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A Snake Head is a cable that has the outer weaving stop short on the instrument side of the cable. This is a cosmetic feature, especially nice if you have vintage or sensitive finishes and you're concerned about the weaving causing wear on the instrument if you run the cable between the strap and instrument body.

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No, our cables are not directional. If you're purchasing a Snake Head, the Snake Head portion should be on the instrument side, but that only is cosmetic. The cable will work fine if plugged in any direction.

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The Snake Head is only needed if you're concerned about finish wear if you have vintage or sensitive finishes like thin nitro, etc. If you don't care (or even want the wear) a Standard is great for the primary instrument cable. If this cable is going from pedalboard to amp, then it should be a Standard to ensure maximum protection of the cable.

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A silent plug is not necessarily an "upgrade". Typically, a silent plug is for acoustic players who do not have the ability to mute their signal and would unplug their instrument. If you're an electric player with a Tuner or Volume pedal, then you don't really need a silent plug. Silent plugs are great, but they do provide another potential point of failure - so I always recommend, if you don't need the feature, purchase a standard plug.

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Some of our customers swear by gold contacts. Some of our customers can't hear a difference. Gold does provide a better contact surface, but the signal improvement may be hard to notice. Some of our customers (including myself) just like the cosmetic look of the black shells with gold contacts. If you're in a humid climate and deal with corrosion, gold might be better for you as well.

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When people read that, the first assumption is that the copper is somehow 'air tight'. Nope. OFBC is part of the smelting process where the oxygen molecules are smelted out or removed to a point where it's below .001%. This makes a very pure copper allowing for great conductivity.

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Our primary instrument, speaker, XLR, TRS, and Flex patch cables are built using Rattlesnake-brand bulk cable that is custom manufactured for us in the United States. We developed the specifications for each cable based on the flexibility, durability, handling, and electrical performance we wanted. It is not off-the-shelf Belden, Mogami, Canare, or another manufacturer’s finished cable covered with an outer weave.

After the bulk cable is manufactured to our specifications, every finished cable is cut, sleeved, soldered, tested, and packaged by our team in Missoula, Montana.

Some specialized products use third-party bulk cable when it is the best fit for that application. When they do, we identify the cable manufacturer and model in the product’s Specifications tab.

Complete construction and electrical details, including conductor material, wire gauge, capacitance, shielding, and cable diameter, are provided in the Specifications section of each applicable product page.

Answer

The weave is a poly-weave, meaning it's a plastic polymer-based weave. We use a variety of brands, but primarily TechFlex. It's designed to be heat and abrasion resistant. It is not a cloth/fabric weave, which tends to fray and stain easily.