Why are guitar cables so stinking expensive?

  • Thread starter Thread starter capnkid
  • Start date Start date
capnkid said:
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.
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I do that with extension cords and speaker cables, but not signal cables. You want to avoid twisting it or having it break at a sharp angle. I used to have problems with the ends, but since I started being careful, they'll fail by getting a wonky spot at some point on its length.

I have rolled them the same way for a long time. It may be stupid, but a pro sound guy showed me how to do it when I was impressionable. Everyone can make that loop so that you end up with what is essentially a slinky. That is cool, but the cable twists up while you're rolling it. I flip every other loop over so that the long end comes out underneath the last loop. It's hard to explain. I call it over/under. That way, no matter how long the cable, it won't turn into a rats nest from rolling it up. Short ones are just slinky rolls.
 
boingoman said:
Cable wrap video
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This is the ONLY way you should ever coil your cables, by the way. It relieves the twists in the cable as you wrap, which protects the solder joints in the ends. When I worked at the theater at Berklee, we had cables which were twenty + years, seeing heavy use, which still had their factory solder joints simply because they were ALWAYS coiled over/under. If you want your cables to last as long as possible, it is the only correct way to wrap them.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Light said:
This is the ONLY way you should ever coil your cables, by the way. It relieves the twists in the cable as you wrap, which protects the solder joints in the ends.
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Helps preserve the shields as well, and keeps the conductors from twisting, which gives you those lumpy mic and power cords. Keeping the conductors well-aligned in a balanced situation helps with CMRR at the inputs.
 
cephus said:
I do that with extension cords and speaker cables, but not signal cables. You want to avoid twisting it or having it break at a sharp angle. I used to have problems with the ends, but since I started being careful, they'll fail by getting a wonky spot at some point on its length.

I have rolled them the same way for a long time. It may be stupid, but a pro sound guy showed me how to do it when I was impressionable. Everyone can make that loop so that you end up with what is essentially a slinky. That is cool, but the cable twists up while you're rolling it. I flip every other loop over so that the long end comes out underneath the last loop. It's hard to explain. I call it over/under. That way, no matter how long the cable, it won't turn into a rats nest from rolling it up. Short ones are just slinky rolls.
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To each his own. I wrap my guitar cables by throwing a twist in each loop to counteract the twist inherent in the wrapping process. This results in the same wrap as if they were rolled up on a reel, so there is no torsion (twisting stress) stored in the cable while it is wrapped. I am careful to unwrap them gently, because unwrapping them temporarily puts the twists back in.

I don't use the over-under ("roadie wrap") method because if you do and you pull an end the wrong way through the main loop when you unwrap the cable, you get a series of overhand knots in it, which is harder to deal with than the twists I get with the way I do it. The roadie wrap is slower, too.

DSFDF and YMMV.
 
ggunn said:
The roadie wrap is slower, too.

.
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I dare you to say that to a roadie. :)

There is nothing wrong with over-over, it's just hard with anything longer than 10' and with snake cables because when you throw in your twist every loop, you have to twist the whole cable. The beauty of over under is that the under twist counteracts the twist you put in when you do the over. The overall effect is no twist at all.
 
boingoman said:
I dare you to say that to a roadie. :)

There is nothing wrong with over-over, it's just hard with anything longer than 10' and with snake cables because when you throw in your twist every loop, you have to twist the whole cable. The beauty of over under is that the under twist counteracts the twist you put in when you do the over. The overall effect is no twist at all.
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Either way is no twist at all, and I only do the over-over with guitar cables. Mic cables go on a reel. And I'll confidently challenge anyone to a wrap-off, me doing over-over and them doing over-under. I can wrap a 15 foot guitar cable in 3-4 seconds. Oh, and I use Velcro tie wraps; I have ruined a couple of cables with that knot at the end.

I do use over-under for the snake; as you say twisting the whole cable would be a pain, and there's little danger with a snake of pulling the end the wrong way through the loop when unwrapping and tieing all those knots in it.
 
scrubs said:
Am I mistaken, or did somebody just get served? :cool:
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Just like everybody, I have lots of guts when I'm sitting at the keyboard miles from anyone else. ;^)
 
ggunn said:
Either way is no twist at all
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Aye, captain. I rarely over-under anything under ten feet, also cause like you said, with a short cable it's easy to make knots.

ggunn said:
And I'll confidently challenge anyone to a wrap-off, me doing over-over and them doing over-under. I can wrap a 15 foot guitar cable in 3-4 seconds.
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What's all the extra time for? I could read my cables a bedtime story before I put them away if I took that long. :p


ggunn said:
I do use over-under for the snake; as you say twisting the whole cable would be a pain, and there's little danger with a snake of pulling the end the wrong way through the loop when unwrapping and tieing all those knots in it.
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Seen it, more than once. With big snakes in a box, lots of people figure-8, which is impossible to screw up on the outlay.



ps- those velcro dealies rule. I use colored ones and the ROYGBIV acronym to sort my cables. R=30' O=25', Y=20', etc.
 
ggunn said:
I don't use the over-under ("roadie wrap") method because if you do and you pull an end the wrong way through the main loop when you unwrap the cable, you get a series of overhand knots in it, which is harder to deal with than the twists I get with the way I do it.
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True dat. You have to be careful. I only over under the ones that have velcro wraps at the end for that reason. It really doesn't take longer to do the over under if that's all you do. I don't do speed trials on tear down because I'm usually tired, drunk and it's 3 oclock in the morning. I am very careful when i wrap them and it still takes 10 or 15 seconds. I think "three or 4 seconds" is hyperbole. Maybe you can, but I bet you don't. try stacking cups if you want to impress people with your fast hands. :D
 
One last thing I haven't seen anyone mention.
Don't step on the damned things! I see people all the time stomping on their cables or setting amps on top of them or rolling dollies over them.
My cables last forever 'cause I take care of them ..... or at least they lasted forever until I moved to Daytona. The freakin' salt air destroys anything that goes to the beach in short order so I jusy buy cheap Live Wire cables for the beach and replace them once a year.
 
cephus said:
I think "three or 4 seconds" is hyperbole. Maybe you can, but I bet you don't.
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Sadly, it's about that for your average guitar cable, just casually wrapping.

Sadly, because it's sad I know that. :o I have, in the past, done time analysis of almost every aspect of setup/teardown times.
 
Outlaws said:
You guys need an F'ing video to roll up cables?!?!

This ain't rocket science is it?
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It's a novel concept to most musicians, that's for sure. And lots of Full Sail grads, too.
 
ya' know ...... one time I actually saw a bass player plug an amp into its' own convenience outlet so there are definitely some dim bulbs on the musician light string.
 
Lt. Bob said:
ya' know ...... one time I actually saw a bass player plug an amp into its' own convenience outlet so there are definitely some dim bulbs on the musician light string.
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Here's a stocking stuffer for next year!!

JCon
 
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