I just saw another post claiming directionality of cables

[mac]

There are things in nature that have asymmetric properties, ie, long organic chains aligned in one direction, but AFAIK pure Cu has been used intensively over the past century and none detected such thing.
Electric companies would have been the first to notice "directionality".

So "shut up 'n plug 'n play yer guitar" 

mac

[amptramp]

Copper oxide was used as a rectifier for quite some time.  If you have oxidized copper and crimp connections, you just might have some directionality.  If the connections are soldered, there is no way.  Some people use oxygen-free copper and other insist that it asphyxiates the sound.   

[R.G.]

If you have good crimp connections, the micro-connections form a gas-tight high conductivity connection that excludes gasses and does not corrode. This is why wire-wrap pins are square - the corners run the local pressures up enough to form gas-tight seals. Most crimpers do too.

Crummy crimps, or aluminum to copper, nope.

By the way, it's considered bad practice to solder well-made crimped connections. The solder will creep under pressure.

[alanp]

Audio is mostly AC coupled in pedal cables, isn't it? I can only imagine this being an issue (IF there is such a case occuring as what Amptramp said) if there was a DC element to the signal.

[Thecomedian]

Was he a drummer?

CHAD

Actually he was a guitarist. I would even call him a better guitarist than myself, which added to my confusion. 
[/quote]

You sure it wasn't a subtle insult about bass guitar player's intelligence levels?

[sonic66]

It is important that your strings are all in the same direction maybe that's the confusion

[sonic66]

;-)

[garcho]

Directionality can describe behavior of audio signals along copper cables in a black hole.

[Nasse]

I had an idea about a little circuit that I could build inside my guitar so I could use ordinary cables off the shelf. But not solved the problem how to make it invisible if I want to keep vintage looks

[seedlings]

You could blow your friend's mind by saying the signal travels both directions in the cable simultaneously.

CHAD

[Jdansti]

Ouch!!! 

Amazing how we all (at least I) tend to think it as only moving in one direction like DC, even though we know it's an AC signal!!!

[blackieNYC]

And there's the concept of electron flow vs "hole flow".  Stuff work by ripping electrons out of the earth, man.

You can't lift grounds on unbalanced cable, but "source shielding" is considered essential in balanced recording studio wiring.

[duck_arse]

doesn't one of the string theories say there is only one electron, and it is everywhere at every time, or something? or was that quantum?

I don't know any drummers to ask.

[aron]

A guitarist plugs in his cable and notices that it sounds "better" when plugged in with a certain plug in the amp. He notices that the print is a certain way on the cable.
Therefore the cable is directional and should be plugged in a certain way. No problem since in that case it might very well be directional because of the plug and oxidation etc....
The problem is that the guitarist now armed with "secret" knowledge starts telling others to do this and it becomes another myth and placebo takes place and people start believing and another cable manufacturer is born. Then it gets taken to the level of hookup wire etc... It never stops.

[Mark Hammer]

Assuming that electrons have no particular preference as to whether they like to go out this plug or that one, is there anything to cable that uses different metals for ground and hot, apart from being able to visually identify which lead goes to where?  I'm thinking of the speaker cable with clear insulaton.

[zintolo]

Directionality of cables is not related to how the electrons prefer to travel, but on screen from external noise.
The term directional cable refers to a cable with two wires in and a shield all around, connected with one of the two wires.
Then the shield is connected to only one side, that needs to be connected to the amp (side at lowest impedance to ground).

That's all.

[aron]

zintolo, yes, but that's not what the thread is about. They are talking about wires having a direction that makes the guitar sound better or worse including hookup wire.

[Eb7+9]

not difficult to imagine a cable maker sneaking a smallish 1k~5k resistor in series at one tip, and a smallish ~200pF cap to shield at the other end ... in which a subtle difference can be demonstrated in a gtr/amp only situation ... proving directionality // argument for purchase, yada ... on the flip side, a guitar cable with added capacitance is not necessarily a poor move per se, with some PU's it's a good idea

[R.G.]

not difficult to imagine a cable maker sneaking a 1k~5k (SMT) resistor in series at the tip, and a 390pF~1nF cap to shield at the other end ... in which a subtle to not-too-subtle difference can be demonstrated on most rigs ... proving directionality // argument for purchase, etc ... on the flip side, a guitar cable with added capacitance is not necessariy a bad move

Yep. As H. L. Mencken noted, nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. Or most publics, for that matter.

And adding capacitance to brown things down is in fact not a necessarly a bad move, as you say. It's smarter to know what you're doing, and do it on purpose. I saw a box that was for tuning the treble response of your guitar. You plugged the guitar cable into it and then ran another cable off to everything else. Yep, inside was a 1M pot that could be turned down to load the guitar signal, making use of the pickup's own rolloff.  As I remember they wanted about $100 for it. 
   

[Buzz]

Damn, I just threw out a cheap cable because I thought it was rubbish.

I should have put it on ebay. "Brown Sound in a cable" With extra features! RF buzz fuzz, and even a built in burstbox, just wiggle the jack!