No, you shouldn't, unless you feel like getting fleeced.

Monster is overpriced, no better than any other cable and not as good as some (I'm glad you've had good luck with them, Noodles, but many people I know have said that they NEED that "lifetime warranty"). Further more, the psuedo-science they use to sell their product is a load of crap, and their business practices (re: overdefense of the "trademarks") are reprehensible.

This is just a PSA: Friends don't let friends buy Monster cable.

Let me throw out my own corollary to the popular saying, "You get what you pay for."

"You never get MORE than you pay for, but you can easily get less."

I have bought monster cables. I nuse the Studio 1000's for speaker cable and the Rock performer 500 for the instrument cable. I do not like the instrument cable. It is too sticky on the floor and ends up twisted too easy. Also, my cat chewed through my first, and I bought it in the 90's. It was bad for years, and I did not know I could simply swap it. I just recently swapped it and noticed how greatly the quality had fallen since I bought mine. They are the same price as they were when I bought mine, but the quality was compromised. I wish they just upped the cost and kept the quality. I almost did not want to give up the old and just fix it myself.

I won't pay for monster cables again, but their lifetime deal is nice

Oh and capacitence is not resistence, it the amount it alters/filters the signal. Ohms is resistence. Low capacitence low resistence is the way to go, and I believe George L's are one of the best for that. Monster cables did not fair well in the test I read years ago for capacitence. The Rock cables performed ok, but the studio 1000's was not good.

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Guitars:
1. mid 70's Ventura MIJ Gibson l6-s clone (Pre-lawsuit) in Black with Rosewood FB and EMG 81 BR/ 85 Neck
2. ESP KH2 Neck Thru
3. 2008 Am Std Strat in 3 tone sunburst

I'm with you on the Monsters, but the statement above isn't exactly right either.

The best "layman's" approach to capacitance is to think of it as the "speed" of the cable. High capacitance means the cable tends to soak up signal and wait until it's got a full load to discharge the signal.... low means that it tends to just pass the signal straight through the wire without hesitation.

It DOES change the sound of the signal, but that's a symptom of capacitance, now what it's actually doing.

Hey Chop
So I pick up my Am Deluxe ($1,600.00) one of my less expensive guitars may I add, I power up my Carvin vintage Belair stack ($1,200.00) one of many amps, and I reach for my $16.00 Belkin or one of my other cheap crap cables, cross my fingers, and hope the sound keeps coming out for the whole song. Come on Chop....weather you like Monster or not (and I certainly don't work for Monster) you need to invest in quality cables. pick the brand of your choice, but who invests the kind of cheese that we do into our instruments, amps, pedals, straps, etc and then cheaps out on the one piece that makes the whole rig work? Why don't you just use that "high quality" cable that Fender gives you with the guitar and not have to spend anything on cables. Don't be penny wise and dollar foolish. If you buy "cheap cables" you will be getting "cheap cables". Friends don't let friends play with cheap crap cables!
Noodles

Jromanov

I think the point made that 'price doesnt neccessarily denote quality' in this case is valid. The fact that a cable affects sound through its capacitance is undisputed. How much you choose to pay for that cable is whats in question. Myself i look for reliability in a cable above everything. I believe the decision i've made to be a good one. A £20 cable thats currently into its 5th year and has only lost 3" in that time. Cheap cable, overpriced? Maybe (i seem to have gotten value for money out of it, and i'm not gentle with cable). Clear sounding? Yes. Easy to repair? Yes.
You dont have to pay stupid money for guitar cables. Simply know what you should be looking for and make your own. Anyone with a half warm soldering iron can make one up. Why pay monster or whirlwind silly money for cheap low capacitance cable and a couple of decent jack plugs. I can pretty much guarantee that their soldering affects tone no differently than my soldering does.

And lets face another fact here. As soon as you plug in a couple of pedals (i dont buy the true bypass crap either. No matter who makes the things) you lose all the so called tonal integrity that a so called 'good' cable is going to give.

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No no and no

I use the Planet Waves cables with the mute switch on the plug for swapping guitars. Haven't noticed any probs with my Highway Nitro finish strat.

Remember also, that certain guitar straps can adversely affect nitro finishes - it's not just cables and stands. Infact, given the original poster's comment, maybe the fault could be with the strap rather than the cable - or even both?!!

I find good cables are often a bit of a compromise in manageability. The heavy duty ones always want to roll up or twist on you and can be generally cumbersome and awkward to use

Noodles: Good cable is good cable: it's flexible, durable, provides low-capacitance, low resistance, doesn't color your signal and it's cheap.

There is no such thing as expensive cable that is better than cheap cable, because cheap cable provides the maximum performance that is possible from a cable. If you choose to believe Monster's malarkey, go ahead on. I don't care if you spend three times what you should.

Furthermore, if you listed the prices of your gear in some lame attempt to achieve superior credibility on this subject, that is completely irrelevant (and in a "I'm more serious 'cause mine cost more" spitting contest with me, you'll lose). There's no corollary here. Good amps are expensive to make. So are good guitars. Good cables aren't.

BTW, how do you like that Carvin? I used to work with a guy who swore buy them.

Chop,
Cable is cable....you can't possibly even believe that yourself can you? Lets forget about Monster for a moment, and please indulge me. Mogami, Planet Waves, George L's, Elixir, Evidence Audio, Analysis Plus, Lava, and DiMarzio, just to mention a handful without even listing the dozens of boutique cable makers are all more expensive than Monster. And this is nuts because all cable is exactly the same...right?

And although I was not offended by your comments about "listing the price" of my equipment, or it being "a lame attempt to achieve superior credibility" or even the "cause mine cost more" spitting contest comment. I would loose. If you don't play, then you can't loose, so in the interest of good and healthy conversation, I'll play.

I'm 53 years old, and have been playing guitar for the last 40 years. I also play the bass, the piano, and I play the drums for a local house band here in Ft Lauderdale for the last 5 years. My son Jason is a professional guitarist, graduate from Berklee College of Music, recorded studio guitarist on 3 different released cd's, and has been teaching guitar for the past 4 years as well. I have 36 guitars currently in my collection, 8 different amps, (by the way I love the Carvin's) a Baldwin Grand piano, and DW drums in my home studio.

And Chop...I have to tell you, in all of my years, I have yet to meet, play with, or listen to anyone ever that was playing any instrument anywhere that had "made" their cables. Although I have played with dozens of musicians that have thrown away their "cheap" broken cables, and eventually invested in "good" ones. (they don't have to be Monster)

So come on now....no one makes their cables. If you play the guitar, and are willing to spend good money on your equipment, go out and buy good cables (from whoever you like) and be done with it. You aren't really suggesting to someone on the forum asking about needing a guitar cable, that they should " build" guitar cables...or are you?

I hope you take the "spitting contest" to be non offensive. It would be my pleasure to send you some shots of my gear should you think I'm just pulling your "cables"

Noodles

For the last time:

People who buy Monster cable are being snookered. Sorry, but you are. I once had a guitar store guy tell me (as I was buying a bass guitar) that I should also buy this special Monster Bass Cable... $75, but it was worth it because the package showed how the unique structure of this cable ensured that the low frequencies and high frequencies would reach the amplifier at the same time, in phase. After I picked myself up off the floor, I told him I didn't need such a special cable because I don't play any high frequencies.

Yes, low-capacitance shielded cable is low-capacitance shielded cable. Do you know some way in which it can be improved?

Yes, people do make their own cable. I make lots of cable. I am an audio professional, I soldered the mic leads that run through the walls of my home studio, and all the cable that connects my synths and effects racks to the digital console, where I record and mix the music I compose for commercials, corporate shows, radio, documentary film and video games, as I have done for the past 13 years.

I know lots of musicians and audio professionals wire up their own cables. You can make them to length and get a nice, neat install. And yes, I am suggesting that you can make your own very high-quality cables for dirt cheap: You've got soldering iron, don't you? But there's no point in buying bulk cable unless you need a lot of it. I need a lot of it, so I've wired a lot of it.

And I don't think you're making it up. I'm quite sure that you own a piano and that your son attended Berklee. I'm sure his album credits are impressive, but they don't shed light on this discussion, anymore than how many guitars are in your collection.

You could own 100 guitars, and you'd still be defending a concept with no legs. Explain to me, besides, the higher price (which is all you've mentioned), what evidence do you have that the expensive cables you buy do a better job of passing signal than a similar cable that costs 1/3 as much?

I see that you are missing your own point. I couldn't care less if people buy "Monster" cable or not. If cable is cable, as you are "defending" than eventually they will break....you do agree that cable's do break? My experience, equipment, and collection in no way was intended to "defend a concept". It was intended to express the fact that we actually use instrument cables regularly in the real world. We don't have them safely tucked "into the walls" we actually use them on stage, indoors, outdoors, we roll them into cases, step on them, trip on them and yank them out of the guitar, and then do it all over again the next weekend.

So if we can agree that cable is cable, as you suggest (and I will agree) than you will also have to agree that cables break....yes? So now to the "defending a concept" part. I'm sure that you encounter very few problems with your cables safely tucked away, but in the real world cables break, and if you happen to break one of those "rip off" Monster cables (I don't care if you run over it with your car) Any music store will hand you a new one...no questions asked...for the rest of your life...and they don't even care where you originally bought it.

So to recap...buy any cable that you like, pay whatever you want for it, it doesn't matter because "cable is cable" but if you happen to care about what you will do if you happen to break one (and you will) if you had selected those rip off Monster cables to begin with... your worry free! So for the big $50.00 woop I'll keep my electrician toolbox in my garage, and my local music shop will just hand me a new one.

I just bought an 18' Sprectraflex cable for a little over $30 and the sound is much improved over the free fender cable I got with my AmDlx. I fell in love with my strat all over again.

I'm sorry but i just dont see how this explains how they sound better as you said earlier and was the question last asked. Durability is worth paying for no doubt. On keeping your toolbox in your garage, I've never met one serious musician who would take that attitude (though i know several who do make their own cables). Every player i've ever met takes some tools with them when gigging. Or a couple of well educated roadies/mates with toolbox's.

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No no and no

Nowhere in anything that I wrote did I ever say anything about any cable sounding better than any other cable. Please show me where that is written. Secondly...of course every musician carries tools....of course I carry a complete tech box with pliers, screwdrivers, allen wrenches, tuners, strings, picks,string winders, extra everything is in that case...although I have yet to come up with the need for a soldering iron, and neither has any other musician that you know. This is lots of fun for me, and I would love to finally meet a giging guitar player that carries around a soldering iron...no less one that makes their own instrument cable

Noodles

First, the discussion, before you arrived with your "just be done with it" blanket statement, was "what new cable should I buy. " The thread was leaning toward the idea that ANY low-capacitance cable you buy, regardless of price, was as good as any other. You entered the discussion by saying that serious player would pay the big bucks for Monster and "be done with it." This resulted in most of us disagreeing, and you trying to make your point by explaining that you had to be right because your son went to Berklee and you own a lot of guitars. The rest of us argued with you.

AS for having no need for soldering iron, you must be insane. Far more than half of the players I know, professional or amateur, are capable of at least servicing their own electronics, if not seriously modifying them, using a soldering iron. A guitar player who can't solder is like a car owner who doesn't know how to jump start a car.

As for my question, I didn't ask you to tell me why you believe Monster cables sound better. I asked you to tell me why they ARE "better." If all you can say is, "they cost more," then you've got no argument.... PLanet Waves no offers a lifetime warranty on their stuff, too, and it costs less than half what a Monster does.

Anyway, it's good to see that you've come around to our way of thinking, and now agree that a good cable is a good cable, and it can't be judged on price.

I think this horse has been whipped nigh unto death.