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What is the longest I'd want to run a guitar chord to my amp ?

In my home studio, I want to put my guitar amp in one room and record in another room where my recording gear is set up. So I'm going to have to run a long chord, which I'll need to buy. I'll have to put my effects box(s) in the chain to. At what lenght do I have to start worrying about lose of signal or whatever or do I even have to worry ? Any thoughts on cable quality, or suggestions on a good brand without going to far up on price.
Thanks.

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RemyRAD Tue, 11/07/2006 - 18:13

Guitar pickups are very high in impedance and as such, only good-quality commercially produced cords should be utilized and no longer than 15 feet in length. Should you desire to go further, I might recommend a wireless system?

Obviously you want to have your effects stomp boxes at your feet and so most of those have lower impedance transistor coupled outputs. So assuming you want your stomp boxes close to you, your guitar chords should be no longer than 10 feet to the stomp boxes and then the stomp boxes really shouldn't be much more than 10 feet from the amplifier input.

You want to use the best and most shielded cable you can afford for high impedance guitar purposes.

Not a guitarist
Ms. Remy Ann David

anonymous Wed, 11/08/2006 - 12:53

Hmmmmm

That's a big difference between 15 (remy) and up to 100 (TV).....Perferably I'd like to set things up without moving to much gear around, so that'd mean I need to run about a 15->20 foot cable,
SO I think this would be ok than, a 10' from amp to effects, 10' from effects to recorder, I won't have the effects at my feet but that's ok, and I've got some decent 10' cables on hand....wadda' ya' tink ?

PS thanks for the advice

anonymous Wed, 11/08/2006 - 15:27

Remy's right about the length either from guitar directly to amp or guitar to FX. I've no doubt that you can go longer, but that's when the trade-off of length vs. tone begins. There's no way that a 100-ft. cable is carrying your full Hi-Z signal properly, though it coud possibly still get there.

When you hit stompboxes, though, impedance is matched and you are then in a Low-Z signal path. You can get away with a longer cable from your pedalboard to the amp... unless (and this is a big 'unless'!) each of your boxes has true bypass and you disable all of them. ;) Unlikely to happen? Not at all. Many manufacturers are touting true bypass as a feature and there are often going to be songs in which you aren't using FX.

Alternatively or additionally, there are many commercial D.I. boxes which will allow you to send an appropriate signal along a lengthy cable. Even a passive D.I. should help some, though for best results you'll want active.

Greg