Cables tip

Here's a tip that made my life easier in the srudio and would work even better for gigs.

I used to have a big tub with a mess of cables in it that resembled a big wad of tangled twine or spahgetti, that was a major ordeal to get a cable I needed.

So one day I decided to organize them, being a neat freak and here's what I came up with:

First wrap them more in a figure 8 than a 0
and put a heavy rubber band around them or velcro tie.

Next, I took like cables (1/4", Rca etc) and put them together in a Zipllock bag, the larger freezer kind.

It's not a nightmare anymore when I need to hunt for a cable.
jam on,
Terry

one dumb question: Why the 8 figure Terry?

Just Curious,
KN_Fan

Accually the best way to wrap them is over/under and a circle. The way you are doing it will cause a twist in the cable that will shorten the lifespan and also will not throw in a streight line across a room, a joy when doing lots of rewiring or live work.

Kn,
I found by doing the figure 8 they do not get tangled up either in themselves or together in the bag. Also you can get a rubber band around them (in the middle) to hold it together too.
Terry

It is the twist in the figure 8 that is the problem.

Haven't had this discussion in years.

wrap them how you like, better for Switchcraft and Mogami.

It's really less of a figure 8 and more of an oval....but thought saying fig.8 would get the point across more readily.
Terry

I'm not sure you should do this with delicate cables - but I wrap mine by repeatedly folding in half until the bundle is maybe 18" long, then tie a loos-ish knot in the middle!

You would think this would cause cable breaks at the bends but so long as you dont iron the thing flat this doesnt seem to happen. My main weak point remains jack plug internal discontinuities.

Slightly off topic but don't use old cables for new things. I spent all day yesterday trying to get my laptop to talk to my PSR740 and finally discovered a break in the cable. I had used an old mouse cable for the job and it had broken inside just about where the most flexing happens. Had to cut 3 inches off before I found an unbroken piece. Funnily enough it had been working OK for some months.

Bryan

Yes...
that's really the best way to save the cables life.

Mine's like spaghetti, and I'm too much of a slacker to fix that. As long as everything works, I'm easily satisfied.