Two Gear Geeks

Price: $130

Available at BassNW and other fine retailers.

The TwoGearGeeks tested a 20′ right to straight cable in a variety of live, rehearsal and studio settings, primarily with bass guitars (but with a smidge of guitar thrown in for good measure).  The test gear included a 1972 Fender P-Bass, a 2005 Modulus Quantum 4, a 2006 Lakland Skyline DPLE2, an RS Guitarworks Telecaster and a host of amps.  We followed Evidence Audio’s advice and did well over 10 hours of “break-in” on the cable before the testing (by running signal through it from a continuous output source to an amplifier to a speaker cabinet at home).

The Good Stuff:

Let’s cut right to the chase — the Forte cable is great.  It has an excellent, rich, warm tone, with deeper lows and clearer mids than a Monster cable or a generic cable with either bass or guitar.  Sonically, the Forte is very similar to Evidence Audio’s Melody cable, which we reviewed last year.  Perhaps the Forte has a slightly beefier tone, though, one that is perfectly suited for rock bass.  The simple benefit over the Melody is that the Forte is a much more flexible cable, which makes a huge difference in live applications (especially during tear down at a busy club).

The Forte is also hand made in the USA, a fact that we love.

Honestly, everything good that we said about the Melody applies equally to the Forte.  No need to repeat ourselves, just read the Melody review!

The Bad Stuff:

As with the Melody, the Forte is a pricey cable.  But, you get what you pay for in cables, IMHO.  If you are using a good instrument into a good amp, why cheap out on cables?

Overall:

The Forte is an excellent addition to the Evidence Audio cable stable, and — to us, at least — worth every penny.

This entry was posted on February 10, 2010 at 12:09 am and is filed under Bass Gear, Guitar Gear. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.