Anyway, I got round to ordering some last night too, finally. :lol:
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i liked their speaker cable the best. good product, good tip :)
they are reasonably priced, my feeling is those other high quality cables are rather over-priced. i'll get more.
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my feeling is those other high quality cables are rather over-priced. i'll get more.
Yeah, I think there's a lot of snake-oil salesmanship in the cable market. As others have pointed out, cables don't add to your sound, but theoretically the good ones take less away. IMO Cleartones take just as little away as any other premium brand - or little enough that there's no discernable difference.
Almost as importantly, the sturdy construction & quality components give me confidence that they will last a while.
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I'm gonna be getting a speaker cable next, is there a bigger difference than the guitar cables or is it quite similar?
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I'm gonna be getting a speaker cable next, is there a bigger difference than the guitar cables or is it quite similar?
It's less noticeable than a guitar cable. Still worth doing though, for the top spec jacks and peace of mind.
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I'm gonna be getting a speaker cable next, is there a bigger difference than the guitar cables or is it quite similar?
It's less noticeable than a guitar cable. Still worth doing though, for the top spec jacks and peace of mind.
for me the difference was more, as i had a half decent guitar cable to begin with, and sh!t speaker cable (and I knew it! ;) )
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I'm gonna be getting a speaker cable next, is there a bigger difference than the guitar cables or is it quite similar?
It's less noticeable than a guitar cable. Still worth doing though, for the top spec jacks and peace of mind.
for me the difference was more, as i had a half decent guitar cable to begin with, and sh!t speaker cable (and I knew it! ;) )
Yeah, that would be hard for me to answer as the only speaker cable I had was already very high quality (Spectraflex) - no difference that I can hear, but it's nice to at least have a spare now.
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ah, mine just arrived there right now, will try them later on tonight. Bloody doorbell scared the bejasus out of me (our doorbell sucks; it kinda sounds like (i assume) it would feel if you're being electrocuted). bit like those hand buzzers you can get in practical joke sets.
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Right, I'm going to order a Speaker cable and I want a patch lead but I'm confused as to which I should get.
Should I get the "0M2, Inst, JAM/JAM"?
I think they made a mistake on the key they made:
(http://www.award-session.com/images/2007-web-ud41.jpg)
If you look it says that 0M2 = 200cm But I'm guessing 0M2 is 20cm?
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Yes, it's a typo. 0M2,Inst,JAM/JAM is the small pedal->pedal patch cable. Have a look at the pics of my pedalboard (http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=13624.0) - the cables from Phaser-Flanger, Flange-Chorus & Chorus-Wah are that cable.
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Ah cheers mate, sorted.
Now I'll be running all cleartones, good stuff.
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can't seem to delete this post...
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Should I get the "0M2, Inst, JAM/JAM"?
If you look it says that 0M2 = 200cm But I'm guessing 0M2 is 20cm?
i didn't even notice that when i ordered mine, but yeah, 0M2 is the patch lead (at least, that's what i ordered, and i got a patch cable).
in other news i tried my cables. holy cr@p, that made one heck of a major difference. I was expecting it to sound better, but i thought it might be like a lot of things which are claimed to sound better, where you can hear it ok, but you have to listen out for it. Not so, major improvement. Maybe that just proves i had cack old leads, but i switched all my leads, one by one, to hear the difference, and each made a difference. Even the speaker lead (which was said above to make a subtle difference) sounded sweeter, and tamed the harsh and fizzy highs which my old planet waves one had.
Generally, increased clarity, sweetness, and musicality all round. Especially noticeable with my valve junior- previously at low volumes it was muddy as something pretty muddy. now it's actually verging on sparkly. :lol:
Excellent, can't recommend these enough- with the exception of my old patch lead (which was admittedly cheap cr@p), every lead i replaced was more expensive than those cleartones (some 2-3 times more expensive), and sounded much worse. these absolutely annihilate my old planet waves, horizon and venom cables (i had a mixture).
thanks to everyone who posted in this thread about how good they were (which gave me the push and confidence i needed to order them). :drink:
Anyway, sorry for the long post. I was just shocked at how much of an improvement it made. :) I always had the suspicion that my leads weren't very good, but what put me off replacing them was the thought that "if my current leads cost £20 each and I need to replace them with better, more expensive leads, how much is that going to cost? £300? Maybe they aren't that bad..." :lol:
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Sounds good Dave. I can't believe I absolutely wasted £30 on a planet waves cable just a few months ago :lol:. Oh well, I've learned from my mistakes.
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yeah, i have 3 or 4 of them (though a couple of those were the cheaper £10 ones)... :(
Never again though. At least I've found Cleartones now, which is the main thing. :)
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I'm glad people are getting the same difference I found :D
Really if you think about it, what are you getting.
1. No fancy Marketing just good quality word of mouth
2. Van Damme Cable, widley regarded as the No1 and used throughout the broadcast and music industry for installations and PA/tour work
3. Propper Neutrik jacks
4. Great soldering
When you put it like that there's no way you can go wrong PDT_003 PDT_003
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I'm glad people are getting the same difference I found :D
Really if you think about it, what are you getting.
1. No fancy Marketing just good quality word of mouth
2. Van Damme Cable, widley regarded as the No1 and used throughout the broadcast and music industry for installations and PA/tour work
3. Propper Neutrik jacks
4. Great soldering
When you put it like that there's no way you can go wrong PDT_003 PDT_003
And good service!
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I was surprised at the difference they made to my setup too - again, probably the leads that it replaced weren't very good for a start.
It wouldn't be hard to make these yourself to be honest, if you can get the connectors and cable - but for these prices it isn't worth arsing about like that :P
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I was surprised at the difference they made to my setup too - again, probably the leads that it replaced weren't very good for a start.
It wouldn't be hard to make these yourself to be honest, if you can get the connectors and cable - but for these prices it isn't worth arsing about like that :P
So true..
I have lots of people telling me to make my own - But I don't see why I should bother, with Cleartone being so cheap :D
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Just got a set of guitar and speaker cables today and I cant believe the difference they've made to my sound. Its so much more clearer and defined and the slight fizzyness to the treble has also gone from my powerball.
I was was using planet waves cables before but never again these are absolutely top drawer!
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i ordered a couple more last night to make all my cables cleartone... :D
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i ordered a couple more last night to make all my cables cleartone... :D
Yep!
I got 3 with silent jacks for the guitar end, a couple to hook up my EQ in the FX loop of my PB, a speaker cable, 4 short ones (1.5m) to connect my modellers and JD10 to my Emu, a couple of patches (dont need many, I'm not very effectsy) and a couple of mic cables. I'm all cleartoned up :D
Gives me piece of mind that my entire signal chain isnt getting bottlenecked by cables, since I know these are so good.
I have, as they say, found my brand.
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yeah, i had enough cables to wire up my fx loop and speakers etc., but i had to share cables between my engl and valve junior for guitar -> pedal and pedal -> amp.
i'm pretty sure i've found my brand too. ridiculously better than cables 3 times the price... it's win-win. Only way they could be much better is if they were free.
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yeah, i had enough cables to wire up my fx loop and speakers etc., but i had to share cables between my engl and valve junior for guitar -> pedal and pedal -> amp.
i'm pretty sure i've found my brand too. ridiculously better than cables 3 times the price... it's win-win. Only way they could be much better is if they were free.
I can't agree with that, though - the holistic part of me says that they're cheap enough to be essentially free, considering the time required to make them up and the postage costs.
I'm impressed by how much the cleartone love has escalated! I got recommended to buy them through a mate of our drummer, and I think a couple of people on these forums seconded those recommendations, and now with a few of us extolling the virtues of these cables, it seems that the whole board is using them! Sweet!
Roo
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My speaker cable should be here tomorrow, I'll report back with the difference, can't wait.
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+1 to all that. Got me a full set including patch leads and speaker cables. Order placed at 9am and the full set delivered to Northern Ireland by 11am next day. Fantastic service.
Sound is great - noticably better than Planet Waves - although I previously had a couple of cheapo patch leads in the loop.
I'll be giging them on Friday night at the Ivy Bar, Newtownards (shameless plug!!)
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I can't agree with that, though - the holistic part of me says that they're cheap enough to be essentially free, considering the time required to make them up and the postage costs.
I'm impressed by how much the cleartone love has escalated! I got recommended to buy them through a mate of our drummer, and I think a couple of people on these forums seconded those recommendations, and now with a few of us extolling the virtues of these cables, it seems that the whole board is using them! Sweet!
Roo
you know what i mean. i mean they couldn't be any better unless something impossible happened. I guess they might be better if, when you clicked the order, they instantly teleported into your hand... :lol:
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I can't agree with that, though - the holistic part of me says that they're cheap enough to be essentially free, considering the time required to make them up and the postage costs.
I'm impressed by how much the cleartone love has escalated! I got recommended to buy them through a mate of our drummer, and I think a couple of people on these forums seconded those recommendations, and now with a few of us extolling the virtues of these cables, it seems that the whole board is using them! Sweet!
Roo
you know what i mean. i mean they couldn't be any better unless something impossible happened. I guess they might be better if, when you clicked the order, they instantly teleported into your hand... :lol:
Yeah, I knew what you meant, I was just being a bit of a **** :)
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:lol: :drink:
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I'm getting worried, the cleartones I ordered on friday still aren't here. :cry:
EDIT:
:lol: Just as I made this post the postman knocked on the door with the cables.
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ah, that's ok. i ordered some on sunday night, and they aren't here yet. maybe they'll come tomorrow or monday then. the last ones i ordered took about 4 days too, maybe they're getting busier. :)
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According to my confirmation email they also shut for 2 weeks holidays
'Please note: we will be closed from 01.08.2008 to 18.08.2008 inclusive for annual holidays - no orders will be processed or despatched until 19.08.2008.'
I ordered a few patch leads on Monday and got them Wednesday.
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ah, my second bunch came this morning (haven't tried them yet, but i have no reason to assume that they won't be as kickass as the first set). That was pretty lucky regarding the dates, actually, i mean i could wait two weeks if i had to, but i'd rather not.
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Awesome Dave.
Does this mean your entire rig is Cleartone now?
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According to my confirmation email they also shut for 2 weeks holidays
'Please note: we will be closed from 01.08.2008 to 18.08.2008 inclusive for annual holidays - no orders will be processed or despatched until 19.08.2008.'
I ordered a few patch leads on Monday and got them Wednesday.
That s a real shite. I have a big gig next Saturday and was going to order my cables from them. Wish it had been more prominently advertised and I would have pulled the trigger earlier.
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Awesome Dave.
Does this mean your entire rig is Cleartone now?
yeah, more or less. :)
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Strange, I ordered a 2m cable on Saturday... it came today!
Someone must still be working.
I've got good quality cable, so I can't say it sounds any better but it sounds as good.
Got the silent jack, I'm impressed.
Never used one before, I'll never be without it again.
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never be without it again.
Great arent they. Likewise, I now basically need silent jacks (auto silent ones at that) on the guitar end of all my cables.
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The good thing about the silent jacks.. Is they just work.
Unlike the circuit breaker planet waves - which are a pain in the bloody arse.