6.35mm TS
Direct Answer
6.35mm TS (Tip-Sleeve) is the 2-conductor version of the quarter-inch phone connector, carrying a single unbalanced mono signal. It's the standard connector for electric guitar and instrument cables, unchanged in essentials since its telephone-switchboard origins.
Source: EIA RS-453 / IEC 60603-11
Specs
| Shaft Diameter | 6.35 mm |
| Conductors | 2 (Tip, Sleeve) |
| Signal | Unbalanced Mono |
The Standard Guitar Cable Connector
6.35mm TS is the simplest member of the phone-connector family: just two conductors, tip carrying the signal and sleeve carrying ground, wired for unbalanced mono audio. It's the connector on nearly every electric guitar and bass cable, and on many other instrument-level and unbalanced line-level connections in music and audio equipment.
The connector's official name is simply the "phone connector," tracing back to manual telephone switchboard plugs from the late 1870s -- the same mechanical lineage as the TRS version at the same size. TS's simplicity (fewer contacts, less to go wrong) and durability are part of why it has remained the default for instrument cables that get plugged and unplugged constantly on stage and in the studio.