A buddy of mine sent me a link to the latest in tone-improvement: Essential Sound Products’ MusicCord Pro, a six-foot, $179 power cord that they claim will improve your tone because of its more efficient power delivery. C’mon now! A power cord? I suppose that if you have a fluctuating power source a power cord will help, but you’d have to have some sort of built-in power conditioning to make sure the power you feed to your device is consistent. The MusicCord doesn’t have that. ESP simply claims that they use 14-gauge wire as opposed to their standard 16-gauge wire.
Frankly, I don’t know what to believe, though I’m leaning on the side of extreme skepticism; and even though some major trade rags such as ProAudio Review and Premier Guitar have weighed in with glowing reviews. I read through all the reviews that ESP provides and ALL of them are purely qualitative reviews. None include frequency response charts or RTAS charts to show that the sound wave is different using the MusicCord Pro as opposed to a standard power cord. Without hard data, it’s kind of hard to believe all the hullabaloo. Truth be told, I think it’s a crock.
Here’s an excerpt from the Premier Guitar review:
“The second stage of the test was less ambiguous. Are you going to hear a difference? Yes. Simply put, hearing is believing. Is it a big difference? For me it was. I tested the MusicCord Pro with a pair of EL34-powered amps (Goodsell Black Dog 50 and 50W Egnater hot-rodded. Plexi-type) and a humbucker-equipped guitar (Duesenberg MC signature); the improvement in clarity was immediate and unmistakable.
Imagine sitting in a convertible with the top up and the windows down all the way… adding the MusicCord Pro to your rig is like dropping the top-you get the idea. While you might not need it to power your practice amp, it’s an investment worth considering for just about any other application.”
The reviewer’s second stage of his test might’ve been less ambiguous than his first test, but his description of his second test is all qualitative and just as ambiguous as the first. I think the effect is more psychological than anything else… Another review that a friend mentioned from Vintage Guitar stated that the MusicCord Pro actually reduced the 60Hz hum from his single coil guitars. Now that’s really pushing it. Are you telling me that the MusicCord Pro actually modified the magnetic field of his pickup? Yeah… uhh… right… Wonder if he just happened to turn in a different direction once he plugged in that power cord, which usually solves the 60Hz hum. Methinks those two reviewers have been spending way too much time on The Gear Page forums. 🙂
All the reviews harken to the used car salesman who gives you a wink and winning smile and says, “Trust me.” Uhhh… no thanks… Like I said above, give me hard data, preferably in the form of charts and graphs that definitively show a positive modification of the sound wave, and I’ll take it a bit more serious. A graph may just show an improvement, but I think one reason why ESP nor any of the reviewers show them is that the improvement is meager at best.
But I will admit that my ears may not be as sharp as other folks’, so I’ll let you decide for yourself. I downloaded two clips of a song from the ESP site to compare where the sound engineer claims there’s a huge improvement in the quality of the recording due to the MusicCord Pro. Here they are (note the file are raw, unmastered WAV files so I have links to them as opposed to using the player):
Here’s the song with a stock power cord…
Here’s the song using the MusicCord Pro…
Personally, I can’t tell a difference between the two, and I used flat-response studio cans to evaluate the clips. I would say that my hearing is normal, so if there is any difference, it’s subtle at best.
I think you could get by with a good quality power cord. Me? I use medical grade power cords for all my equipment. These are tested and certified for reliability. Also, I recently had a dedicated power source with its own breaker run out to my garage/studio to handle all the equipment I was plugging in, and I had the electrician also install a power conditioner so my power load would always be consistent. I think a consistent power load will do more for your tone than a cord.
But hey! If you want to buy into the latest snake oil, I have a couple of properties in Peru, Indiana that I could sell to you… 🙂
Guitar Gear 
Nothing wrong w using heavier gauge wire on the cable but I seriously doubt the electrical theory of a mere power wire improving sound. No filter, no balanced or isolated supply just into the wall. I would say no way. I run everything off my Furman power conditioner and my single coils still get some noise if you stand in a certain angle to the amp. Putting a Faraday shield on V1 is supposed to help stop amp noise certainly more so than a mere wire gauge, that is electrical theory.
This belongs more in the battery myth of Eric Johnson who claims there is a tone difference between new Duracell and Energizer. He also claims using different alloy screws in his cabinet also changes the tone. Really, seriously???
There is a simple truth regarding human beings, we make up stupid shit and we not only believe it we insist upon its reality. It’s what we do. Just review the “news”. We have an entire channel that claims it is “news” but never deals in reality or simple facts. Why does everyone imagine there are so many religions and a church of some sort on every street corner?
“There is a simple truth regarding human beings, we make up stupid shit and we not only believe it we insist upon its reality.”
Laughing my ass off! Thanks for the reply!
The tone differences heard by EJ and others when using competing manufacturers’ batteries is caused by the variances in typical voltages from the batteries out of the box (maybe one is 8V, another is 9.1V, etc.). These variances in voltage affect the way certain stompboxes’ components respond, and thus, the overall tone.
I play guitar for a living. I have had my hands on my instrument 12+ hours most days since I attended GIT 20 years ago. Just like many people who put in the time as doctors, lawyers, small business owners, etc., if what you do is your vocation AND avocation, after awhile you will notice small differences like voltage discrepancies. In and of themselves they are nothing, but add 100 small things and you have one very large thing. It’s that attention to small details that separates greats like EJ, Vai, Holdsworth, and others from YouTube heroes, Guitar Center noisemakers, and weekend warriors.
If EJ spends more focused time at a pursuit, he will notice more details about said pursuit, just as most of you who spend many hours per day at your job will notice details there that EJ might miss. Yes, he has some great ears for tone, and a creativity that touches us all, but to a certain degree he reaps certain benefits from the amount of time he devotes to his instrument that would be very difficult to achieve any other way.
I’m not saying the power cord company’s claims are valid or not. My comments were about only the batteries and their effects (no pun intended, but I like it anyway–lol).
The biggest bottle of snake oil, IMHO, is most signature guitars and the price difference between them and having the exact same products made by a competent luthier. $25k for an EVH replica that will NOT give you EVH’s creativity? Please…Now, as a piece of fun art for your home, I get it, kind of.
However, I’d rather take that same $25k and have someone build ME a guitar that is to MY specs. That’s easily stated because I currently have limited funds, but I hope I maintain that attitude even as a billionaire. I believe it’s sad when people over a certain age haven’t established their own identity enough yet. As much as I love my guitar mentors and cherish what they sparked in me, I think there are better ways to show that than copying their vibe. One might be to take their advances and actually add to them, rather than just blindly mimicking what’s already been done.
Some signature guitars (Les Paul’s, Randy Rhoads’) transcend their namesake because they truly move guitar technology itself forward. Those are the exceptions. Most are just rebranded and repriced clones designed to separate adolescents and overgrown children alike from their money. The power of advertising boggles my mind, because it shows just the MASSIVE control Madison Avenue has over our purchasing decisions, therefore our money, therefore our efforts to MAKE said money, therefore our lives themselves.
Having said all that, when MY signature guitar comes out, PLEASE buy it, because it will be a great instrument AND because I really, really need the dough re mi. Help a capitalist brother out, hippies! lol
Sorry for the thread hijack!
Haven’t spoken in a while I think. I was attacked on YT a while back, seems they knew a bit about me. I hope all is well and that you were not this person. Ciao, apb
Sorry about the misunderstanding. My bad. Take care, apb
As P. T. Barnum once was so aptly quoted: “There’s one born every minute…” Suckers that is…..
The money would be better spent on just about anything else, a new pedal, new strings, new tubes or…….beer and chips…….
Would this happen to be a comment about Brett McQueen ?
The hell of it is that mags that I respect like Premier Guitar gave such glowing feedback. Pisses me off, really that they didn’t do an objective review. At least I know not to trust that reviewer’s reviews.
Is your house in the Northern part of Peru, Indiana? I have US$1M and I am looking for a 1200-1400 Sq Ft home in that area.
Seriously; we are using AC power often traveling many, many miles on the power utility’s power lines, then traveling through a hundred or hundreds of feet of generic solid core copper or in some cases aluminum wire within your house, to the outlet where you plug you amp into. Now Sound Products wants you to believe that the last 6′ of wire is going to be a game changer in the tone of your rig.
Yes, it is important to use a proper diameter wire for the extension from your amp to the wall socket, enough to handle the current. Going over kill with welding cable size wire, is not going to improve anything, if your existing wire was a already suitable diameter.
The MusicCord Pro is shielded, but the wire within your house is not shielded and the length from your amp’s AC socket to the transformer is typically not shielded. So the shielding is from the wall to your amp and does nothing about what is radiating from the AC wire in your house.
Did our guitar heroes from the 60s-80s obsess about welding cable size AC power cords/speaker cords and ultra low capacitance guitar cable? They probably would have if the internet and forums was around then, but it wasn’t so they had plenty of time to practice guitar.
I got one of these to use as a 500 set a year live bassist and when you play loud live this makes a true difference. Just like using Mogami Platinum instrument cable does for me as well. All these small gear connections add up to a real difference when you use high end cable. And makes the gig nicer night after night when people tell ya how great you sound and you can feel your tone moving the room. How? I dont know, but the ESP power cord just helps my overall sound. Nice.
Hmmm curious Have you done an A/B test? Like I said in my article, my skepticism stems from all the qualitative and anecdotal accounts on this stuff, but not one person has produced any quantitative analyses; not one frequency response chart or RTAS graph – nothing. If I could see a waveform, now THAT would make me lean towards believing this stuff more. Totally cool that you gig as much as you do and based upon how much you gig, I’d tend to take your word over that of somebody who just sits in their room. But despite that, if it does it for you, then more power to you!
In any case, thanks for providing a contrasting opinion!
Definitely A/B’ed with my regular power cord that came with my Bass Amp and hear a difference (TC RH450). I am also a 15 year Pro Tools expert and my ears hear a difference on any audio gear I have tried this cord with. And maybe you would have to test MANY aspects of this cable next to others to see some digital story of its differences from regular AC cables. Frequency, transients, etc. on and on. But ears tell the story, and this FOR SURE makes a difference to mine.
But that’s the point: It could be just a very small thing that makes all the difference in the world. For instance, the genetic difference between human beings and apes is a very short sequence; something like two molecules in a different order. But that difference is significant.
In any case, I’ll take you at your word. My philosophy in making music is that if anything helps inspire my playing – no matter what (though it does tend to be a pretty blond more often than not…) – then it’s a good thing! ROCK ON!
I drank the kool-aid also, on the passionate recommendation of my amp builder. I was hugely skeptical of the claims but I had the money to blow, so I did it out of respect.
In all honesty, I forgot that I had changed cords on my gear (stuff like that happens when you get old, trust me) and when I played it live at a gig, I was utterly blown away. Not only did my ears notice a very discernible difference, but so did my bandmates and also the crowd. I didn’t think it was possible to get a better tone than I was already getting before the purchase, so wtf?
I still don’t understand how a stupid power cable can do something so drastic. I went through the basic scenarios (subconscious mind trickery, good club wiring, other power issues, power of suggestion, etc…) and came to the only logical conclusion that I could. I’ve lost my freaking mind.
How f’in difficult can this be? DI recording – reamp through an amp with a standard cord and record it. Change just the cord and do it again. Record both takes with a load box and DI to reduce the variable of air moving in a room. Analyse the takes, then align them and flip the polarity of one and null test. Manufacturer’s – c’mon, take 150 bucks out of the marketing budget and buy 20 minutes of an engineers time and make all the discussion moot!
only a moron would buy that product. probably only $5 in raw material to make the thing. If you want a 14 gauge wire power cord for peace of mind just get one for $10. It’s not necessary because 16 gauge will do the job just as well
I don’t appreciate being called a moron by anyone, unless it’s to my face. Then I would appreciate your boldness in the face of an ass kicking.
I understand that if there are no A B tests or graphs that it may be a bitter pill to swallow that something so trivial can make such a difference. But even if there were PLENTY of A B tests and graphs, some people will not acknowledge even the remote possibility that this cord can make a difference.
One commonality on all the threads is that people who have tried it have raved about it, and people who haven’t have dissed it.
My question to you is: If you haven’t tried the product yourself, why are you slinging names?
Open up your mind a little, sonny boy. Calling people names when you have not even an iota of what you’re speaking of leads me to believe your screen name should be shortpaul2-1/2.
I have been using the ESP cord for 4 years on over 600 shows. It definitely makes a difference night after night. Clarity and floor to ceiling frequency response is better. If you are a hobbyist and don’t play a ton of shows you may not have the fine tuned ears of 1000’s of sets of live music. So maybe you will not hear the difference. A pair of headphones is a poor reference for such things. Hear it in a live setting night after night. Then you will know. Otherwise your your opinion is not very educated about live sound for power chords or whatever.
Whatever floats your boat, pal. I play a couple hundred of gigs a year, so I’m no hobbyist. But what are you comparing it to during your gigs? Another rig you have with the exact same setup without the cord? Unless you’re doing a side by side comparison night after night, your claim makes no sense at all. The funny thing about things like this is that no one ever provides frequency response or RTAS charts to show that there’s a measurable difference. Sorry, for that amount of money, show me some quantitative evidence and maybe I’ll change my mind. But don’t come here spouting expertise based upon purely qualitative observations. For all I know, you just made yourself sound clearer by turning up your treble knob.
There have been nights I ended up (from forgetting or changeling gig bags or cartage techs) with regular chords and knew within the first song that things were not as good without the ESP. So I do have perspective on this as an A versus B situation.
Sorry still not a true side by side comparison. Were you in the same room? Was your amp in the exact same place? Were you using the same guitar? Fine by me if you believe you can tell the difference. But until you can show me actual frequency response charts, I won’t be taking you at your word.
Whatever. Just know that I see a difference in tone and get huge compliments on my sound which incorporates Mogami Platinum cables from bass and to speakers (on my TC Electronic rig) the ESP power and Aurelex separators for my bass rig on every stage I play. Because all this tech makes a difference. Playing is always the big story for a musician but tone is 50% of application. If you are heard better you sound better.
Most high end gear details matter with few exceptions. The truths of our gear and the most successful records of all time is that a huge amount of technical detail went into their creation.
Plus a lot of sound engineering… You’re a ProTools expert, so you know very well that you can take something that sounds like crap, and with a few filters and effects, turn it into something quite nice. I’m nowhere near the recording expert you are, but even I can do that.
Please don’t get me wrong, if your experience is as you describe, and it inspires your performance, then by all means, this gear is valid for you. But I think the biggest problem I’ve had with these is that all those who’ve sung the praises of them have only provided anecdotal accounts.
As another mentioned, how hard would that be? You DI into your recording gear, then re-amp to the SAME amp two different times; with and without the ESP. The you can easily take some frequency-response plugin, and see a visual representation of the signal.
It would take some really detailed scope reading like that found in a DSP lab somewhere to see what that difference might be between a regular power chord and the ESP. But I will say that cabling at every stage is fussed over in studio to the length that John Shipley who engineered the big records by Def Lepard, Shania Twain and Alison Krauss (to name a few) paid a rumored $10,000 for a special mic cable made of silver. I head him say in an interview it made a huge difference. And he won and engineering Grammy for the record he used it on! So my first assumption is that these high end cables matter. It can get ridiculous with that boutique special market of high end stuff but I could not find one online review relating to ALL the companies that make high power cables that was negative. And These cables are made by conpanies for high end home audio as well.
BTW, it’s Mike Shipley, not John. I know who he is… I read the Sound on Sound article about him mixing Alison Kraus’ album awhile back when I was researching the loudness wars. The guy’s done amazing work. And while he mentioned power cables being important, he did say it in conjunction with microphone cables. I’m still not convinced, but I do get it.
And don’t get me wrong, I’m not one to put anyone down for their gear preferences. Hell, I’ve gotten tons of grief over some of the gear I’ve used over the years. But I’m actually more curious as to what the actual measurable differences are, if any, between normal power cabling and the high-end stuff. I totally get it from a microphone and instrument standpoint because those are directly in signal path.
But power is a completely different animal and in my mind, not directly related to the signal, other than producing the juice I need to power up my stuff. From my standpoint, as long as I have consistent power, I’m good.
Shit! I always get his name wrong. Bad mistake for me as a recording engineer(and bassist). And like I said prob some serious scope in a DSP lab somewhere could read the difference. Cheers!
– Clark –
>
I’ve tried it, and surprise, surprise, it did absolutely NOTHING to the sound!
Tsk, tsk, tsk….
This is an article I whipped up showing the MusicCord scientifically does not do any thing for tone.
ears! You guys who don’t play over 100 shows a year and have seriously a- b compared this stuff should really wise up. I have used Music Cord Pro now for six years on over 1000 shows. Tested and know, it matters! Scopes and numbers don’t explain! Listening does! So if you have not seriously compared by listening then don’t claim to know.
And this article is so incomplete and analysis of audio value of power and what it does. This 20hz – 20khz nonsense is so outdated. Theoretical high of sounds in nature is 386khz! With brain effects from higher frequency a new discovery. And so just check the online reviews of high in power chords for every sort of use from home audio to the one discussed here and you will see only praise for their benefits. And no way and all the people bought out to say nice things. Do more real world research before incomplete ideas are put forth as truth.
I’ve just quietly watched this thread over the years. I’m still not fully convinced, but I did get a hold of a great power strip a couple of years ago, called the Rockn Stompn power strip. I’ve been using it three to four times a week at gigs, and I have to say that what it brings is not necessarily better tone for me, but a consistent electrical signal to my gear. I’ve plugged this thing into “dirty” electrical outlets, and with it’s two internal filters, I get a nice, clean signal.
I’ve never claimed to be an electrical expert, but I can say that based upon my personal experience with the Rockn Stompn power strip, there’s something to the high-end gear that will provide a consistent signal, and that can at least ensure that I still sound like me, and not have to worry about my gear sounding different because of an inconsistent power supply.
As you mentioned in previous replies, you’d have to do some pretty deep scope analysis to see measureable differences. I’m still not sure that that really affects tone, but I can say that having consistent power does provide a measure of comfort that my tone won’t be altered.
Rockn Stompn Power sequencer would work to reduce the pop as it would reduce the inductive loading and voltage spikes when you turn on your amplifier. since it delays everything less power is pulled at once making a much smaller or no pop will occur. But second thing most of the internal power regulation of the amplifier. However, a lot of noise can occur if a ground loop happens. A power strip such as the Rockn Stompn Power sequencer can be designed to fix this problem. A ground loop is caused by the internal wiring of the location even when the incoming line power is perfectly regulated. Supplying proper is very much key to a lot of tone for example a fuzz face in the original circuit there is no voltage regulator so as your battery dies so does your tone unless you like that starved voltage tone. Also many of the cheap wall wart power supplies have very poor regulation and isolation therefore will be noisy.However, a guitar amplifier is not a stop box and has a transformer which already provides some isolation and they have smoothing (some times very poor). The MusicCord would not be able to get rid of a ground loop thus get rid of a problem it claims to fix. Also, we had a similar power sequencing system in my school when we would run mass and it does get rid of the pop.
I may not play 100 shows a year but, I have played a couple of gigs, run live sound on numerous occasion and worked with people who have experience on Broadway so I am no slouch. I have also been playing guitar for almost a decade. I have designed amplifier at the single transistor and tube level and have built numerous power supplies. The design of the power supply has very large effect on tone while of the cables contribution is negligible as long it can provide the necessary power. First off I have done listening test and I have listened to all their demos. I have listened to the demos on numerous loud speakers and headphones I can not hear a difference. I however, I also demonstrated with numbers that this is in fact true. My analysis is actually from 23999-0.7Hz which is a larger bandwidth 20kHz-20Hz. You would have known this if you cared to look at the data I posted along with the article. Also, 20kHz-20Hz is not outdated please show me a source that states this claim. R.J. Pumphrey stated such in his article “Upper Limit of Frequency for Human Hearing” in the 166 volume of the scientific journal nature that 20kHz. Thus this gives me two sources that confirm that is in fact the upper limit of hearing. Also, as I stated in my article I broke down the claims asserted by Essential Sound products into measurable phenomena. Second, I do not know of any speakers that are used in sound reproduction that can produce frequencies in the 384kHz range. For instance some of the best monitors in the world the Adams A8x can only produce frequencies up to 50khz so it does not get into this “Theoretical high of sounds” the only animal that can hear in this range is the greater wax moth which can hear up to 300khz according to io9. Unless you are greater wax moth you can not hear this. Do you have an article that references this Theoretical high of sounds”? Could you be referring to the new trend of high sampling rate DACs that have sampling rates near 386kHz such as some DSD DACs that sample at 384kHz or higher? Higher sampling rates producing higher quality sound is a myth. This is proved empirically along with personal test I have done from a digitized record that I sampled at 96kHz 32bits listened to an m-audio delta 1010lt and through the stock sound card in my computer then sampled down to 48kHz,44.1kHz in uncompressed WAV files. I was unable to distinguish a difference even with changes in bit depth down to 16bits. Also, sound system make two sounds the sound that the sound systems makes and the sound that their friends makes. Some people can hear the sound that their friends make the loudest.
Sample rates have a lot to do with interpolation and complete audio data. And relatively less to do with the actual higher frequency range from what my limited research and much experience tells me. I know for a fact that recording and mixing at 88.2khz/32bit sounds better that 44.1/16 (I am a Pro Tools expert with 18 years experience). Especially when it gets reduced to 44.1/16. More overall info for all audio to be expressed. And other data tells us that body absorption of higher frequency ranges occur and effect us. So i would say that we don’t have the tools yet to quantify why this cable may create a better sounding amp, etc, And if you have not done any real world testing in an environment actually playing an instrument at concert volumes and A -B’d the difference in two cables and their responses and think you really can’t speak with authority on this.
If there’s no scientific evidence to prove it makes a difference, we can’t say that it makes a difference. Our senses are unreliable, that’s just common scientific knowledge. Without rigorous tests, we’re all simply speculating.
That’s simply not true. I find a good many bits of tech and method that the greatest music engineers use that are unquestionably used as effective that have zero science behind there proof. Such is the truth with high end cable of all sorts. Until you A-B it yourself (as I have) you really can’t say much. Don’t be a virgin telling people sex sucks.
So you did not listen to this AT ALL? you have no valid point then. A-B then tell me your judgement. You are like a Virgin telling me sex sucks! Listen, then you have an experience to that validates you POV.
Clark, you’re still following this thread? 🙂 That’s awesome! I agree with your old comment that we just don’t have the tooling available right now to tell if there’s a difference. I listened to the recordings ESP made and couldn’t perceive a difference at all. For me at least, if I can’t tell the difference, then I don’t really have the motivation to even consider buying something like this. For me, it would be a case of someone else saying, “Dude, you sound so much better,” if I purchased the cord. But frankly, I wouldn’t know if it was because of the power cord or it was because of my playing.