Gear Reviews
Review – Tsunami Cables 10’ ST-90 Tidal Wave Model
Review of Tsunami Cables 10’ ST-90 Tidal Wave Model…
Lake Elsinore, CA based cable company, Tsunami Cables, is on a mission to bring a more colorful and reliable product to the cable market.
“At Tsunami Cables we make it our goal to offer the best quality products at an affordable price. Cables designed to eliminate the need for having two sets of audio cables (an industry standard). Using a cable for studio recording and another for the road. Our cables are designed to handle both the road and the studio.
As the customer, you have your choice of cable, connectors and even a variety of colored coverings. The ideal Pro Audio cable is one that gives you the clearest picture of your sound from the source (i.e. “guitar”) to the input (i.e. “amp”) with the least amount of resistance. We specialize in outfitting full band set-ups, pro recording studios and live venues. No project is too large or too small.
Tsunami Cables, audio cables that deliver pure sound in any situation!!”
I was sent a 10-foot ¼ inch cable with a straight/90 degree jack to try out and analyze for quality in construction and audio integrity.
I had never reviewed a cable before and thought the best course of action was to test it out in some scenarios that were completely different in every way in terms of music, venue, and setup. I felt it was appropriate to switch up the 90-degree input with the straight jack with a variety of basses and the cable being used on either side of an effects change.
I found the cable to be incredibly sturdy, with the rubber coating covering the body of the jack being very helpful to prevent “jack slipping” which is common when too much usage leads to the cable unscrewing on itself. The nylon mesh coating with the “black widow” color scheme helped to keep the cable easy to coil by providing a more rigged surface area and also made it harder to tangle on itself. My first gig had me running my Ibanez SR1506 Premium with the Tsunami running from the bass to my pedal board. This in turn ran through my Korg Tuner, Darkglass Vintage Microtubes, Boss 0C-3, and Darkglass Super Symmetry compressor, with my Mogawi cable then going to my Phil Jones Bass Suitcase Compact amplifier.
As I was already familiar with my patch cables and Mogawi I was testing to see if there was going to be any issue with noise or reduction in quality from what I had experienced with my other pro level cable. It was a prog/metal gig in a high-end venue in LA and the cable delivered without any interference or additional noise.
The second gig was in a pit orchestra for a musical with the same amplifier but running just clean with just a tuner in between the amplifier and I. This time I switched the Tsunami to be after the tuner to see if there was any changes or wear and tear since flying back from LA. Theater’s, especially older ones are notorious for shoddy wiring/lights and can be really noisy if conditions are not optimal. Luckily, this theater was better than most and the cable added no additional noise at all to the signal and kept the tone true from the tuner to the amplifier. I ran my Carvin JB-5 and Ibanez SR for this one.
A week had passed and I took it for a Christmas recital at a Catholic church a few towns over. The colorful coating definitely paid off as I had thrown it on top of a mountain of the churches cables by accident and was able to easily retrieve it due to its very noticeable color scheme. I ran my Wishbass custom fretless through the same PJB amp and found no loss of tone or additional noise on the final gig. All around the cable was solid as a rock, very tangle friendly and gave me zero noise issues.
Pro’s: Very sturdy construction, quiet as a mouse and visually appealing. The construction lends itself to a tangle free cable.
Con’s: A bit pricey for a 10 foot cable at $70, but it is a pro level studio/live cable so its up to the buyer to decide on their needs.
Visit online at tsunamicables.com