Last Updated on November 22, 2023 by Teemu Suomala
Author: Teemu Suomala
Every one of these guitars is here based on extensive research and 13+ years of experience.
Best Overall – Mogami Gold 6ft Instrument Cable
Summary
Why this cable is a great option?
-Dense shielding ensures a noise-free playing
-Great tones
-Versatile, works well with different kinds of instruments
-Lifetime warranty
-Usually lasts for a lifetime
I like Mogami Gold a lot. It really sounds good and playing is noise-free. It’s the best all-around guitar cable for under $50.
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Best for Electric Guitar – Lava Blue Demon Instrument Cable
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Summary
Pros
- Value for money is high
- Really low capacitance(23pF/ft), the signal is clear
- Sounds great
- High quality and durability
- Manufacturer’s Limited Lifetime Warranty
- Quiet cable
Cons
- Not a good cable for bass guitar(not so great with low frequencies)
- You can find better cables for acoustic guitars too
This is, in my opinion, the best guitar cable for an electric guitar for under 50 good-ones. At the same time, the cable is really affordable if you look at the qualities that it offers.
It offers 95% of what Mogami Gold does, but at a smaller price. Plus this has a better picofarad rating. A great choice for electric guitarists.
Best Coiled Cable –Vox VCC090WH Coiled Cable
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Summary
Pros
- Durable
- Great tones with single-coil pickups
- Really quiet
- Lifetime warranty
- Great cable if you want to shape your tone to the less bright direction
Cons
- The multi-gauge conductor built type is no game-changer.
- Not the most versatile cable(you probably need other cables too)
VOX VCC090 Silver Coiled Cable is a great choice if you want to shape your tone, or if you have a guitar with single-coils.
I don’t see it as the only guitar cable you are ever going to need. But it does what it should well.
For Hendrix Fans – Fender Hendrix Voodoo Child Coiled Cable
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Summary
Pros
- Great cable for sound shaping
- Good cable for Hendrix fans
- The outer jacket is protective
- Durable
Cons
- No sign of warranty(there should be)
- Little bit overpriced
For regular guitar players, I don’t see any reason to choose this over lower-priced VOX Coiled cable…
But for Hendrix fans out there this is still a solid choice.
Shapes Your Tone the Most –Ernie Ball P06045 Coiled Cable
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Summary
Pros
- Durable
- High quality
- Lifetime Warranty
- Works well if you want to make your Strato-, or Telecaster less bright
- Quiet
Cons
- Cut’s brightness and high-end tone a little bit too much
- Not easy to move around when playing with this cable
This is not a bad product by any means. It is just made for a specific purpose.
It works great with bright-sounding guitar, but if you don’t want to cut high-end tones off, this is not for you.
Looking for a cable that transfers your masterpieces well? Look no more!
For under 50 bucks, you can definitely find a cable that serves you for years and years…and of course, ensures great sound quality for you.
And now, I’m about to reveal the best guitar cables under 50 bucks(available in 2022) to you. This post helps you get the best quality possible cable for your money. Also, I share some basic(but key) knowledge about guitar cables.
Let’s first look at these fine cables, and at the end of the post, you can find the FAQ section that helps you to make the best choice possible.
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Our favorite Cables Under $50
Best Overall – Mogami Gold – 6ft Guitar Instrument Cable
Mogami is a well-known player in the instrument cable market, and some players really love their cables, should you feel the same?
Noise and Hum
In Mogami gold cables, spiral Ultra High Density (UHD) spiral shielding is used.
It’s a different copper shielding than in cheaper cables. Cheaper cables usually have copper wires that are not very densely spaced. But in Mogami Gold the shield is dense.
And because of this, the only situation where I could see Mogami Gold humming out of the box, is you receiving a lemon, one bad cable that slipped through a quality check. That’s my opinion. Otherwise, the cable is quiet and hum-free.
To be honest, usually, the hum is not much of an issue with cables in this price range. For that reason, I’m not going to waste anyone’s time too much with this section for no on, unless there are serious issues with the hum.
Quality and Durability
As you would expect, Oxygen-free copper is used, it gives the copper inside more durability, and the cable is also more efficient when carrying the signal(there are no pointless Oxygen molecules in the way).
Gold-plated connectors are durable, corrosion-resistant, and should always do a good job when transferring your precious signal.
Cable has Mogami Lifetime ‘’No Excuses Warranty’’. So when you buy this, you should have cable for life.
And I would always expect that from the cable at this price range. It should last for life.
But to be honest, this cable is not the most durable, and there are some cases where the Mogami Gold cable has not lasted more than a couple of years. This should not happen in this price range, but at least you have a lifetime warranty.
But i believe that in some of these cases, users have been little bit too rough with their cable. In these cases we can’t really blame the cable.
But usually, you have a Mogami Gold’s durability is good.
Tone
You will get really tight, natural, and clear tones with this cable. It really does a good job of cutting out any no-wanted noises and hum. And even with high distortion, the sound is really, clear, and well compressed, it’s not all over the place.
This cable is really versatile and it works well with electric-, and acoustic guitars, and bass.
The cable has a capacitance of 39,7 Picofarads per ft. It’s good, but for a price this close to 50, I want to see a lower number. But still, if you buy 10ft cable, Mogami Gold is hard to beat at this price range.
Summary
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Dense shielding ensures a noise-free playing | Sometimes the durability just isn’t there |
| Great tones | Not for everyone’s budget |
| Versatile, works well with different kinds of instruments | Capacitance is not that good(39,7pF/ft) |
| Lifetime warranty | |
| Usually lasts for a lifetime |
I like Mogami Gold a lot. It really sounds good and playing is noise-free. Durability and capacitance should be a little bit better, but at least this cable has a good warranty. These qualities make this cable a solid option and it’s the best all-around guitar cable on this post.
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Best for Electric Guitar – Lava Blue Demon Instrument Cable
Lava cables are really popular especially among guitarists who are into heavier stuff. But is this model worth your hard-earned money?
Noise and Hum
This cable is also noise-free, and usually, you don’t experience any annoying hum.
Quality and Durability
This Lava cable offers you high quality and durability. For some reason, there is no info about Warranty on the product pages.
But on the Lava-cables website, they state that all of their cables have a Limited Lifetime Warranty.
99,99% pure copper is used, so it’s oxygen-free.
The spiral shield offers really good interference resistance for the cable. I don’t know if the shield is good as in the more expensive Mogami Gold cable, but for me, the build and effect are the same.
The rubber outer jacket is protective and flexible.
I really have nothing else to say about the quality or durability. I find no real issues.
Tone
This cable’s ability to prevent ‘’leaking’’ of the signal is excellent. It’s one of the best in this price range. It has a capacitance of 23pF/ft. So even when you buy a 30ft Blue Demon, it offers you a richer tone than many other cables with 10ft length.
And for electric guitar the tones are great. Really rich, full, and clear. Works well with different kinds of pickups, but I would just love to use this with thick-sounding Humbuckers.
While the Blued Demon has great tones and low capacitance, it is not as versatile as for example Mogami Gold. It doesn’t work so well with a bass guitar, the low frequencies just aren’t there.
But if you are searching cable for electric guitar, tones are great. And you are probably not going to be unhappy with your acoustic guitar tones with this cable either.
Summary
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Value for money is high | Not a good cable for bass guitar(not so great with low frequencies) |
| Really low capacitance (23pF/ft), the signal is clear | You can find better cables for acoustic guitars too |
| Sounds great | |
| High quality and durability | |
| Manufacturer’s Limited Lifetime Warranty | |
| Quiet cable |
This is, in my opinion, the best guitar cable under $50 for electric guitar. At the same time, the cable is really affordable if you look at the qualities that it offers.
It offers 95% of what Mogami Gold does, but at a smaller price. Plus has a better picofarad rating. A great choice for electric guitarists
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Best Coiled Cable – VOX VCC090 Silver Coiled 1/4″
Do multiple copper wires inside the cable make a difference? Let’s find out!
Noise and Hum
VOX cable is really quiet and usually it stays like that for a lifetime. It’s maybe one of the quietest cables I know of.
Quality and Durability
This cable is built in a slightly different way…
First of all, it has several copper conductors inside. VOX states that every conductor is optimized to carry different frequencies.
You probably won’t notice much difference when compared to other cables at this price range, but there still is some difference.
As a downside, the cable has more building elements, so there is a higher chance that something broke. But the durability of this cable surprised me, and usually it works well.
Connectors are gold-plated and oxygen-free copper is used. So that adds some quality and durability.
Usually, this one lasts for life and the lifetime warranty helps a lot if you have issues with the cable.
Note that while the cable itself is almost 30ft long, the actual usage distance is only about 10ft because the cable is curled.
Tone
Coiled cables have a higher capacitance than regular cables. So when you plug a coiled cable in and compare it to the regular cable, it’s like turning the tone control of your guitar.
Coiled cables usually cancel some high and bright tones out. Some guitar players(Jimi Hendrix) have used coiled cables with guitars with single-coil pickups to cut some of that brightness off.
So keep this in mind. Coiled cables shape your tone to a less bright direction.
And the multi-gauge conductor does a good job with transferring the signal, but I don’t see the built type as a game-changer.
Overall, your music-making machines will sound great with this cable. But it’s best suitable for guitars with single-coils.
Summary
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Durable | The multi-gauge conductor built type is no game-changer. |
| Great tones with single-coil pickups | Not the most versatile cable(you probably need other cables too) |
| Really quiet | |
| Lifetime warranty | |
| Great cable if you want to shape your tone to the less bright direction |
VOX VCC090 Silver Coiled Cable is a great choice if you want to shape your tone, or if you have a guitar with single-coils. I don’t see it as the only guitar cable you are going to need. But it does what it should well.
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For Jimi Hendrix Fans – Fender Hendrix Voodoo Child Electric Guitar Coil Cable
Jimi Hendrix wanted to make his tone a less bright, and he used this kind of cable to shape his tone. Should you use the same cable as the Jimi?
Noise and Hum
Coiled cables usually do a really good job of canceling the noise. This is no exception, the sound is usually noise-free with this cable.
Quality and Durability
The quality and durability of this cable are good. No question about it. But is this cable worth the price for the regular home player?
No. It really doesn’t offer anything better than VOX Coiled cable quality-, durability-, or tonally-wise.
The outer jacket is protective and will handle rougher use well too.
Oxygen-free copper is used, but I had a hard time finding out what is the connector-plating material. It’s not gold, and this is no game-breaker, but it surely would be nice to know.
This cable should last for long. But there is no sign of a warranty available, and this is a bummer. This cable should absolutely include a Lifetime Warranty and everyone should inform consumers about this on the product page.
Note that while the cable itself is 30ft long, the actual usage distance is only about 10ft because the cable is curled.
Tone
Tones are great for what this cable is made for. It cancels some brightness out and offers more balanced tones. Good cable for sound shaping purposes, and works best with single-coil pickups.
And yes, with this cable you are one step closer to Hendrix tones. This makes this a good cable for Hendrix fans tone-wise too.
Summary
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Great cable for sound shaping | No sign of warranty(there should be) |
| Good cable for Hendrix fans | Little bit overpriced |
| Outer jacket is protective | |
| Durable |
For regular guitar players, I don’t see any reason to choose this over lower-priced VOX Coiled cable. But for Hendrix fans out there this is still a solid choice.
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Shapes Your Tone the Most – Ernie Ball 30′ Coiled Straight / Angle Instrument Cable
Ernie Ball makes excellent guitar strings and they also provide the best cable under 30 for guitar players in my opinion. But how is this coiled cable?
Noise and Hum
Ernie Ball has done a great job of canceling the noise out. Dual-shielding plays a big role in this and the cable is noise-free.
Quality and Durability
Coiled cables are usually heavier than regular cables, and this is no exception. This is even heavier than most other coiled cables.
The cable is protective and pretty flexible, but I wouldn’t say that it is meant for moving when played.
Quality itself is great and 99,99% pure, oxygen-free copper is used. So also insides of the cable should provide great durability for years to come.
A lifetime warranty is also nice to have, but you probably only need it if you happen to accidentally by a lemon for yourself.
Note that while the cable itself is 30ft long, the actual usage distance is only about 10ft because the cable is curled.
Tone
From the coiled cables that I know of, this cuts the tone the most. I would only use this with a very bright sounding Strato- or Telecaster.
Otherwise, if you need to get a coiled cable, VOX coiled cable is probably a better option because it’s a more bright-toned cable.
So, this is definitely not an all-arounder cable.
Summary
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Durable | Cut’s brightness and high-end tone a little bit too much |
| High quality | Not easy to move around when playing with this cable |
| Lifetime Warranty | |
| Works well if you want to make your Strato-, or Telecaster less bright | |
| Quiet |
This is not a bad product by any means. It works great with bright-sounding guitar, but if you don’t want to cut high-end tones off, this is not for you.
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Verdict
As you probably noticed, cables in this price range are really solid, all are noise-free, have usually a lifetime warranty, are durable, and provide great tones. All these are great guitar cables, some better than others.
My favorites are Mogami Gold and Lava Blue Demon.
Mogami Gold is the most versatile, and works great if you are planning to use it with electric- and acoustic guitars, or/and with bass guitar. But the capacitance and price are not good as with Lava Blue Demon.
If you only need cable for electric guitar, I would go with the Lava Blue Demon cable. And especially if you need a longer cable because the capacitance of Blued Demon is really good. Also, the valuer for money is the best when you look at all the other cables in this post.
After these two comes the VOX coiled cable, it’s great if you slightly want to adjust your tone to the less bright direction and manages to still be quite versatile. And the price is not that bad either.
If you really want to cut high-end tones, Ernie Ball Cables does that. It is a solid option for bright-sounding Strato, and Telecaster owners who want to do some tone shaping. But for most guitarists, it cuts bright tones too much.
And the last is the Fender Hendrix Voodoo Child Coiled Cable. It’s not a bad cable, but you can achieve same things with lower-priced VOX cable. If you are a Hendrix fan and want to really sound like him, this cable still might be worth-a-buy for you.
Buyer’s Guide – FAQ
What Makes A Good Guitar Cable
Does guitar cable even make a difference? Yes, it does. There is a huge variety of cables from under 5 dollars to up to more than 250 bucks, and the difference is real.
Don’t get me wrong, you don’t have to spend over 200 good ones to get a decent guitar cable. No, no, no. Some cables even under $20 can provide really good tones for you.
And you are looking for a cable under $50. Under that price, you can get a really good cable for yourself.
A good rule of thumb is to stay away from the cheapest cables(under 10), weaker quality of these can affect the tone and durability too much.
Now, let’s look at the different aspects and parts of guitar cable and see what you should look for.
Build
Anatomy of The Guitar Cable
Every guitar and instrument cable usually share the same anatomy.
- Outer Plastic or Fabric Jacket, this part keeps everything inside safe and in one tight packet.
- Copper Shielding, blocks an electric field interference from other sources. Some cables have double or even triple shielding.
- Conductive shielding material, blocks the external and internal electric field (prevents the core, where the electricity carries the audio signal from ‘’leaking’’.)
- Dielectric insulator, Keeps the core where the electricity carries the audio signal isolated and prevents ‘’leaking’’.
- Core (conductor), in the copper core, the electricity carries the audio signal.
That’s how a guitar cable looks from inside.
Capacitance, Picofarads, aka. leaking
I used the term ‘’leaking” here. That describes the phenomenon, where electricity tries to find the easiest way to the ground. Insulators are used to prevent this from happening in guitar cables and in other electricity-related objects.
Picofarads per foot (or meter) are used to measure cable’s ability to stop the center conductor from leaking the signal to the ground.
Fewer Pickofarads means that the cable’s ability to stop ‘’leaking’’ is better. For this price point, under 30 Picofarads is a good number to see.
Sadly, some manufacturers are not giving you Picofarad ratings. They just state that their product is ‘’a low capacitance cable’’(picofarads is used to measure capacitance.) So, low capacitance usually refers to a good picofarad rating.
But in my opinion, saying ‘’low capacitance’’- is a broad and generic term that doesn’t inform consumers enough.
But when you can find Picofarad number from the cable package or product page, that’s usually a good sign. And manufacturer saying ‘’low capacitance’’ won’t hurt either, at least they think that the capacitance of their cable is low.
Here’s a video that teaches you more about picofarads and how the guitar cable works:
How Guitar Cables are Built
Most guitar cables are built completely by machines. But for the price under 50, you can expect that more and more humans were involved in the building process.
This won’t have a huge impact on your tone, but some, and it can have some effect on the durability too. Cables built completely by humans cost well over 100 bucks.
Honestly, for home guitarist, I don’t see any reason to go over 50 dollars when buying a guitar cable. That’s all that we home guitarists need. But as I said it’s still a good idea to not buy the cheapest guitar cables if that’s possible.
Conductor material
In guitar cables, a copper conductor(wire) in the middle of the cable, is used to carry the audio signal via electricity.
The only thing that varies on the materials is how pure the copper is. The main thing affecting ‘’how pure the copper is’’, is the oxygen level. Nowadays, almost all decent cables use oxygen-free copper as a conductor, especially for this price range.
And these cables have usually letters OFC= Oxygen-free copper, on their package or product page. If you could not find these letters or words, that probably means that unpurified copper is used as a conductor.
The idea behind the OFC is to remove oxygen from the copper to make it more conductive, and as a result, you’ll have a cleaner signal. Also oxygen-free copper has more corrosive resistance.
But oxygen-free copper won’t improve your sound quality much when the cable is new, but when time goes by, corrosion won’t spoil your cable and tone so easily. And OF copper is also more efficient and is able to carry more current, when compared to unpurified copper.
I would aim for oxygen-free copper cable, and you can easily find these under the price of 50.
Here’s a video that reveals more about the oxygen-free cables:
Connector material
Connectors typically have 4 different kinds of materials and platings:
- Nickel
- Copper
- Silver
- Gold
Some say that the gold-plating is superior to the others, and that is true to some extent.
- Silver is the best conductor
- Copper comes after that
- Gold has a slightly worse electricity conductivity, but it has better corrosion and tarnishing resistance. This is why gold-plating is usually used
- Nickel has the worst conductivity of these 4, but it has high corrosion-resistant. It’s also the cheapest of all four
For the price point under 50, almost always gold-plated connectors are used. It won’t cut the tone and is durable. Gold-plated connectors are a really solid option.
It’s good to remember that sometimes, the effect of stuff like this is only marketing hype produced by the manufacturers. And although the things that I just mentioned are scientifically proven, manufacturers can make a bigger deal about these things than they really are.
Outer Jacket Material
Usually, the outer jacket is made of rubber or fiber(cloth). The quality of these materials can vary a lot.
The cheapest cables are not flexible and break easily if someone steps on to them. And one reason for this is the low-quality outer jacket. When the price point of the cable goes over 10 bucks, the quality starts to be better and better.
When you compare the rubber and fiber(cloth) outer jackets, there is no tonal difference between the two.
In general, I would pick the fiber jacket cable over rubber if there is a high chance that someone steps on to them often. On the other hand, a rubber cable won’t get curled as easily as a fiber cable. But otherwise, the outer jacket doesn’t matter much.
Thickness
Usually thicker cord provides better protection to the cable. And when the cable is thicker, the copper conductor can be thicker too. This makes the cable more efficient and helps it to carry more currency.
I would not buy the thinnest and cheapest cables, because manufacturers probably saved on material quantity and quality when building these.
Length
When the cable grows longer and longer, your guitar will lose more and more tone. How?
To simply put it: The electricity carries to the audio signal. When electricity moves through the conductor, in this case, the copper wire, it slightly loses its power because of copper’s resistance for electricity. Some electricity also leaks to the ‘’ground’’. Longer the cable is, the more tone you will lose.
It’s like pushing a wheelbarrow full of leaves. If you push it for 2 feet, you will drop fewer leaves than when you push it for 20 feet.
But length is not all that matters. Cable’s ability to stop the center conductor from leaking the signal to the ground plays a big role too. Picofarads per ft ( or meter) is used to measure this. A good Picofarad rating can make some 30ft cables sound better than some 10ft cables with a bad Picofarad per ft.
Fewer Pickofarads means that the cable’s ability to stop ‘’leaking’’ is better. Some manufacturers are not giving you Picofarad ratings, probably because the rating is so bad.
Everything below 30 picofarads is really good for this price point. And when the cable is really short, picofarads are not playing so big role, because the signal won’t have so much time to leak anyways.
Best guitar cable length
A good rule of thumb is to buy a guitar cable less than 10 feet for home use. If you must buy a 15ft or 20ft cable, it’s not that bad, and sometimes you won’t even notice the difference.
The shorter the cable is, the better the tone will be. But don’t make things hard for yourself by buying a too short guitar cable.
If you want to learn more about the cable length, watch this video:
How to Buy The Right Cable for You
For the price under 50, you can definitely get a great cable for you. No question about it.
But consider these things when making the buying decision:
- Cable length, I would recommend under 10ft cable for the home player, this way you won’t lose much tone and extra length only takes unnecessary space. If the manufacturer gives you picofarads, pay attention to them. Below 30 Picofarads is great for this price range. Also, if they state that it’s ‘’a low capacitance cable’’, it’s usually a good sign, but not so accurate and trustworthy.
- Oxygen-Free copper cable, this makes the cable more durable and efficient when carrying the signal. I recommend that you aim for OFC cable.
- Outer jacket material, my experience has revealed that fiber cable is more durable if there is a chance that someone steps on to them often. If stepping on is not likely, rubber cable will serve you well too. Of course, this is not always the case.
- Connector material(plating), under the price point of $50, 24K gold-plating is really usual. It’s a good connector material and durable.
- Thickness, usually thicker cables are a better option. It means more protection to the cable and the wiser use of materials. But of course, if the cable is thick, it won’t necessarily mean that it’s a good cable.
- Warranty, almost always cables under $50 come with a lifetime warranty, and that is a great thing.
- Sometimes brands use the term, ‘’Limited Lifetime Warranty’’, usually this means that warranty covers the situations where there are issues with the workmanship, materials of the cable or if the cable broke in normal use. But if there are signs of not-normal use causing the damage, if there is no receipt, or if there are only cosmetics damages warranty is not viable. Of course, practices vary and it’s a good idea to check what the specific manufactures mean with their ‘’Limited Lifetime Warranty’’.
- Coiled or normal cable? Coiled cables are those curly ones that you see. These cables shape your tone to the less-bright direction because the signal has more cable to go through(signal has more resistance). It’s like turning your tone control down. These are great cables especially if you want to shape the sound of your single-coil pickups into a less bright direction. But if you want to maintain the bright tone of your guitar, buy a normal guitar cable.
Are all guitar cables the same?
No, all guitar cables are not the same.
- Different kinds of copper are used to build cables
- They also come in different lengths
- Thickness, connector materials/plating, and durability can vary a lot
- Some cables even have a lifetime warranty
Guitar cable plays a huge role when it comes down to your tone. It can make or break your game. So choose your cable wisely.
Conclusion
The cable can make a huge difference in your tone, and most folks underestimate the importance of a good guitar cable. These are the 5 best guitar cables under $50 based on my experience.
I hope that this post helped you to choose the right cable for you, if you have any questions, leave a comment. I wish you all the best and keep rocking!
Teemu Suomala
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