#12 is absolutely correct, and he has given the reason for "crackling" leads, and I have heard speculation that with certain insulation types, the movement of the shield over the insulation can cause minute amounts of static to build up causing "crackling" noises, but these seem to be cheap poorly made leads.
I have been a guitarist for over 50 years, owned 36 les pauls, 3 telecasters, and a host of other guitars, designed, built and repaired countless amplifiers, owned and run a 30kW P.A, been the "go to guy" to fix problems, and the only solid wire I have seen in a guitar is a piece of 18swg used to earth the potentiometer mounting plate to the bridge.
Under NO circumstances would I contemplate or advise using solid wire inside a guitar, as sooner or later it is bound to fracture.

 

Why are you still playing with cables anyway? Pretty much every band I have ever seen in the last 20+ years was runing on wireless gear just so that they don't have to put up with cable issues.

And I invented a preamp that fits in the end of a 1/4 inch guitar cord connector as soon as surface mount parts existed...
and right after everyone switched to cordless.

 

#12 is absolutely correct, and he has given the reason for "crackling" leads, and I have heard speculation that with certain insulation types, the movement of the shield over the insulation can cause minute amounts of static to build up causing "crackling" noises, but these seem to be cheap poorly made leads.
I have been a guitarist for over 50 years, owned 36 les pauls, 3 telecasters, and a host of other guitars, designed, built and repaired countless amplifiers, owned and run a 30kW P.A, been the "go to guy" to fix problems, and the only solid wire I have seen in a guitar is a piece of 18swg used to earth the potentiometer mounting plate to the bridge.
Under NO circumstances would I contemplate or advise using solid wire inside a guitar, as sooner or later it is bound to fracture.

Good to know I may be coming to you for questions!

 

And I invented a preamp that fits in the end of a 1/4 inch guitar cord connector as soon as surface mount parts existed...
and right after everyone switched to cordless.

Bummer!!!!

 

That solid-vs-stranded ideology sounds like a myth to sell needlessly expensive high-end cables.

I agree with #12 completely. It's the connections that are always the culprits with noise. And not only the wire continuity and solder-joint integrity, but also the wear and oxidation on the contacting surfaces plays a big part.

When there's a problem in electronic systems, it's usually the connectors in some shape or form.

 

Here's a document describing instrument cable construction that I found while wondering about cables myself. Should have just asked #12, IG and rog. Good stuff, though. Covers types of wire, dielectrics , shielding, jackets, impedance etc. Enjoy.

 

Here's a document describing instrument cable construction that I found while wondering about cables myself. Should have just asked #12, IG and rog. Good stuff, though. Covers types of wire, dielectrics , shielding, jackets, impedance etc. Enjoy.

Good stuff very insighful

 

Good info in that article, JohnInTX.

Though a minor part of the article, I just wanted to say something about "skin effect". I did a little research on it, because Monster cable made a big deal about it a while back in order to justify and promote their well made but terribly overpriced cables.

In a nutshell, skin effect is something to consider with MHz and GHz RF signals, but is irrelevant in the audio band.

The numbers (and correct me if I've got something wrong):
1. Skin thickness on copper wire is about 400um at 20KHz. (Wikipedia)
2. Copper oxide growth in free air is about 0.1um in 1000 days, and extrapolating the graph suggests that in decades it'll still be under 10um. (Copper.org)

So it'll be hundreds of years (from the date of wire manufacture) before the copper oxide skin effect has ANY effect on high frequency audio.

This illustrates the importance of context and scale in the interpretation of any information, even scientific information.