What's the VISUAL difference between guitar cables and speaker cables?

[PowerTube]

I know that speaker cable carries more voltage and isn't shielded, etc..... But what about these cable that have the permanent rubber casing next to the tip or a solid rubber casing? You can't unscrew them and look. So how do you usually tell at a glance? I've played guitar for over 20 years and I've always kept them seperated by purpose so this has never came up.

[kelly user]

usually they have speaker and instrument cable written on them.

[PowerTube]

usually they have speaker and instrument cable written on them.

I've seen some that don't.....

[kelly user]

generaly speaking of course, i would just mark them off with white electricians tape.

[Dreamland_Rebel]

delete me please

[rjohnstone]

The ones with the permanent ends are typically cheap instrument cables.
The wire gauge is most likely not heavy enough to be a good speaker cable.
Speaker cable is also noisy as hell when used as an instrument cable.

[hippietim]

Speaker cable is also noisy as hell when used as an instrument cable.

That's cuz speaker cable usually isn't shielded.

[toejam]

Speaker cable seems a little bit thicker (at least comparing my Monster guitar cables to Monster speaker cables).
They also come with little grooves in them and little colored bands (red, blue, yellow and green). I put the blue bands on the speaker cables and red ones on my guitar cables.

[SlasZ]

I currently have a cheap thin instrument cable going from my head to my cabinet, should i use a speaker cable for this? And what difference would it give me?
Or are you guys talking about other speakers (PA?)

[rjohnstone]

I currently have a cheap thin instrument cable going from my head to my cabinet, should i use a speaker cable for this? And what difference would it give me?
Or are you guys talking about other speakers (PA?)

Get a real speaker cable.
If it's a tube head and the cheap cable fails, you risk damaging the head.

[demeyes]

The only way that I can tell between some of mine are that my speaker cables are shorter and grayer than my instrument ones. If you have problems then I would mark them with tape or tie something to them.

[technogumbo]

I currently have a cheap thin instrument cable going from my head to my cabinet, should i use a speaker cable for this? And what difference would it give me?
Or are you guys talking about other speakers (PA?)

If you have a tube head, you might be in for trouble using a "cheap" cable to bridge the head to the cabinet as tube heads do not like being driven into nothing.

I buy good quality instrument cables and use them for the PA monitors as well, having never had any problems. I also label both ends of all cables with medical tape and a fine point Sharpie. Any numbnuts can re-wire the rig if I am not present and not screw anything up.