Blog 17 | Y-Cables, Stereo cables and 2-Channel snakes for Guitar, Bass and other instruments



October 8, 2024 - Posted by Mash Maximus

Are you one of the lucky folks with a stereo pickup on your guitar, bass or other stringed instrument? Do you have FX pedals with Stereo outputs? We have just the thing for you intrepid instrument explorers!

Pro Audio LA presents our new Stereo Instrument Y-cables, Made from Sommer Onyx 2025 & Neutrik Gold connectors.


 Yes, this has been a long time coming. Many of our clients would order Y-cables from our site and complain about noise and handling issues and yearned for a reliable and great sounding Y-cable that would work with their unbalanced instrument. Once we realized that the problem was specific to guitar, bass pickups and some FX pedals. We needed a better and definitive solution for all our instrumentalist clients. Guitar and bass pickups need adequately shielded instrument specific cables to carry a good quality signal from the pickups to an amp or pedal. This led us down a long and windy path to the Sommer Onyx 2025. This dedicated instrument cable is a 2-channel or 2-pair snake that can be split easily, has a smaller profile and sounds excellent! We asked some of our clients to test the cables for us while we ourselves tested them out with our own instruments. The results and comments were resoundingly positive. So HERE you go.

While researching and testing for the perfect Y-Cable for Guitar and Bass, we realized that there are quite a few folks within the stereo instrument community who use Stereo instruments with Mono amps. Chapman sticks, interesting bass guitars, baritone guitars, multi-scale 8, 9, 10 strings guitars and many more instruments use stereo pickups and many of these instruments are often played through mono amplifiers or pedals. This also led us to the STEREO to Mono Instrument cable. This cable is very similar to a regular Balanced ¼” TRS to unbalanced ¼” TS cable familiar to many synth and sampler enthusiasts. However; this specific cable is wired slightly differently to combine and SUM the Stereo output of a Stereo instrument into a single Mono, 1/” TS. This allows easy connectivity to any regular amp without missing any of the tonal diversity that a Stereo instrument provides. We made 90º versions too, check them out below:

¼” TRS to 90º ¼” TS

90º ¼” TRS to 90º ¼” TS

What if you have a Stereo pedal or Stereo instrument with 2 separate mono outputs? Fear not, we have that too. Check out our new Instrument specific 2-Channel ¼” TS to ¼” TS snakes. These are made with the same Sommer Onyx 2025 instrument cable and are therefore; perfect for use with any stereo pickup based instrument or Stereo FX pedal. Some modern amp modelers like the Kemper, AxeFX, Bias, Neural Quad Cortex all offer multiple output options. The standard unbalanced outputs are also coupled with balanced line level outputs. You can confidently use our instrument specific 2-Channel snakes to plug into the unbalanced outputs of your modeler, or you can use our tried and tested Mogami 2930 2-Channel snakes with the balanced outputs and plug straight into any line level inputs on your interface or a power amp.

Speaking of which….for all your folks who want 2-Channel snakes and Y-cables for all other applications, like inserts, Mult Y-cables and Balanced to Dual unbalanced splitters, Check out our offerings HERE. One of our most popular offerings is the Customize your own Y-cable.
Here 2 helpful points to remember when looking for the Y-cable or 2-ch snake on our website, for your specific application:
  • If its made with Sommer Onyx 2025, its good for instruments like guitars, basses and pedal.
  • If its made with Mogami 2930, its meant for Mic or Line level signals (some synths and keyboards are okay).

Still not a 100% sure and have questions, send us a text or email or give us a call and someone from out team will be happy to guide you to the right cable.