Author Topic: Cleartone cables - thumbs up! (Read 17658 times)

Antag · « **on:** June 25, 2008, 12:30:52 AM »

Thought this deserved a thread of its own after we discussed it in a recent thread.

Ordered a couple of Cleartone cables from Award-Session 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

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 :-)

noodleplugerine · « **Reply #1 on:** June 25, 2008, 01:08:49 AM »

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.

Ben_W · « **Reply #2 on:** June 25, 2008, 12:04:01 PM »

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!

Roobubba · « **Reply #3 on:** June 25, 2008, 12:38:15 PM »

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.

Twinfan · « **Reply #4 on:** June 25, 2008, 12:41:21 PM »

Agreed. Regular jacks are fine, Cleartones have Neutriks. I just use my tuner to mute when I swap guitars.

hhcave · « **Reply #5 on:** June 25, 2008, 01:22:14 PM »

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?

dave_mc · « **Reply #6 on:** June 25, 2008, 02:00:58 PM »

sounds good... i'll get round to ordering some... eventually...

MDV · « **Reply #7 on:** June 25, 2008, 02:42:21 PM »

Duly added to shopping list.

Brow · « **Reply #8 on:** June 25, 2008, 03:28:43 PM »

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 :)

Roobubba · « **Reply #9 on:** June 25, 2008, 04:11:43 PM »

Quote from: Brow

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

Simon D · « **Reply #10 on:** June 25, 2008, 08:10:34 PM »

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! :)

hhcave · « **Reply #11 on:** June 25, 2008, 10:20:37 PM »

Quote from: Brow

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...

MDV · « **Reply #12 on:** July 02, 2008, 06:33:28 PM »

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.

noodleplugerine · « **Reply #13 on:** July 02, 2008, 07:35:06 PM »

Quote from: MDV

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.

MDV · « **Reply #14 on:** July 03, 2008, 11:54:59 AM »

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.