Do power cords effect tone?

No.

They don’t make a difference in the slightest unless they’re broken.

The quality of the juice moving through those cables, however, does matter.


thegame said:
View attachment 68112

I didn’t even need to A/B in order to immediately hear and feel the improvement this Colossal power cable brought to the table. For reference, the black power cable plugged in beside it is a fairly thick 14 awg (same length at 3 ft) and the Colossal dwarfs it.
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Your power chain is only as good as your weakest link.

If your power cable is nicer than the cable in the wall, that nicer cable isn’t doing anything. Might as well hook a fire hose up to a drinking fountain spout.
 
TX6Strings said:
Crazy question guys. I’ve got a BE100, 101b, Mark IV. Utilizing one specific power cable my amps sound great. Using any of the other cables I have slowly make my amps sound like I’m running too much gain or have terrible fret buzz. Just noisy, harsh and shitty sounding. Going back to the “good” cable, after playing for a while the amps clear up.

I’ve tried using a power conditioner/filter surge protector with no luck. I’ve tried using a battery back up with no luck. I’ve tried using other outlets in the house on separate breakers with no luck. I went so far as to buy another power cord of the same spec (not manufacturer as they only sell wholesale) with no luck.

I never had this problem until I started using the Furman power conditioner/surge protector. Is it possible the amps were all damaged? And why does this one particular cable work?

I guess my next step is to take the amp to someone else’s house and see if it’s something with the overall wiring in the house?

Any ideas or experience would be great appreciated as I don’t know what I’d do if this particular power cord craps out on me.
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Hm, I am from Europe, so I don't know a lot about your "power conditions" but can it be, that the one cable that works is the broken one? Here in Europe we have besides the two main stripes a third for protection. Might it be that this is actually broken in your only good cable and for what ever reason the unbroken cable add some "dirt" giving you the problems?
 
Alex_S said:
Hm, I am from Europe, so I don't know a lot about your "power conditions" but can it be, that the one cable that works is the broken one? Here in Europe we have besides the two main stripes a third for protection. Might it be that this is actually broken in your only good cable and for what ever reason the unbroken cable add some "dirt" giving you the problems?
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Btw, this was not about, if power cables make differences but I understood, the OP gets significant noise if not using exactly one special cable....
 
I spent relatively big bucks on a Monster power cable and it didn't make any difference (and later got stolen along with two of my amps, a couple of speaker cabs, all my cables and EFX units 😢 ).
 
Unless you are going straight from a power conditioner, no it’s not going to help. No amount of science can undo the miles of corroded bird shit covered municipal power grid fed into your 1970’s house.


If you have a power conditioner on the other hand you can preserve the clean power, but if everything downstream is crap, the high quality cable will preserve the dirty power. Most furmans and such aren’t really great power conditioners
 
I've considered getting one of these (power conditioners) Scott - can recommend something for home use? For a few amps and a pedal board that's not breaking bank? Maybe $300 or less?
 
I bought one of those red 3 prong amp cords from Mercury Magnetics, just because I wanted a heavy gauge cable for my amp and it's red so I know it's mine. As far as sound I notice no difference.
 
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