Why are guitar cables so stinking expensive?

  • Thread starter Thread starter capnkid
  • Start date Start date
capnkid

capnkid

Optimus Prime
I just bought a 6 ft switchcraft cable to go from my wah to the amp and it was $14.

My two 20 footers are crackeling at the jacks. I have a soldering Iron, is there a way to beef them up?
 
Look up the market price on copper sometime - that's part of the reason they cost so much. The other one is that making connectors is actually pretty hard to do, at least to do well. The level of tolerances is quite high, which doesn't mean that it can't be done, only that it is fairly expensive to do.

As for beefing up your cables, I always solder some heat shrink tubing around the connections in the barrel of the plug, bring it out about 1/2 to 1 inch past the barrel of the plug to act as a strain relief. You can also do a piece of shrink tubing around the barrel of the plug, and going a ways up the cable - also to act as a strain relief.

The other thing which really does help is to wrap your cable through your strap, which takes some of the strain off of the connections in the plug (which is where they almost always fail).


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
capnkid said:
I just bought a 6 ft switchcraft cable to go from my wah to the amp and it was $14.
Click to expand...

I've heard accessories yeilds some of the higher profit margins in music stores.

capnkid said:
My two 20 footers are crackeling at the jacks. I have a soldering Iron, is there a way to beef them up?
Click to expand...

You can try resoldering them as they are and see how it goes but since crackle often occours in the last foot of cable that bends right before the jack, you may have to cut off the ends off first. (and two working 18 footers still aint bad!)
 
I swore an oath to never use/buy another commercial/store-bought cable in ANY situation. Whether plugging my guitar into my amp or running interconnects, homebrew all the way!

Canare StarQuad for balanced connetions and Canare GS6 for unbalanced. Neutrik and Switchcraft connectors. Making your own is not only MUCH cheaper, but will allow you to make custom lengths and color-coding.

When I made my first high-quality cables, I A-Bed them to my old store-bought cables. Night and day.

Once you made a handful of complete cables, then you might want to buy your own high-quality cables premade. Can get pretty tedious!
 
I also make my cables, it's cheap, and I found them to work a lot longer than the ones bought at stores.
 
NRS said:
I've heard accessories yeilds some of the higher profit margins in music stores.
Click to expand...


Some, but not cables. The price of copper has been killing us on cable orders for the last few years - every time I call, my distributer has raised the prices. Most stuff wholesales for about 40-50% of MSRP, and most stores discount it 10-30% off of MSRP. Some accessories will have higher margins, some smaller, but in the end it all balances out.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Cables? I'd ask the same question about strings!
 
At the end of the day the price of cables is a necessary evil. Just don't buy cheap stuff. It still amazes me people that have expensive guitars and amps, and boutique effects and link them all up with cheap, noisy tone-sapping cables.

I get my made up locally - they do a good job.
 
I'm making my own mic cables. I worked it out that a 20 foot xlr to xlr cable costs about $12 in parts. I bought 1000 feet of cable and 50 connectors, so I was getting a good price break.

In the last 6 months the price of cable went up about 10 cents a foot.
 
roll your own. you can make them any length you want, you'll learn a little about cable and connectors, it's cheaper, and you'll be set to fix any broken cables in the future, which is cheaper and convenient. definitely roll your own.
 
Firstly, you are lucky that a 6-footer is enough to get to your amp. I have 2 18 or 20 footers to get from the wireless to the pedalboard and back to the amp.

that said, one of the cables I have has to be 15 years old. I buy good ones and train them and don't wrap them up around my forearm like christmas lights. If you train cables one over, one under and get one of those velcro cable ties that stays on the end, cables will last a really long time. I don't buy those retarded boutique cables. I just try to get the nice-feeling cable, with good ends and maybe the shrinkwrap over the cable/end joint.

Every once in a while, when I am in samash or GC, they have 10 or 20 foot cables on sale. I bought 3 pairs of cables and 2 of the pairs seem to have ends that are bigger than certain jacks. Like they're on sale because they're made in china or indonesia and 1/4" = 7mm.
 
when building your own cables, is there a limit as to how long you should make them? since theyre unbalanced and a guitar and amp are often surrounded by electronic devices and such...shorter runs are better correct? ive seen people use like a 20 footer into a DI box and then a hundred foot run to their amp. is this right?

Adam
 
marshall409 said:
when building your own cables, is there a limit as to how long you should make them? since theyre unbalanced and a guitar and amp are often surrounded by electronic devices and such...shorter runs are better correct? ive seen people use like a 20 footer into a DI box and then a hundred foot run to their amp. is this right?

Adam
Click to expand...


I've never needed anything longer than 15' myself so i keep them at that, unless it's a patch cable.
 
marshall409 said:
when building your own cables, is there a limit as to how long you should make them? since theyre unbalanced and a guitar and amp are often surrounded by electronic devices and such...shorter runs are better correct? ive seen people use like a 20 footer into a DI box and then a hundred foot run to their amp. is this right?

Adam
Click to expand...

I would stick to about 20 feet total. If you need more you need wireless.
 
cephus said:
Firstly, you are lucky that a 6-footer is enough to get to your amp. I have 2 18 or 20 footers to get from the wireless to the pedalboard and back to the amp.

that said, one of the cables I have has to be 15 years old. I buy good ones and train them and don't wrap them up around my forearm like christmas lights. If you train cables one over, one under and get one of those velcro cable ties that stays on the end, cables will last a really long time. I don't buy those retarded boutique cables. I just try to get the nice-feeling cable, with good ends and maybe the shrinkwrap over the cable/end joint.

Every once in a while, when I am in samash or GC, they have 10 or 20 foot cables on sale. I bought 3 pairs of cables and 2 of the pairs seem to have ends that are bigger than certain jacks. Like they're on sale because they're made in china or indonesia and 1/4" = 7mm.
Click to expand...

The man at the local music store showed me how to bring the tips of the cables together, and over and over until it's portable. I think what I have been doing wrong is when I get them about 2' in length I tie the cable in a knot. Maybe this has been stressing the jacks? Another thing is the stupid jacks on my amp are facing up, so the cable must have tremendous stress on the jack coming up out of the jack then turning down towards the floor.

The amp is a marshall clone and I was thinking that I could drill a hole in the top of the amp and install a 12" eyebolt to relieve the stress of that angle. It would be cool to invent something retractable to sell to people with these type amps.

Or I could just use and angled jack :p .
 
capnkid said:
Or I could just use and angled jack :p .
Click to expand...

or a short patch cable with an angled male on one end and a female on the other.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top