There is increasing use of small strain shear modulus, calculated from the shear wave velocity (v s ), in geotechnical site characterization, analysis and design. Shear wave velocity is significantly influenced by stress state of the soil among many other parameters. In this paper the effect of shear stress on shear wave velocity of weakly cemented sands during drained and undrained triaxial compression is evaluated. The results showed that shear wave velocity during drained shear is dependent on σ′ 1 and during undrained shear it is dependent on σ′ 3 . During drained compression, v s increased with σ′ 1 up to a principal stress ratio of 6-12, depending on the level of cementation and beyond this stress ratio v s decreased significantly even as σ′ 1 continued to increase up to failure. It is hypothesized that the observed behavior of v s during shear could be used as a precursor to failure for projects involving sensitive or structured soils.