Newsgroups: rec.audio.tech
Subject: Re: Electric guitar - can I use CAT5 cable ?
References:  
Kevin McMurtrie  writes:


> Does it speak Ethernet? 
> Unless I'm mistaken, Cat 5 is supposed to transmit RF signals with a 
> reasonable amount of loss over very cheap wire.  

Yes. 

CAT5 is twisted pair cable which is suitable to transmit 
anythign form voice frequencies (it is used for telephone often) 
to high frequencies (performance specified up to 100 MHz). 
CAT5 cable transports well balanced signals.


> I wouldn't expect the 
> twisted pairs to offer much protection for point sources of EM noise.  
> You might pickup hum when you touch the cable or rest it against a 
> poorly grounded chassis.  Give it a try and post your results.

Unshielded CAT5 cable provides pretty poor EM noise performance 
when used with unbalanced signal source and receiver 
(like an electric guitar). The noise problems you described 
can be expected. 

On the other hand CAT5 cable carries quite well balanced audio 
signals (not as well as shielded twisted pair cable).

Shielded CAT5 cable woudl include shielding, which will 
at least reduce noise pickup. The downside of shielded 
CAT5 cable is that, the shielding is usully made of 
foil, which does not take well the tear and wear it might 
get in typical electric guitar stage use.

So I recommend to stick to the proper instrument cable 
for you guitar.

> There are shielded network cables, but they're not cheaper than shielded 
> balanced audio cable.

You are right on that.

-- 
Tomi Engdahl (http://www.iki.fi/then/)
Take a look at my electronics web links and documents at 
http://www.epanorama.net/