Cord Wrapping

How Do You Wrap Cords?

  • Listen to the Cord

    Votes: 10 66.7%

  • Arm Wrap

    Votes: 2 13.3%

  • Other

    Votes: 3 20.0%
  • Total voters
    15
B

bryanzera

New member
I was tought from a young age that to properly wrap a mic/instrument/speaker cable is to follow it's natural tendency to coil and not to wrap it around your forearm. The reasoning behind this seems solid enough: by not wrapping it tightly around an arm and gently coiling it, one would avoid putting wear and tear on the innards of the cord. However, NONE of my musicial colleauges seems to know this.

How do you feel about cord wrapping? Do you 'Listen to the Cord' or do you 'Do the Arm Wrap'? Is there another way to coil/stow cords that I don't know about?
 
Never wrap a cord around your arm!!! It only makes it curl extra and it can damage the cable.

The only right way is to take a bit like a lasso, and to give it a few swings when you have curls.
 
The advantage to coiling a cord following its natural tendency is that you preserve the integrity of the shielding and the conductor.

The advantage to wrapping it around your arm is it makes you look cool to 12-year-olds.
 
lpdeluxe said:
The advantage to coiling a cord following its natural tendency is that you preserve the integrity of the shielding and the conductor.

The advantage to wrapping it around your arm is it makes you look cool to 12-year-olds.
Click to expand...
ROFLMAO

:D :D
 
"Listen to the Cord" is the only way allowed at my studio -- anyone who doesn't follow it gets a fast lesson -- if they still don't get it, then their arms get broken off (let's see you arm-wrap 'em NOW, Sparky!) ;) :p
 
I use my arm but allow the cord to fall naturally around it. I never force it to curve or bend against its natural tendencies. I also don't pull it extremely tight. 6-7 years later with less-than-stellar cables and I've yet to have a problem with one.
 
Has anybody tried pouring a few drops of olive oil into their storage case - stop them getting all tangled up and sticking to each other? I mean, it works with spaghetti :)
 
Sorry: tangling is in their genes. I conscientiously wrap every cable every time (not around my arm, thank you very much), attach Velcro ties, hang them on a nylon strap with Velcro ties, and ya know what??


....every time I need a cable it's like reaching into the snake pit and pulling out a 30' adder.
 
Over/Under IS the proper way to wrap cables. It is standard in theatre as well when I was an oceanograpic engineering tech. our underwater robots tether had to be wrapped that way or you were in big trouble. When you over under and you lay the cable on the floor, you can pick up the one end of the cable (make sure it's the top one) and as you are pulling the cable out it will unwind perfectly with no knots.
 
I used to do a lot of sailing and that's how we had to wrap line as well. You want it to unwind very smoothly. I use the same technique for wrapping cable.
 
I use over / under and the half fold style. I always mess up over / under, but I always mess up the cable toss with the half fold method. Whenever I have help breaking the rig down everyone else goes for the cables and I have to stop them... then it's quizzical looks all around and I end up doing it myself. Oh well.
 
Yeah. Back when I was gigging I'd have to grab mic cables out of people's hands before they started slinging 'em around their arm. I usually only had to explain "why" 8 or 10 times before they gave up and let me do it my wussy way. I mean, if it looks macho, it's RIGHT, right?
 
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