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Your cables are some of the most (ab)used and also important tools in your arsenal.
Music: Jahzzar, Please Listen Carefully; spinningmerkaba, Urbana-Metronica (wooh-yeah mix).
Show notes
What can we say about cables? A cable is a cable, right? So why do we accumulate so many?
In regards to the gig setup, here’s the quick list we pack:
- Dave
- ¼” line or guitar cables (shielded)
- Pedalboard Patch Cables
- XLR or Mic cables
- Speaker cables
- ¼” and Speakon
- ¼” line or guitar cables (shielded)
- Paul
- Same, mostly; I also carry a short XLR patch as well as…
- IEC power cable!
What about quality?
- Paul
- I usually don’t buy the bargain-basement brand anymore. The unpredictability just isn’t worth the savings
- There’s a point where the supposed features just don’t add up to enough value to make the extra $$ worth it
- That said, I do like the Monster and Planet Waves brands
- I personally will switch when I see a verifiable, double-blind test
- Dave:
- There are a couple brands that do the lifetime warrantee thing
- What’s the deal with the coiled?
Does size matter?
- Paul
- NOT TOUCHING THIS ONE
- Dave
- Cables coiled up and tangled on stage or in the studio kills me
- Paul
- OK, I’ll touch it a little bit ;-D
- So the longer a run of an unbalanced cable, the more noise you can pick up
- That being said, I hate being restricted on stage… I’d probably go wireless if I found something worth buying that was easily portable
Other areas to consider:
- Speakon vs. generic
- Speakon is only for high current stuff, like amps to speakers
- Labeling your cables
- They do go bad
- Carry a cable tester!
- Caring for them — what do you watch out for?
- Dave — I treat the tips like I do any other valuable piece of equipment.
- Paul — teaching bandmates how to coil them and/or use cable ties
- Studio vs. gig
- Paul — I use balanced lines here way more often than on stage
- Dave — Cable Nightmare! – Really messes with my head…
Photo by Tim Wright on Unsplash