Planet Waves American Stage cables review

At these excellent prices – despite the lack of a right-angled jack version – this is an impressive debut for the American Stage cables range.

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American Stage is a fresh range of USA-made guitar cables that boast a new Neutrik jack design, solid 180-degree solder connection, relatively low capacitance of 28pF per foot (approx 90pF/m) and an oxygen-free copper centre conductor.

The jack tip is of particular interest; called ‘GeoTip’ it might be worth grabbing one of your own cables for reference here… The bulb of the tip is flattened and the shield lengthened in comparison with a standard design, which enables, according to Planet Waves, a better connection between the tip and the positive flange of the socket.

In Use

The GeoTip design is most noticable if your guitar has a worn or poorly fitted jack socket. Crackles, buzzes and cutting out altogether (caused by the jack moving about inside the socket) can be a problem on some instruments, so we tried a collection.

We plugged in, trod on the cable, rolled it between our fingers and waggled the jack to try and upset it – it’s a secure connection for sure, though it should be said that we don’t have a problem with other quality cables.

Around 90pF/m is a sensible value for all-round use in terms of clarity and high-end roll-off; lower than many ‘normal’ cables, but not ultra low. The redesigned plug works, there’s low capacitance and the cable isn’t too bulky so it handles and coils well.

We’ve no qualms using these in place of our regular Elixir and Whirlwind leads.