Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: gwEm on July 23, 2008, 01:36:46 AM
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do they just offer practicality, slightly rolled off highs, and 70s mojo... or are there other advantages to using them?
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The ones I remember were poorly made and didn't last very long.They also used to tangle up . With good quality cable and jacks they should be far better now but the tangling up thing would be irritating.
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They have a longer lead run and the coiling increases the capacitance of the cable.
This cuts high end.
That ca be good or bad, depending on what you want. Not good for clarity, but it was actually quite a big part of hendrixes sound - cutting the high end from a strat (when he just wanted a straight up strat sound, he used a straight cable, with the caveat that with the angle of the bridge pickup, string a righty as lefty adds more lows to the wound string and more highs to the plain).
Personally, I hate em.
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I still have two from the 80's and they seem to out last the good quality cables.
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I just managed to score 2 NOS ones. I gave one to TO, which is the cable he used with the Scumback in his demo
http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=13442.0 (http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=13442.0). They do roll off the top end, but in a very musical way. I also jsut picked up a new Vox coiled cord, which has the newer materials (99.9% OFC, gold plated connectors, etc) and it sounds good, but when you use the original coily cord you can hear the 60's & 70's tones.
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in fact, i was looking at that very vox one last night....
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Go for it, I really like it and will probably get another (I got the red, but the white is calling to me too - this is because in the 70's when I was really playing a lot, I had red and white curly cords!). I got mine at the local music shop for $35, so don't pay more than that unless you want it quickly.
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The curly cord has a buttload of mojo. For TO, I would never use one ... it's far too coloured, heavy, tangles, etc etc.
For 70s style stuff? There is no alternative>
LP with Riff Raff/Stormy Monday + curly cord + Thundertomate TB + Splawn in plexi gear + Scumback = awesome!
Using a more modern cable opens up the high freqs quite a bit, actually, I'd say from 8k and over. So, the curly cord can sound veiled when using it for metal. In the reverse, for my 70s styles stuff, modern cables sound overly harsh.
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The will make your hair go curly. Just look at Brian May.
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I'd love a proper old curly guitar lead, if you decide to sell give me a shout.
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I love curly leads, but I also hate treble.
There's definitely something in that treble roll-off they do that just sounds right to my ears. As a confirmed single-coiler, they're a dashed convenient way to add a little beef to proceedings, whist retaining that single-coil attack.
At practice last week, I had an AC-30 on a curly lead, and a JCM-800 on a straight lead, from a delay (set to zero, strictly using it as a stereo buffer) and it did sound absolutely ungodly.
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my vox lead arrived. i must say i quite like it. obviously, i have no idea how it compares to an old vintage curly lead. but anyway as TO would say its a 'great tone shaping tool' :P :P you really hear the difference when you use it.
also, it looks cool with certain guitars, i got a white one just for the look. as headtheball says it can warm up single coils, and i think it can remove the harshness from certain tones with humbuckers on my 2204. i would consider using it for metal, but not in every situation.
i can see why hendrix and blackmore used one with their old marshall heads.
thanks Phil, for the heads up!!
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If you want less treble... turn down the treble control?? :? :P
I cant tell if I love or hate the look of those curly cables.
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I'm gonna buck the trend and state, for the record, that I HATE curly leads! Always getting in a mess.
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If you want less treble... turn down the treble control?? :? :P
I cant tell if I love or hate the look of those curly cables.
i think the look 'improvement' depends on the style of the guitar, looks great with any sort of fender (IMO etc!)
amp eq controls are usually after preamp distortion has occured... it would be more like using an EQ pedal on the front of your amp (which i also do sometimes, less freqently these days), or rolling your guitar tone control down. it sounds a bit different to the tone control though - its more natural in a way. i dont know if you experimented with your behringer eq as a booster in the front of your amp, maybe you disagree, but i think it gives a really good way to vary the character of your drive sound. post preamp eq adjustments can be difficult/impossible to adjust some things.
considering you use mule/pig-90 les pauls into your laney, i'm not sure how much a curly lead would be a good purchase for you. maybe one day, if you had dual normal p90s. playing around with it, its quite applicable if you dial in a tone you like, but find it too harsh in the treble.
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I might give a curly chord a go; tame the highs on the '800 a bit.
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I am with Mr Bump. I switched to straight leads when they started becoming the norm.The curley ones I used were forever tangling up and the jacks were of poor quality ( at least those that I bought)/. I prefer to keep my tone intact and change it with eq as I see fit...but horses for courses.
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I am with Mr Bump. I switched to straight leads when they started becoming the norm.The curley ones I used were forever tangling up and the jacks were of poor quality ( at least those that I bought)/. I prefer to keep my tone intact and change it with eq as I see fit...but horses for courses.
The difference being that an EQ has (hopefully) a very linear rate of decay at a given frequency. The curly cord is much more complex in that the rate of decay is very nonlinear across the audible frequency band. It has 'holes' which change depending how the cord is laid out, stretched, etc
Yes, the cables are heavy, cheap, and prone to tangle/breakage. But they are also musical in a way that an EQ cannot replicate.
I like using one curly lead somewhere in my cable run ... definitely changes the tone a bit. Whether it is an improvement is up to the player.
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I always felt that they warmed the sound a little in a way that Eq and tone controls can't.
A bit like a clean valve amp has a warmth that most solid state amps can't manage
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Well it is many many years since I had one of those leads and I bow to your superior knowledge.My grouse though was with their tangling and the fact that they lasted a short while. I suppose with decent jacks the latter would be fine but I shall stick with straight cables.
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So. I bought one to try on the basis of this thread - only £20 so no great loss if it turned out to be rubbish. I really like it so far. I've yet to A/B it with my usual monster cable but it sounds fine and, almost as important, looks very cool.
Here's the problem: when I hook it round my guitar strap it looks a little unsightly. I can't use the angled end as I use a Strat as well. Any suggestions?
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... and can you please include a shot of your head? Has your hair gone curly?
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I am with Mr Bump. I switched to straight leads when they started becoming the norm.The curley ones I used were forever tangling up and the jacks were of poor quality ( at least those that I bought)/. I prefer to keep my tone intact and change it with eq as I see fit...but horses for courses.
The difference being that an EQ has (hopefully) a very linear rate of decay at a given frequency. The curly cord is much more complex in that the rate of decay is very nonlinear across the audible frequency band. It has 'holes' which change depending how the cord is laid out, stretched, etc
Yes, the cables are heavy, cheap, and prone to tangle/breakage. But they are also musical in a way that an EQ cannot replicate.
I like using one curly lead somewhere in my cable run ... definitely changes the tone a bit. Whether it is an improvement is up to the player.
Ben, I love you to bits but I swear sometimes you and Phil make shite up just to see if we'll go out and but it all (and I mean this in the best possible way)
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So. I bought one to try on the basis of this thread - only £20 so no great loss if it turned out to be rubbish. I really like it so far. I've yet to A/B it with my usual monster cable but it sounds fine and, almost as important, looks very cool.
Here's the problem: when I hook it round my guitar strap it looks a little unsightly. I can't use the angled end as I use a Strat as well. Any suggestions?
Pull it a bit tighter after you thread it through and plug it in. It will stretch and look better.
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I've always prefered the look of curly cables but ive always used straight purely because they're easier to get hold of good ones. can anyone reccomend anywhere to get a good quality curly cable. i might have to buy one just for the look!
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The new Vox ones are excellent - they are much heavier duty than the old ones. I am just looking into the Eastwood guitar ones, and as for old ones, I've picked up a few NOS ones on ebay.
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The one in my photo above is the vox reissue. It's a lot heavier and thicker than it looks. I was worried about having it go to a pedal board (in front of me) rather than straight into the amp (behind me) but it's no problem at all and I actually trip over it less than the straight ones I've been using.
I got it from ebay for just under £20. They had black as well but I thought the white one really looked the part.
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i might have to try a vox out then! anyone have any experience with the Fender Koilcord cables?
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The Bullet Cable from Core One is supposed to be a high-end curly cable. http://www.coreoneproduct.com/pages/cableweb/cablehome.html (http://www.coreoneproduct.com/pages/cableweb/cablehome.html)