Cable Conundrums Part 2

Last week we looked at the important of investing in good cables for your system and what happens if you don't. This week we look at how to maintain that investment in cable to ensure you always get the best out of your system.

Once you have your cables sorted, invest in a good case. A brown suitcase is not a suitable case. Get a road case with wheels and it will force you to treat your cables with the respect they deserve instead of chucking them in the van in a space wherever they will squeeze.

The key to keeping you cables in good nick is learning how to coil them correctly. If you wrap them around your elbow like the un-educated fellow in this picture then your cables will start to look like your mothers vacuum cleaner cord. Notice all the kinks in his cable. When you wrap a cable around your elbow, you actually twist the internal braiding causing irreparable damage. Your cable will never be the same again and if this behavior continues, it will eventually lose its shielding properties and the sound quality will dramatically fall. You may start to notice more noise in your system and eventually the cable will actually fail or even worse, become unreliable.
See the video below on how to avoid this and coil your cables properly.

A good cable tester is also a great investment, check your cables regularly with both a visual and electrical inspection. Also, if you do find a cable with a fault, coil it up and tie a knot in it so that you know it is faulty. Don't put it back in your cable case, keep it separate until you can get it fixed.

If you find you have collected a few cables from gigs and are not sure on their heritage then don't trust them. Don't just throw them into your cable crate and adopt them. Treat them as tainted goods and try and return them to their owner. Generally if cables get left behind and are unclaimed, it is for a reason and you don't want the hassle of adopting someone else's outcasts.