“Three of these things belong together,
Three of these things are kind of the same.
Can you guess which one of these doesn’t belong here?
Now it’s time to play our game.”
Joe Raposo and Jeff Moss, Sesame Street, 1970

By now you have seen these three coil cables online. Maybe you have even seen one of them in your favorite neighborhood store?

When it comes to coil cable by images alone, there are a lot of innocent misconceptions as to what you are actually going to get. When it comes to sales copy, written by each of our brands for marketing our products, claims sometimes look similar, but in a bigger picture are not always the same.

Bullet Cable took the time out this month to read what musicians say, to see how confusing marketing can be, and to claim our difference. We purchased a Vox Vintage Coil and a Lava Retro-Coil from one of our dealers and physically examined them against our Bullet Cable Coil and tested them against each other in listening tests.

For the purpose of this post, we are going to concentrate of the physical characteristics. Three coil factors seem to be most important to musicians: Design, durability, and performance. This post is not to say what is right or wrong. Best cable will always come down to personal preference.

Disclaimer: Like musicians who use our cable, we love our Bullet Cable Coil. We will share why we have made the design decisions that we did when we list the physical differences. Please keep in mind that we are very biased about our own product but in fairness, we will be fact based by the evidence of our own physical examination of the cables and by facts released publicly by the other two cables.

Size does matter when it comes to performance. On stage, you want to move around. In your bedroom, you want it to be compact. Bullet Cable is the longest, but retains a 12 inch footprint when you are in confined quarters.

Fact checker: Don’t let opinions lead you to believe that longer length coils equals signal loss.

“The new Retro-Coil cable is now 20-feet long — five feet shorter than the initial version to better minimize the choking effect of high capacitance common in all-coil cables due to the large amount of copper used.” Lava Cable marketing

The technology designed by Lava makes their 20′ foot cable claims accurate for their cable, but not necessary for “all-coil cables”. On the contrary, the over-all construction, audio engineering design, and quality of materials selected will contribute to the signal delivery. A shorter coil cable in general does not mean, ‘better’.

Bullet Cable offers the biggest coil diameter. Why? When Bullet Cable introduced the Coil Cable in 2004, it was our primary goal to bring back that thick retro style coil that showed up in old photos of Jimi and Pete Townshend. It took over a year of trial and error to get that large, relaxed coil, so that it wouldn’t lose its shape and would drape ever so sexy on the stage. We also spent enormous amount on R & D to improve the ‘high roll-off’ characteristic of the old cables. The result was an old-skool looking cable with crisp highs, punchy mids and defined lows. The Vox Vintage Coil Cable was introduced a year or two later. Lava, introduced the ‘Retro-Coil’ in 2007.

Bullet Cable artists claim that the Coil never tangles and they don’t trip on their cord, but they also tell us that other people in the band do sometimes step on their cable or equipment sometimes accidentally falls, hitting the cable. Because of this, we designed a durable cable with a thicker jacket that isn’t stiff and it keeps the coil movement slinky.

“I’ve been using your cables for 7 years now. I play bass for Nikka Costa, and Revoltaire (Rod Stewart’s daughter Ruby)
I’ve also played with Beck (3 albums), Jaunes, which I got a Grammy, toured with Lenny Kravitz, Prince, Britney Spears.
All that time I’ve been using your Bullet Cables (red curly cord is my favorite!) In fact I have many, but have been using
my same red curly for seven years! It hasn’t stopped on me yet!”
Shawn Davis, Bass Player

We have read a few comments from guys who claim the Bullet Coil is heavy. We thought rock n roll was supposed to be heavy? Our lady musicians have been performing with the coily for years without any whining.
In reality, the Bullet Cable Coil weighs less than 4 baseballs or two hamburgers.

How much stage movement you are going to get with each coil? Bullet Cable is going to give you more room to move around per foot in comparison. Coil cables are designed for stretch, but you will have a distance where it will come off the stage. Pulled far enough, it will pull out of your amp or drag your pedal board around on the floor.

As stated in the beginning of this post, your coil cable choice is personal to your playing experience. Yes, one of these things is not like the other…In this case, all three coils are not the same.

If you google “vox vs bullet vs lava” or any combination of the three, you will come across plenty of bulletin boards with plenty of musicians making claims to their favorite coil cable and why.
Music boards mentioned in this post:
Telecaster Guitar Forum
Marshall Forum
Vintage Amps

Guitarist, Ryan VanWieringen, recently wrote us to share with us his use of the Coil cable for his performance. From what he shared, Bullet Cable has been a tag along accessory sharing stage presence with the band for years now.

Ryan VanWieringen, Gatsbys American Dream

I have been using the bullet cable for over 7 years when I first found it at a small guitar shop around here called Guitarville. I have been converted ever since. What I love about the coil cable I use is that I never have to wrap it at the end of each set or practice. I never have to worry about it being tangled either. Plus, it just looks great on stage.
Ryan VanWieringen, Guitarist, Seattle, WA

Gatsby’s American Dream live @ Ritual 6.6.06
Video: jeannieanline

Thanks Ryan for the share. You Rock!

Hey Hey it’s Saturday, a popular TV show that disappeared into the ether 10 years ago, has been brought back after a cast reunion show in 2009 and rave reviews from its audience.

Rod Bustos is a Chilean bass player in Australia who can often be heard playing with Vanessa Amorosi, Andrew De Silva, Sainz, Vatos Locos, among others as well as a lot of session work. He recently finished a national tour with Vanessa Amorossi earlier this year.
More on Rod Bustos here: http://www.myspace.com/rodbustos

Vanessa Amorosi, along with countless other accolades has eight ARIA Award nominations and one prestigious APRA Award under her belt, not to mention her most played record on Australian radio in 2008 ‘Perfect’, as well as an internationally high-profile collaboration with Hoobastank on the US act’s single “The Letter”. With her latest single “Mr Mysterious” she is hitting new heights.

More on Vanessa Amorosi here: http://www.vanessaamorosi.com/

Our phones were ringing the next day, “Did you see Prince and the Bullet Cable?”. Of course this is a paraphrase because I don’t remember if Prince was still the “artist formerly known as Prince” or “Prince”, but I do know that up until that performance, Bullet Cable was otherwise simply known as “a coil cable”.

Our cable (and the one’s that followed) got their identifying name,
“Bullet Cable”. Think about it, Van’s aren’t called, “slip-ons”. Big comparison, I know, but I think you get what I mean.

Sometimes you get a brief look at the future, and this was one of those moments. What we knew was that we were going to be something more than just a cable company. [Since 2005 we have added 60 products, developed one of the best solder-less connector systems, and artists have made the Bullet Cable their own signature around the world]

I have been looking for videos of the SNL performance, but have always had “Video Removed because of Copy Right Violations” to greet me. Then yesterday someone sent me this video of Prince performing “Fury” and the cable appears in the video.

Let’s share Prince for the mid-afternoon-at-work-get-up-and-get-some-energy call for all you music lovers who either work to live or live to work. Click here to go to the video link on contactmusic.com: PRINCE – FURY

Enjoy!

It is like a prop or something, but at the same time it is a conduit of sound and it probably was used in the recording.

It is nice to be a fan of those who are fans. It is a full circle kind of thing.

These are our new Bullet Cable friends: Invade Rome

Sort of catchy. Definitely made my toes tap.
You can follow them on Twitter