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Hi..I did a search and found a few 'cable-related' threads, but not one specifically about directional cables. I bought a PlanetWaves Custom Pro cable and, according to what I've read about it, it's a directional cable. I have two questions here..one, how do I know if I have the cable going the right way 'round? Second, if I don't have it going the right way, will it damage my guitar and/or amp's electronics?
Please help....please?

they should be a little arrow to let you know the preferered signal flow....no it will not damage your guitar if used backwards.
i have some and notice no difference between those and any other high quality cable. or most lower quality either.

the sound of the 70's was built on shitty cable and that's the sound everyone seem to reference....so i think it's a moot point. i'm not saying that people should use shite cables but rather that there's a little bit of overthought going on these days.

but that's just me. i do use high quality cables but not to the point of stoopit expensive directional ones.

DIRECTIONAL CABLES ARE BULLSHITTTTTTT!

the electrons care not which "direction" they flow. just more marketing crap to get people to buy something...

smallsnd/bigsnd wrote:DIRECTIONAL CABLES ARE BULLSHITTTTTTT!

the electrons care not which "direction" they flow. just more marketing crap to get people to buy something...

oops... well, this one wasn't too expensive...so I guess it's not a big loss... my bad?

StudioShutIn wrote:

smallsnd/bigsnd wrote:DIRECTIONAL CABLES ARE BULLSHITTTTTTT!

the electrons care not which "direction" they flow. just more marketing crap to get people to buy something...

oops... well, this one wasn't too expensive...so I guess it's not a big loss... my bad?

Well, it's probably a pretty well-made cable, so, just consider it that.

theavondon wrote:

StudioShutIn wrote:

smallsnd/bigsnd wrote:DIRECTIONAL CABLES ARE BULLSHITTTTTTT!

the electrons care not which "direction" they flow. just more marketing crap to get people to buy something...

oops... well, this one wasn't too expensive...so I guess it's not a big loss... my bad?

Well, it's probably a pretty well-made cable, so, just consider it that.

good point. keeping it positive!

smallsnd/bigsnd wrote:DIRECTIONAL CABLES ARE BULLSHITTTTTTT!

Total bullshit.

And so is "break-in period" for cables. Either they conduct or they don't.

And so is the idea of an AC power cable for your amp that can somehow improve the tone.

masked elwood wrote:they should be a little arrow to let you know the preferered signal flow.

Hmm..I took a look at the cable, and it doesn't have arrows, but it does have a little label at one end that says "Shielded end" while the other end doesn't...now my question is..should the shielded end go into the guitar or the amp? and yes, I'm aware that the concensus is that it shouldn't matter, but I'm just trying to be careful..

Okay, so I just did a little googling on Planet Waves and directional cable. It appears that on the PW cables, one end doesn't have the shield connected. In most cables, both ends have the shield (braided copper layer in the cable) connected to the sleeve of the connector.

Apparently, you should put the shielded end towards the amp.

WTF is a directional cable?
Upon opening this thread I though it was gonna be about non-right angle patch cables lol

StudioShutIn wrote:

smallsnd/bigsnd wrote:
Well, it's probably a pretty well-made cable, so, just consider it that.

good point. keeping it positive!

nah he got worked

Cables shouldn't be this complicated.

The4455 wrote:Cables shouldn't be this complicated.

this

htsamurai wrote:WTF is a directional cable?
Upon opening this thread I though it was gonna be about non-right angle patch cables lol

me too. which are good in certain cases!

smallsnd/bigsnd wrote:DIRECTIONAL CABLES ARE BULLSHITTTTTTT!

the electrons care not which "direction" they flow. just more marketing crap to get people to buy something...

^^This

(There was a really interesting thread on TGP (for once) ages ago that essentially boiled down to the lava cable guy (I think) talking up his magic directional cables and ZVex shouting him down. It was a lot of fun. I came out firmly on the side of not-magic.

Directional cables have all the hallmarks of snakeoil.

They say the no shield at one end helps with RFI, but even then I can't imagine you'd be able to hear it.