My first bad cable

T

taylorguitarman

New member
I've been putting together my studio again now that I have a house and can dedicate some space to it and I'm in the process of getting everything cabled up when I've learned my first lesson of you get what you pay for. Once I got everything setup I wanted to test a mic through my fancy new patchbay. I didn't get many XLR->TRS cables since I'd planned on using a snake box for the mic inputs but I figured I'd hook everything into the patchbay and see how it worked. So I had a slightly older Hosa cable that had the right connectors and gave it a shot. Ground noise. Oh crap. Everytime I let of the connector I'd get noise. I had a 6' Mogami cable that I'd just bought but was going to exchance if everything worked OK for a longer one but I had to find out if it was the cable. Sure enough I plugged in the Mogami cable and quiet. So I've finally encountered my first bad cable.

If the noise went away every time I touched the connector could it just be a bad solder/connector? Could I salvage the cable by getting new connectors or resoldering the existing ones or is the cable toast?
 
Um, I think boingoman is pulling your leg. Hosas have molded connectors and are pretty much impossible to repair.

If you want to add good connectors to the Hosa wire, well I suppose you could. But it'll still be cheap cable with better connectors!
 
MadAudio said:
Um, I think boingoman is pulling your leg. Hosas have molded connectors and are pretty much impossible to repair.

If you want to add good connectors to the Hosa wire, well I suppose you could. But it'll still be cheap cable with better connectors!
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LOL. I didn't think of that. But I never joke about cables. :mad: :p

Hosa makes tons of different stuff, lots with regular old Switchcraft ends. I figured since his noise went away when he touched the connector, it was metal.

Now, if he had asked how to get a molded connector open to solder it, I may have had to laugh. :D
 
boingoman said:
Hosa makes tons of different stuff, lots with regular old Switchcraft ends. I figured since his noise went away when he touched the connector, it was metal.
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Oops, my mistake!
 
MadAudio said:
Oops, my mistake!
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I said that after my last Hosa purchase, a cheap insert snake, with molded ends.

I had to tape it to the wall last night at the club. It had to be at the right angle to work. :mad:
 
i learned my lesson a while ago,
i bought a bunch of no-name patchcables, supercheap,
and god, bad connections all over the place !
like someone else here said, they ALL had to be in the right angle to work !
this s/*t made me think some of my mics and compressors were broken...
since then i learned to save up a little more money and get me decent stuff instead of the cheapest available
 
Oh crap, I just picked up a Hosa 1/4" TS to RCA 8 channels snake with molded ends. :eek:

I'll keep my finners crossed I guess.:o
 
Ah yes ...

I remember when I first popped my "bad cable Cherry."

So how long did it take you before you lost your bad cable virginity now?

It didn't take me that long. Now I'm kind of a bad cable slut these days. I go through bad cable after bad cable like a cheap whore.

.
 
maestro_dmc said:
Oh crap, I just picked up a Hosa 1/4" TS to RCA 8 channels snake with molded ends. :eek:

I'll keep my finners crossed I guess.:o
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They're not completely awful. In fact I used two of those very same snakes with my Tascam 38 and never had a problem. If Hosas are used in long-term hook up, they do OK. It's when you start patching and unpatching them a lot that they begin to break.
 
Is it true that if you put your bad cables underneath the pillow, that the "bad cable ferry" will give you a dollar for it the next morning?

.
 
chessrock said:
Is it true that if you put your bad cables underneath the pillow, that the "bad cable ferry" will give you a dollar for it the next morning?

.
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No, the bad cable "fairy" leaves another cable, and both are hopelessly tangled!
 
A cable tester is in my opinion one of the essential items for anyone owning a studio of any size. If you use more than even a small handful of gear you can spend a lot of time tracking problems down by the trial and error mthod. I also check every new cable I make or buy on the cable tester before putting it into service in my studio.

I use the EbTech Swizz Army 6 In 1 cable tester. It's excellent.
 
every Hosa cable i've had has gone bad. so that's about 5/5 cables of different types that were all just as described: they need to be held at a certain angle to work, or NOISE. so nowadays i keep away from Hosa and just make my own cables which i can repair myself if they get messed up.
 
SonicAlbert said:
I also check every new cable I make or buy on the cable tester before putting it into service in my studio.

I use the EbTech Swizz Army 6 In 1 cable tester. It's excellent.
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Ditto, except mine is the Behri.
 
MadAudio said:
No, the bad cable "fairy" leaves another cable, and both are hopelessly tangled!
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No, I actually meant a Ferry, as in a Ferry boat.

Na, skip that one.

I actually meant Perry Farrell (of Jane's addiciton).

If your cable goes bad, and you put it underneath your pillow, Perry Farrell will come by in the middle of the night and swap it out for a used heroine needle.
 
Well, I think I'll try and get some new connectors and try to salvage the cable. It did last about a year. I've got other Hosa cables and they're still fine (and over a year old). The sad thing is I've hardlly used this particular cable. Now that I'm getting more serious about my recording and have my own house I'll probably stay away from Hosa from now on and start building my own cables.
 
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