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Gear Reviews |
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"More Power!"
The Essential Sound Products MusicCord-PRO |

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Arguably, the most
important factor in a
power cable designed
for musicians is
simple durability
– after all, a
power cord/cable
is subject to
use night after
night. The MusicCord-PRO
is built to the
hospital-grade
electronic specs
– in other words,
construction quality is
very high.
Testing the performance of something like this, one is, of course
greeted with skepticism – for good
reason. A two-meter piece of cord
that costs as much as some boutique
pedals is still a hard nut to crack for
some, even if it does have its own accessory
bag! Another question is even
more basic. Does the cable actually
make a discernible difference? The
answer is "Yes."
We put the MusicCord- PRO
through multiple uses, and compared
to stock cords and some midrange
cords, it did indeed make a vast
improvement in our signal chains;
guitar and bass amps were cleaner sounding,
and not in a "clean tone
vs. distorted tone" sort of way, but
our high-end tube amp's signal had a
noticeable absence of hiss that existed
with its regular cable.
Guitars with single-coil pickups
produced less 60-cycle hum, and the
amp's overall sound was more-open.
One could liken it to the Presence
control on an amp or certain preamp
"maximizers" – there was a depth and
clarity particularly noticeable in the
high-end response.
Granted, some players (maybe
most), will find it a challenge to
justify such an investment. But if
you're truly tone obsessed and/or a
professional player whose reputation
rides on your sound, the MusicCord-PRO deserves serious consideration.
– Sean O'Bryan Smith |
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Most tone freaks don't give a second thought to spending hours obsessing over their instruments,
amps, effects, pickups, signal chain... you name it. The most obsessed dig
in even further, researching tubes, the capacitors in their guitar, and the
cables on their pedal boards. But do these same folks pay the same
attention to the power cords they use?
Yeah, probably not. But the folks at Essential Sound Products
are hoping to change that answer to a "Yes!"
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Essential Sound's MusicCord-PRO
replaces the standard three prong
connectors found on everything from
amps to preamps to computers. It has
multiple "line" and "neutral" conductors,
which increase its efficiency
– typical power cords have a single main line and neutral conductor. And
instead of one piece of 16-gauge wire,
the MusicCord-PRO uses multiple
smaller gauges that together equal the
size of the 16-gauge, the theory being
it produces cleaner power.
The MusicCord-PRO is braided
with 90 percent to 95 percent copper
shield, which combats RFI interference.
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Vintage Guitar Magazine, July 2011
MusicCord-PRO Power Cord
Price (December 2011): $199.99 (2-meters) |
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