by RayL » 27 Feb 2011, 15:04
For a guitar cable, three things are important - frequency response, movement noise and reliability.
A cable with a high capacitance between the inner core and the shield will trim off the upper end of the guitar's harmonics (though it would have to be pretty high and the cable pretty long to be noticeable). Mind you, as we get older we become unable to hear those higher frequencies anyway. If you can find a CD of frequency recordings up to 20Khz, test your hearing against that of a 15-year-old - you''ll be surprised how much higher he or she can hear.
Movement noise means the noise made as the cable is flexed and the strands of the shield rub against each other. Often overlooked, this is probably more annoying in cheap cables than anything else.
Reliabiity - not only whether it is well made, but whether the plugs are of good quality. Cheap plugs will tend to fracture their cables more easily because they allow sharp bends and are often made slightly too large, so that they can jam in the sockets.
In other words, a good quality cable is a good quality cable and will be very suitable for all types of electric guitar (after all, if it was a truly acoustic guitar, it wouldn't need a cable, would it?)
Ray