Instrument or Speaker Cable?

[universalextract777]

Hello
I have different types of TS cables(purple, black, white)
But I can’t recognize which one is instrument(guitar, synth) cable and which one is speaker cable
Thanks in advance for your kind answering
(3Pictures of cables are uploaded in links)

https://imageupload.io/do93mSYONNdQL5W

https://imageupload.io/KX8oJ5NnuNE50XF

https://imageupload.io/52CcAfCwLxZRFVf

[BertKoor]

The difference is in thickness of the copper conductors inside, and speaker cable is not shielded. Just unscrew the connector to see it.

Typical guitar/instrument/patch cable:


Typical speaker cable:


But what happens if you accidentally use the wrong cable?

If you use a speaker cable for instruments, then it won't be shielded from EM/RFI and you might hear a hum.
If you use instrument cable for a speaker, then it might get a tiny bit warm if you crank up the amp really high and do that for a long period.

[universalextract777]

AC7D2E21-2CAF-46D4-92C3-758345DF0B79.jpeg

Thank you
I unscrewed and took pictures

66D2DD88-B143-48C0-BE17-B0D799E69B95.jpeg

[whyterabbyt]

is it a weird picture or does that bottom one look as though only the ground connection is soldered?

[BertKoor]

The top one seems to have shielding (transparent outer layer) but you might wanna have a peek underneath that shrinked isolation to be sure.

But this:

Screenshot 2023-11-01 at 13.09.24.png

That is a broken instrument cable.
The central conductor with red isolation looks like it's snapped and needs resoldering.

Know someone with a soldering iron? Otherwise you need to bin it...

[universalextract777]

Thank you very much
Yes true
By these views Is not possible to guess are they instrument or speaker cable?

[whyterabbyt]

By these views Is not possible to guess are they instrument or speaker cable?

well, no, because we cant see the cable properly, can we?

The top picture shows the outside of a plug and cable, ie absolutely nothing of any use.
the second picture shows badly soldered or broken joints on a plug, and part of the inner cable, with no indication what else there is to the inner cable. ie absolutely nothing of any use.

there were two solder connections, and its a TS jack, so sanely you'd expect shielded single-core, or unshielded 2-core but I sure as hell cant tell from those views. could be shielded 2-core with shield unconnected, or a core and the shield bridged for all I can see.

all you can tell from the view, as bert's closeup shows, is that the soldered connections are broken.