Guitar-PC USB Interface

[Klaus5]

Currently i record guitar by connecting the jack on the guitar directly to the mic in of my laptop (using a 3.5mm cable and a 6.3 to 3.5mm converter thing). This results in pretty poor quality sound and quite a bit of hissing, but bearable with a bit of high pass or EQing (and when mixed with other instruments, barely noticeable until the guitar part is soloed in a dub mix). Ive also noticed that the mic input of my laptop produces hissing even when there is nothing plugged in. When doing the same, but using a guitar amp, the noise makes it a non-starter.

I know the real solution to this problem is to get a decent PC and soundcard, but due to monetary constraints, that is not possible at this time.

Now i seen this cable this on amazon which plugs from guitar (or amp) 6.3mm socket to USB. Would this reduce hiss and enable me to record better quality guitar, or would the noise problems i currently have still be an issue?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/LINDY-USB-Guita ... d_sxp_f_pt



Oh and also i sometimes record bass lines on guitar and lower the pitch. Again, quality is just about bearable when doing this, would this cable thing benefit that at all? I know this method of lowering pitch by an octave in Audacity is never going to come close to recording a real bass guitar. But like everything i do, its a cheap compromise until i can afford better equipment.
Thats a secondary issue though, my main concern is for recording guitar normally (skanks, picking, melodies etc).


Thank you for any advice or knowledge that anyone can share with me

[interruptor]

I would not buy this thing unless there was at least one positive review by a trustworthy source around. (I don't mean user reviews on some shopping site but something by an audio mag, if possible with test results) At the given price chances are that the quality of the electronics built into this cable isn't any better than the mic input of your computer.
After all the prices for decent audio-cards have come down a lot over the last few years, so it may be well worth it to use that hissy built-in audio interface some more until you can afford a bigger sound card.