the main difference between the two is that the electric signal that comes out of a guitar is a verry weak signal before it is amplifyed. after amplification the electric signal is much much more stronger requiring better cabling that can handle higher "CURRENT". Basically you need to match the guage of wire to the ammount of current you are going to pass through it, and from what i know most guitar cables just dont have enough in em.

Yeah typical guitar wire gauge could be 20-26, speaker wire is typically 12-16 gauge.

BUT-the biggest difference, guitar wire is shielded, with a conductor and ground around it, speaker wire is typically twisted pair.

yup that is true guitar cables are shielded, i dont know why, i use the best guitar cable and still pick up that damn tiajuana radio station in spanish lol.

mabyee it's just becuase theyre not legally limited to the ammount of power they can transmit over there in mexico, with theyre 500,000watt radio stations hahah lol

perfectwave wrote: yup that is true guitar cables are shielded, i dont know why, i use the best guitar cable and still pick up that damn tiajuana radio station in spanish lol.

It's not the guitar cable - it's the pickups in the guitar. Especially susceptible to RF is single coils like teles and strats.

They also can't be intermixed. Using guitar cables as speaker cables causes the cable to act like a high shelf rolloff and kills the highs going to the speaker.