I'm a fan of planet waves for their durability
I'll watch this thread develop though as I will try some clear tones next month
Yes, it is still a great idea to buy a Cleartone cable - as they " do what it says on the tin". I have been swapping back and forth a lot during an extended jam / practice session, and to be fair to both Cleartone and Planet waves, here are my further observations :
The Cleartone cable is incredibly clear - and perhaps the perceived 'stiffness' and hard treble is me hearing the true single coil 'edge' of my Mississipi Queens for the first time. I certainly had to use the neck pickup and tone controls with the Cleartones - to round things out a bit. It may be a case of that old cinematic cliche " you want the truth ? you can't handle the truth ! " . The Cleartones certainly let you hear the vocal quality of adding subtle vibrato to the top strings, especially when applied during a string bend.
The Planet Waves certainly round things off a little bit in the upper registers, making the sound somehow more silky - but perhaps a tad 'blocky'. The strong point is where the bass frequencies fatten and blur a bit, making excursions onto the bass strings sound very warm and fat. In contrast The Cleartones evoke the Bass tone of something like a Fender precision - lean ( perhaps even skinny ) - but you can hear the grind, shimmer - and detail of the notes.
Of course ( whilst not used during this test ) - the Monster 'Jazz' cable is somewhere rounder, sweeter and more muted than the Planet Waves ( despite the Monster 'Jazz' claiming to be a fairly balanced cable in the E.Q).
It all does ( for me ) prove one thing beyond a doubt though, and that is that cables DO make a difference - and as Twinfan mentioned at the outset, it's about getting the right jigsaw pieces / components to make the sound you want. Everything in the signal chain chain counts.
I would be very interested to read what Cleartone / Planet Waves / other cable users feel that they gain or lose from cable to cable - especially around the valid reference point of Cleartones. If this unintentionally hi- jacks T.F's original thread - we can always lift the cable comparisons onto another ?
Well I used planet waves for a couple of years before finding cleartones maybe 6 months ago. Sonically I mainly agree with you, but one mans this is anothers that - where you prefer the warmer lows of the PWs, I call that 'mud', what you call 'silk' I call 'mush' and I massively prefer the clarity, tightness, high end extension available (i.e. that of my gear, closer to how it really sounds, since cables can only remove sound, not add it, and cleartones remove less), and also the seperation and detail that they can convey. Or allow my gear to show. Whatever. They also allow siginificantly less fizz with high gain (I play metal, mostly).
Basically, the things you say you dont like about them are the things I like about them, and the things you like about PWs are the things I dont like about them. *shrug*
