Barber Electronics forum.

I know all about cable capacitance and such, but here's something nobody's really mentioned: If you have a buffered pedal on your board (Boss, Ibanez, etc.), shouldn't the output buffer negate the need for any premium low-capacitance cables after that? I mean, theoretically, even a mediocre 50-foot cable from pedalboard to amp should be fine, right?

It's really hard not to buy into the premium-guitar-cable/snake-oil hype these days. I keep telling myself that all I need is my trusty ol' 10-foot Spectraflex, a B-Buff or Boss tuner up front (very first pedal, after any old-school fuzzes or whatever) and the rest is gravy. [structural integrity aside, ie. soldered vs. george L's] Is there any reason this isn't sound logic?

I would say it mitigates the tone degrading brought on by poor quality cables, but a high quality cable can still make a difference. The recording guys will argue cables to they are blue in the face, and they live in a low imp balanced world. The hi fi world is prototype of cable madness, yet they are running fairly low imp too (cept tube gear)...so it persists. I really want the whole cable madness to be hype, yet I still hear differences even with a good buffer in place, although they are less overt than running 30' of cheap shielded cable without a buffer.

Please proceed.