Knowing Your Cable-- Instrument Cable

This week we are excited to take a look into the second part of our cable series!

Another type of cable you will find in many audio applications is an instrument cable. It is also known as a ¼” cable because of the ¼” jack you'll find on the end. ¼” plugs come in two varieties, TRS and TS. TRS stands for Tip, Ring, and Sleeve and carries a mono balanced signal. TS? You guessed it! TS are just Tip and Sleeve jacks. These carry a mono unbalanced signal. TS jacks are the ones used for instrument cables.

 A ¼” cable is used to take weak un-amplified signal from a guitar or keyboard to a direct box or an amp, where it’s then boosted to a usable level. Instrument cables are unbalanced, so they can only be run a short distance before you begin to get unwanted noise into your audio signal. While you can run them up to 50’ its best to keep them to no longer than 25’ for your best sound quality.

Now like XLR mic cables, instrument cables also have a doppelganger. That is, the speaker cable. These two look the same, but are used for different purposes. An instrument cable is low power and high impedance. On the other hand, a speaker cable is the opposite, high power and low impedance. Speaker cable is built to carry a strong signal from your amp to your speakers, a signal with a relatively high AC current and voltage. Because of this difference, speaker cables require a higher gauge wire.
So, always make sure you’re using the correct cable for its intended purpose. Good news is it's an easy fix if you know what to look for!