Renowned session and stage guitarist Dean Parks tested a number of specially designed guitar cables from Germany’s Sommer Cable before picking two that met his demanding needs: Colonel Incredible and Spirit Zilk.
“I landed on these two models that are very flexible, and I love that in a cable,” says Parks. “They remind me of old school microphone cables that fall to the floor naturally and don’t create their own problem. The trick is to get that flexibility and still have good sound, because it can be a trade-off.”
Dean Parks has enjoyed a legendary 4-decade career as a session guitarist in Los Angeles. Known as a master of all styles of music, he has played on thousands of sessions. Producers, artists, and fellow musicians rely on Parks to bring something new, fresh, and unique to each project.
“I’ve found these cables to be really satisfying to use,” Parks continues. “I’ve used them for recording and live shows and they’re sonically right up to speed. Their usefulness is in both packing them up with my other gear to carry around and also in performance. They don’t create the problem that you get with some cables that are stiff and create loops that raise up off the floor. That can be a problem.”
Parks chose Sommer Cables’ “Colonel Incredible” and “Spirit Zilk” models.
The Colonel Incredible cable conveys a very well balanced sound image with an exceptionally smooth frequency response. The high-end guitar cable features a technically optimized two-wire design. The first wire consists of concentrically stranded silver-plated wires and is shielded by a dense copper mesh screen alongside a second braided ground wire. Professional musicians have described the sound image as punchy, clean and well defined.
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Spirit Zilk is a soft, highly flexible guitar cable sheathed in a velvety, semi-transparent jacket that glides lightly on the floor. The stranding angle of the shielding screen has been chosen with care so that hardly any friction points will occur at the overlying sleeve protection of the connector, giving the cable an extra long life. This high-end guitar cable provides clear transmission even over long distances. https://tinyurl.com/yamcpd2v
Dean Parks’ list of gold and platinum records spans rock, pop, R&B, country, jazz, and film. Credits include Bob Dylan, Celine Dion, Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder, Crusaders, Herbie Hancock, Mary J. Blige, Sting, Bette Midler, Paul Simon, Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson, Burt Bacharach, Billy Joel, Graham Nash, BB King, T-Bone Brunette, Andreas Bocelli, John Williams, and Randy Newman. Recent live/TV performances include shows with icons James Taylor, Gloria Estefan, David Foster, Carole King, Quincy Jones, The Oscars, Emmy Awards, Grammy Awards, Library of Congress, Kennedy Center Honors, and Austin City Limits. See www.deanparks.com for a discography.
On a final note, Parks describes the cables when working with multiple instruments onstage: “The Sommer cables have noiseless unplugging, so you can change guitars with no bad effect. They’re silent on the unplugging and plugging. It’s not common, and to have that and all these other features in one cable is pretty great.”
1-foot samples are available upon request.
ABOUT SOMMER CABLE
Sommer Cable Germany is a foremost development and manufacturing company of innovative and unique cable, connector and electronic products for the Studio, A/V Installation, Live Sound, Broadcast, Video, Music, IT and HiFi markets, with business partners in over 50 countries. In 2015, Sommer Cable America, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sommer Cable Germany, was established in Santa Rosa, CA by CEO Martin Ucik. The new company supplies the North American markets with Sommer’s wide range of innovative and high quality products. 707.200.4020 http://sommercable.com/en
