By: Dr Matt Warnock
Elixir cable with their new and improved packaging.
There are many decisions guitarists have to make in order to find their optimal tone. What guitar do they play, what strings do they use? Do they use their fingers or a pick? What effects pedals, if any, do they run through and what amp(s) do they run that signal through.
While many guitarists spend countless hours searching for the best tone possible, using some or all of these methods, the one thing that often misses their radar is the cable they’re using.
A good cable can make as much difference in your sound as your choice of strings and pedals. No cable is going to make a bad guitar or amp sound great, but a high-end cable can make a great amp or guitar sound great, while a low-end model can take away from the sound of a great amp-guitar combo.
This fact has not gone unnoticed by the folks at Elixir, and their Premium Instrument series of cables is aimed at making you and your gear sound better.
While that may sound like a sales pitch, and we’ve all heard it before from dozens of cable and other guitar-related companies, Elixir is backing their words the best way possible. By making a product that does exactly what they say it will.
Here’s how Elixir describes their cables:
“Ordinary cables can distort the sound of your guitar or bass by boosting the mids or cutting the highs. Elixir Cables feature a patented technology that minimizes cable capacitance and delivers the truest voice of your instrument.”
After reading this statement, and testing the cables out briefly at the company’s Summer NAMM booth, my curiosity was piqued and I decided to spend more time with their cables to see if the product really lived up to its billing. In short, I can say that they absolutely do exactly what the company says, providing the most natural tone from a guitar possible.
When testing out these cables I ran them from my PRS McCarty guitar through my Boss ME-50 pedal board, then through two different amps, the first being a Polytone Mini-Brute. I know, odd choice for an amp, but it gives a good, clean sound, which I wanted in order to test the affect Elixir cables had on the tone of the guitar.
As a jazz player by trade I rarely use effects, so I kept to that practice here by using a slight delay, reverb and my volume pedal. I know this is not what a rock or blues player would do, but I wanted to test the cables against how I heard my guitar in an everyday situation. As well, since the company claimed that these cables wouldn’t distort my sound, I wanted to test that theory with the cleanest tone possible.
After plugging in and striking a chord I immediately pricked up my ears. There was a noticeable difference between the high-end cables I normally use and the Elixir brand cables. The guitar sounded crisper, cleaner and the sound was more focused. I was hearing timbres and nuances from my PRS that I hadn’t heard in the past. The consistency of the cable allowed me to really hear what the guitar sounded like, which is something that I always strive for with my tone.
Normally, I would have to roll the bass off on my amp in order to get an even tone, preventing the low strings from sounding too “boomy” or “muddy.” This was not the case with the Elixir cables. I had the amp tuned to twelve o’clock across the board and the sound I got was even across the strings.
Yes, there were some differences across various areas of the neck. It didn’t make the tone sound “processed,” the cable just allowed the strings to “breath” and the guitar to sound like it was built to sound. This is the reason that people by nice guitars in the first place, so that they don’t have to fight with the tone in order for it to sound good. Elixir cables go a long way in helping one achieve this goal.
In order to get a better grasp on how the cables would sound in a non-performance situation, I stole a trick from the Nashville studio guys, who used to test their records in old car stereos since that was the most popular listening medium for their albums, and decided to run the cables through an old Peavey practice amp I had lying around the house.
It would be one thing if the guitar sounded as good as it did through an expensive, high-end amp, it would be another thing completely if it sounded great through a hundred dollar amp I got at a pawn shop. In these conditions the cables lived up to their billing yet again.
Check Out Elixir Premium Instrument Cables at Amazon.com
No, the amp didn’t sound like a million bucks, but it was a definite improvement over how it used to sound. The sound of the guitar was coming through more effectively, and the amp was producing the best tone possible. Not amazing tone, but great for that particular amp.
With a wide range of sizes, ranging from six inches to thirty feet, with both straight and angled connectors, Elixir cables are definitely worth checking out. They’re not going to drastically change your sound or tone, but they will clean it up, letting the sound of the guitar come through at its optimal level.
The other thing that makes these cables different is the packaging. I know, it’s not something you’d consider when buying a guitar cable, but it does say something about the company. When they first released these cables, customers complained because the packages were so secure that they were wrecking cables trying to cut them out. In response to these complaints, the company took action and the cables now come in easy to open cardboard boxes.
It’s one thing to make a reliable product, it’s another to listen that closely to their customers and take swift action to correct a problem. This kind of mentality, along with a solid product, is allowing Elixir to become a go-to name when guitarists are looking for a new cable.
