Cable Care

Bob-Dubery

I have exactly two cables. Life was simple before I bought that chorus pedal - then I only needed one ?

One cable was bought at the same time as the pedal and is thus newer and, more crucially, less used than the other.

The more used cable is starting to twist. When I coil it up to put it away the coils no longer lie flat along each other. I would think this is not a good thing for the life of the cable (and thus for my wallet).

So how is this prevented or cured?

FenderBender

Exactly how are you coiling the cables?

Gearhead

Ok it's just my opinion: I think you cause it yourself. If you 'coil up' a cable you in fact put twist in it. if you do not, it will become more of a 'figure of eight' look which most people don't like. When undoing the 'coiling up' (if you're not very careful) you pull the twist into the cable, which kinks it. I tend to either coil up and uncoil carefully or just grab the cable in figures of eight and be done with it.
On the other hand, methinks your cable not coiling up nicely anymore can not be a big problem for the cable itself. Trying to 'cure' the problem is just going to create more breakage inside. If the owner does not like the aestetics, he must buy new. If he wishes to use the cable until it starts giving noise, he must learn to live with the looks.
BTW I bought a Leem lead the other day which does not hum, squeal, kink, or cause other nastiness. It does not say anything else on the jacks but the cable itself says turbo oxygen free copper cord.

Bob-Dubery

Graeme Parfett wrote Exactly how are you coiling the cables?

Well here's a good test of my written English skills ?

I start with one end in my left hand. End facing towards me - length of the coil facing away.

With my right hand I grab along the length and pull it under the left hand and back over again. Now I have one loop of coil beneath my left hand.

I repeat this until I run out of cable.

The twist in the cable seems to get worse as I get further along it.

teleplayer

If u roll on loop clockwise and the next counter-clockwise, u'll unravel a perfectly straight cable...

An easier way to understand this is rolling one side over, then next side under..
I so this and my cables never really twist, also wrapping a piece of velcro around each cable will make sure u pull out one whole cable and not a tangle out of ur cable bag.. then seem to get lost in one another if not done

Hope this helps, seems simple, but i'd take hours to setup if i didn't back away like this

AlanRatcliffe

Five metre long, or less (I use a lot of 3m cables), I give them a half-turn twist per coil, which avoids the tendency to twist and kink. Longer cable runs, that can cause problems, so then I coil hand over hand (as if I were rolling on to a drum).

I have a few woven cloth covered mic cables that are still going strong, 10 years on... (and anyone who has used those knows, once they kink, you never get it out).

Bob-Dubery

Thanks for the tips everybody.

Riaan-Combrink

Yep, I roll two mic leads and 4 line leads (and speaker cables!) almost daily!

Everyone I've ever played with showed me the same technique. The half-turn twist per coil that Alan described, plus I do it in a clockwise then anti-clock loop as teleplayer described. Have been using, eg, the same mic cable for six years, so I reckon there's something to say for it.

Once you've done the half-turn twist thing a few dozen times it becomes automatic ?

Only thing I haven't been able to beat is the black grime I end up with on my hands after rolling the cables that have been laying on the floor/carpet of pubs filled with smoke, etc. The most disgusting gunk ever ?. Many proprietors/managers think they run a clean venue, but they don't have to pick up something that's been lying on their carpet for a few hours!! One of the so-called top live venues in the Cape Town CBD's stage carpet's so grimy my sneakers stick to the floor when I move!!! OK, sorry for that off-topic digress, but Bob made me think about it by giving me cable-looping deja vu. Aarghh >☹