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Introducing the ZEROCAPTM Cable Capacitance Eliminator
DEALER and guitar OEM inquiries are being accepted.
Note: The ZEROCAPTM cable is temporarily out of stock while we tool up to build an even better cable!
The ZEROCAP cable capacitance eliminator lets you hear all the frequencies being produced by your guitar. Cable capacitance kills the high frequencies from your pickups, resulting in a muddy sound. The ZEROCAP cable makes your guitar think it is driving about one foot of cable, and the sound opens up in an amazing way. The ZEROCAP consists of 30 feet of quality guitar cable and plugs, plus special interface electronics housed in a tiny enclosure toward one end of the cable. Connect the ZEROCAP cable between your guitar and amp, plug the supplied 9V DC power adapter into the inline box, and you are ready to rock! What does the ZEROCAP cable do?
With the ZEROCAP cable, the guitar's sound is brighter and flatter. You hear the actual pickup sound, unfiltered by the cable, and you get more of the good sound that has been eaten by cable capacitance until now. What about all the other cables in my rig? If you have a pedalboard with cables connecting your pedals, make sure they are as short as possible. There are stomp box connection cables that are only inches long, or less. These have very low capacitance. Understand that stomp boxes all have capacitance as well, so don't insert any more effects than you need in the signal path. And when a stomp box is switched out using "true bypass," the capacitance of the cable and box next in line adds to all the capacitance before it. So use the shortest cables possible. But the ZEROCAP sounds different. Yes, it does! The brighter sound and lack of artificial midrange boost means you may have to adjust your amplifier's tone controls. When you want that extra high end, it's there for you, open and not nasal. Think of it: You have been playing through 500 picofarads of choking cable capacitance since you were a kid. Not any more! You'll notice that the volume control no longer kills the high frequencies in your guitar's tone. Previously, the resistance of the volume control conspired with the cable capacitance to ruin your tone at lower volumes. Since the cable capacitance is now gone, that does not happen and your guitar shimmers as much on 5 as it does on 10. Listen to this MP3 sound clip. There are four licks played in sequence:
These were played on a 1990 American Stratocaster with the bridge pickup so you can hear the treble difference between the two cables. Also notice that the premium cable produces a midrange accentuation that is not natural to the instrument. When you plug the ZEROCAP into your amp, you'll be able to also feel the difference. Also, you can compare popular cables to the ZEROCAP in our TONE SHOOTOUT! To understand how cable capacitance affects tone, read our article. But I like the high capacitance muffled tone on some songs. Use the tone control on your guitar to get that sound. Without all that extra capacitance in the cable, the tone control will have a much wider ranging effect on your sound. Most guitarists leave the tone control on 10 because the cable is already killing their tone. Now the tone control actually has a function in life! Why don't you offer several lengths of cable? Only one length of cable is needed because a 5 foot ZEROCAP cable sounds the same as one 30 feet long. That's the beauty of zero capacitance: Zero is zero. If you don't need the extra cable, coil it up on your pedalboard or at your amplifier.
The ZEROCAP cable is designed for passive guitars without active electronics. You can use it with active instruments, but you will not notice much difference. It sounds best with single coil pickups which are most susceptible to high frequency rolloff from cable capacitance, but works fine with humbuckers as well. We test every cable with a guitar and amp, and we don't get a lot else done during the day as a result! Every ZEROCAP is shipped with a user instruction sheet that lists the measured capacitance of the cable, and that's part of the hand-testing that we do. Why don't you use molded plastic connectors? We use standard Switchcraft machined brass phone plugs because they are made of metal, fully sheilded, and are reliable and serviceable. What happens when your plastic molded plug cable fails? You chop off the plastic part and have your guitar tech install Switchcraft plugs! Why not use the best to begin with? How does the cable feel? We use low noise flexible cable from a reputable manufacturer. The cable is 0.187 inches in diameter and is very flexible. This is NOT one of those unusable super stiff "premium" cables! What if I step on the interface box? It's filled with resin and solid as a rock. ZEROCAP Device Specifications
Where can I get technical support? If you need help using the ZEROCAP cable, please see our contact page. You may call or email. Our goal is to help you get maximum value out of the ZEROCAP cable, so please call or write if you have a question or problem. Technical support is FREE. ZEROCAP UPDATE IN PROGRESS! The ZEROCAP cable is temporarily unavailable while we tool up to produce an even better cable! Our R&D has created an even better zero capacitance cable that you will have to hear to believe. It will be a few weeks before the cable is available. Please contact us if you would like us to notify you when the cable is ready for shipment. There is a 30-day money back guarantee. If you are not satisfied for any reason in the first 30-days after purchase, you may return the product for a full refund.  As an experiment, we dredged up some cheap
computer data cable from the Atlantic Quality Design industrial
supplies dungeon, and applied the ZEROCAP electronics. Pictured is
about 95 feet of Alpha brand PVC insulated data cable, and it has
better high frequency response than the 15ft premium cable we used in
our other tests! This cable is stiff and not otherwise suited to
guitar, but it sounds great. So the next time you are bungee jumping
with your guitar strapped on, call us!
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