The Monster

I recently decided to order some more guitar picks and another 1/4' cable and as obsessive as I am I always have to read and research endlessly before I make a decision to pwn my credit card. Obviously my search resulted in quite a few articles about the evil of Monster Cable. They are ridiculous enough to sue anyone with Monster in their name including Monster Garage, Monster.com, Monster Energy Drink, even Disney's Monsters Inc. I don't need to go into too much detail since you can easily find all of this information and more online. Basically, they don't want anyone to "tarnish" their name with a different image and have such high prices to appear premium as well as pay for legal fees. I don't understand how they can sue over such a commonly used word. Indeed they are monsters. Also check out www.nissan.com

However, back to the point. I do have a 20' monster prolink 500 which i've had for years. I think it was around $40 when I got it, which is still the current price. It is very pretty with the gold-plated ends and everything. Everyone says they don't really carry a noticeably better signal until it comes to the 50'. Compared to my other shiesty no-name cable, it has no interference whether its due to the shielded cable or the shielded ends while the crappy one does. The monster also has the connections inside the ends covered in plastic which probably shields it a bit as well? Perhaps it has excessive or trivial additional features but it is better than none. Another important issue is the fact that the Monster cable is so stiff it does not tangle and is very easy to wind or unwind.

Alright, I agree with everyone that Monster is overpriced and they are the bad guys. But what cable should I purchase and use instead? Having done a search and looking at cables from DiMarzio around $5 cheaper or Mogami, Vintage, Live Wire, etc, around $10 cheaper. The Monster also has those little rubber bands you can use to help identify your cable.

The Monster may not sound decisively better than competitors, but it is certainly not inferior is it? I'm not going to be buying new instrument cables regularly, and I've had cheap cables crap out before. It might be unnoticeably better at shorter lengths, but it is still better and when you are using mutiple pedals and connections, and longer setups onstage, it will start to make a difference will it not? Is it worth the extra money for these Monsters? Will my conscience keep me up at night because I bought a cable from one of the most evil companies in the world? Well I still haven't stopped using Bank of America.

I have a choice of going to guitar center and paying standard high prices, going to the "mom and pop" shop and getting ripped off by assholes with bad attitudes, or paying high prices online.

I think I've decided to buy something shiesty for now, but I'm not going to say that it's better just because I bought it, just because it's cheap and made by honest people, and I'm not going to claim I won't buy something nicer once I have money.

UPDATE 6.28.09

I ended up getting a Monster "100" series 21ft. It was around $30, I didn't want to spend the money for another "500" with the gold plating. It is all-around much higher quality than cheap cables and I know competitors around the same price range have about the same product, except they don't sue people who have similar names. I don't know about other brands, but Monster does have a lifetime warranty and I've heard of tons of people at school who trade in a bunch of old cables before a big show. Evil company, yes. Do I get what I pay for? I hope so. I'll care about the evils of Monster and Reebok when I stop eating meat.