Re: High Z

[Mike Curtis <wd6ehr@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> 
> There was once a good rule of thumb about cable length. Somewhere below
> 20ft. Well low and behold folk, technology hit the cable industry too.
> Today's cable has lower pF/ft. rating than the old stuff. The added
> capacitence of the cable is what kills the frequencies. I would suspect this
> plays a large role in your cable length. A good reason not to buy your cable
> from Radio Shack.

The problem, for practical purposes, is only with very hi-Z mics, guitar 
pickups, etc.  The "active" guitar pickups output low-Z, and you can run 
pretty much anything.  I built a simple voltage follower for my guitar, 
and I can actually run lamp cord with no hum, etc.

Higher impedance mics like the JT30, BluesBlaster, Shaker crystal, etc., 
should be run with as short a cable as possible, into a very high-Z amp 
(e.g. tube) for the best sound.

A quick and dirty "cheat" is to use a wireless guitar transmitter.  The 
cable is (inherently) short, and the ones I've checked have at least a 
meg input Z.

-- mike curtis
wd6ehr@xxxxxxxxxx