Tired of tangled cables?

Slouching Raymond

Slouching Raymond

Well-known member
Every time I needed a cable, I had to untangle it from a homogeneous cable blob. When gigging, you tend to throw all your cables in a bag, and sort them out later.
Some time ago, I hit upon the cure, and have lived happily ever since.
See-through plastic food freezer bags, with zip tops, from the supermarket. They're cheap, and I found them in boxes of 80.
My rule is One Bag - One Cable, and that goes for guitar leads, mic leads, and power adapters.
You don't need to label them, as you can see the contents.
Either at home, or when gigging, my bagged cables live in a big sports bag. When I need to search through them, I can
tip some out, and the bags slide over each other, keeping the cables untangled.
 
I put some cheap velcro ties on my cables. Roll them up, flip the velcro tie and things stay neat. There's no spaghetti in the bag. Plus, if you put it at the proper end, you can use the velcro to hold the cable to the mic stand, or hook a guitar cable to an amp's handle.

A 50 pack was about $5, and you never have to worry about losing them!
 
Proper coiling, then taping, then throw them in the cable trunk. At the end of the show or gig, I couldn't do the bagging thing - I get it, but with hundreds of individual cables, coiling and tape is the only practical solution for me. There again, I am a messy bugger!
 
One thing about the bags, you can just stuff a cable in any which way and zip it. That saves time breaking down your set - not carefully winding into coils.

I would coil them evenly, leaving about 20-24" to wrap the coil, keeping the loose ends secure.

cable.jpg
 
Coil on location. Over and under, it is fast when you are used to it.
Cable ties on everything. Do NOT tie knots in the cables...
Color coding if needed, for length, type, whatever you need to keep you sane.
As mentioned, If using gig bags, toss same types in each their own bag, for later easier organization.
The cables will last longer, as will your mind.

C.
 
TalismanRich said:
I put some cheap velcro ties on my cables. Roll them up, flip the velcro tie and things stay neat. There's no spaghetti in the bag. Plus, if you put it at the proper end, you can use the velcro to hold the cable to the mic stand, or hook a guitar cable to an amp's handle.

A 50 pack was about $5, and you never have to worry about losing them!
Click to expand...
I do the same thing. Works for me.
 
The freezer bag is a good idea. Never thought of that.

But I’m just not that organized, tidy and anal.

Velcro for me.

Plus it has the added benefit of reducing stage clutter.

If your cable is way longer than needed, coil and Velcro a portion of it up and bingo, shorter cable.
 
As I said above somewhere, velcro for me. And not cable ties. They are single-use, and take too much time to put on and take off.
 
As someone who has worked for sound companies and corporate AV for a long time, learn how to coil cables correctly (over-under) and get velcro straps to hold them together. If you do that, you can just throw dozens of cables in a trunk hap-hazardly and not have a giant rats nest when you go back in the trunk.

Once you learn how to do it, it's very fast. Also, when you are setting up, you can simply grab one end of the cable, throw the coil and it will unwind perfectly.

Your cables will last forever. I'm still using a guitar cable I bought in 1988, all the cables I had in my studio in 1996 are still in working order...
 
I concur with over/under coiling; it keeps the conductors from twisting. As for ties, a bunch of elastic hair ties with 1" dowels as toggles work swimmingly.

d
 
My spouse gave me that freezer bag idea a couple years back--makes identification and storage super easy--plus, the flatness that occurs makes them take up less room in my duffel.
 
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