Decent Cable Suggestions

fretfinder

Roysterdoyster said:

Neil said:

robgilmo said:

I have a couple of fender cables, never had an issue with them, but they dont get abused much though. Surely if you buy online then you dont need a receipt?

Bought one from Amazon that failed after a couple of years.

They sent me a returns label and asked would I like a replacement or money back.

Can't argue with that. 

Absolutely. Although I bought mine in a Dawson’s and have no receipt. Not the end of the world but I’ll not be buying any more.

If you bought it on credit card and still have the statement showing the transaction, that should be sufficient for proof of purchase. 

Gagaryn

I buy the designacables ones now - they are very competitively priced and well put together, makes it pointless making my own.

downbytheriver

Pete Cornish - none better. Bulletproof. 

robgilmo

ICBM said:

Neil said:

robgilmo said:

I have a couple of fender cables, never had an issue with them, but they dont get abused much though. Surely if you buy online then you dont need a receipt?

Bought one from Amazon that failed after a couple of years.

They sent me a returns label and asked would I like a replacement or money back.

Can't argue with that. 

The problem is whether this gets back to Fender, or whether Amazon just cover it themselves.

Fender really need to know why their cables are no good - it would be easy for them to fix, if only they used decent plugs on them. The cable itself is actually very good, and I've repaired a lot of them by fitting Neutrik plugs - which is quite difficult, but does a great job. Even standard Switchcraft plugs would be better than the junk they use...

The way I see it is, they are a decent enough cable, the tweed ones I use look pretty good to me aesthetically too, the plugs are crap, but, its a cable for life, keep a spare like I do, when one breaks get it replaced and use the spare while you wait. If I were a gigging musician I would always have a spare anyway, but then again I probably wouldn't be using Fender tweed cables anyway, so they are what they are, a cable for life for people like me, Im fine with that.

bbill335

The weirdest thing happened with one of the fender tweed cables. I had one, it was working fine, till it wasn't. Just intermittent, typical bust lead stuff. Why I hung onto it I don't know, coz I didn't even *try* to fix it for years. Then one day, I cut away that lovely brown heat shrink, opened up the intermittent jack and there was a curved piece of metal inside the jack shorting the connections. Since I took it out, it's been fine and the jacks look mostly decent.

The most annoying thing about the tweed leads is the fact that they are so stubborn about coiling and twisting back on themselves! 

ICBM

bbill335 said:

The weirdest thing happened with one of the fender tweed cables. I had one, it was working fine, till it wasn't. Just intermittent, typical bust lead stuff. Why I hung onto it I don't know, coz I didn't even *try* to fix it for years. Then one day, I cut away that lovely brown heat shrink, opened up the intermittent jack and there was a curved piece of metal inside the jack shorting the connections. Since I took it out, it's been fine and the jacks look mostly decent.

They really aren’t. Someone I know bought six cables... five failed, all faults with the plugs. Another customer had three, two failed. This is on top of the number of single failures where I don’t know the proportions. Every one has been down to the poor quality of the plugs.

That’s something I haven’t come across though! Sounds like a piece of swarf from cutting the thread in the cover got left inside.

robinbowes

I won't use anything other than Neutrik plugs, they're so much more robust.

When I bought my PA I made myself a batch of mic cables using Neutrik plugs, but I also had a handful of pre-made cables that were some other brand of plug. Every single non-Neutrik cable has broken - mostly the strain-relief glands snap. None of the Neutrik plugs have broken.

R. 

ICBM

robinbowes said:

I won't use anything other than Neutrik plugs, they're so much more robust.

When I bought my PA I made myself a batch of mic cables using Neutrik plugs, but I also had a handful of pre-made cables that were some other brand of plug. Every single non-Neutrik cable has broken - mostly the strain-relief glands snap. None of the Neutrik plugs have broken.

Exactly. The cable grip on the 1/4” plugs is far better than any other type too. The other reason they’re the best is because the two conductors are made from single pieces of metal, not several pieces held together by riveting. (Apart from the right-angle ones.)

The standard Switchcraft-type design which is almost universally copied (with lower quality than the original) relies on the single rivet on the back of the tip contact to hold it all together, and it can easily come loose, giving a bad connection.

The problem with putting Neutriks on the Fender cables is that the cable is very fat, and it’s nearly impossible to get the straight NP2X plugs to fit - it can be done, but the amount of time and effort it takes would make it uneconomical commercially. The older NP2C and right-angle NP2RX do fit fairly easily though.

bbill335

ICBM said:

That’s something I haven’t come across though! Sounds like a piece of swarf from cutting the thread in the cover got left inside.

Yeah that's definitely what it looked like, I just couldn't find "swarf" in my mental dictionary 

my beef with neutriks - aside from being too tight for some cable - is that they're big and ugly! I wish someone made a good old fashioned barrel jack that was that robust. I much prefer the look/feel of the switchcrafts. 

ICBM

bbill335 said:

my beef with neutriks - aside from being too tight for some cable - is that they're big and ugly! I wish someone made a good old fashioned barrel jack that was that robust. I much prefer the look/feel of the switchcrafts. 

The NP2Xs aren't bad at all - I admit the old NP2Cs are pretty chunky. I wouldn't use anything other than a C for speaker cable if I can avoid it though - the size gives a reassuring (and correct) impression of durability.

I do like Switchcrafts too, and I've still go a few instrument cables with them on, but I don't trust them for speakers. When they've occasionally broken I've replaced them with NP2Xs.

John_P

From what I’ve seen with Fender cables, it’s the custom shop labelled ones that are particularly bad - everyone one I’ve seen or used has broken but the performance series with a white heat shrink have been fine.  

I do think a lot of the issues people have with cables could be avoided by learning how to look after them instead of buying more expensive ones though.