KVR Audio

susiwong · Post by **susiwong** » Sat Apr 09, 2011 10:03 am

A cable tester is mandatory for every "plugged" musician - I actually prefer the cheap Behringer CT-100 as it even allows you to hunt down intermittent breaks, not unlike a "peak hold" function, so to say.

Very solidly built, too.
Ymmv,
susiwong

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Sat Apr 09, 2011 10:35 am

Couldnt have stayed(*) sane reorganising my studio over the last week without one.

(*) okay, the sanity phased in and out a bit. f**king optical f**king cables.

susiwong · Post by **susiwong** » Sat Apr 09, 2011 11:09 am

whyterabbyt wrote:Couldnt have stayed(*) sane reorganising my studio over the last week without one.

(*) okay, the sanity phased in and out a bit. f**king optical f**king cables.

Been there, done that, too often.

But it's always amazing to see how many unused cables had been hiding there all the time ...
A little trick for optical cables :
The front side of the actual cable has to be absolutely flat and clean, no scratches or dents.
So in some (home built) cables that was the troublemaker for me.
Took me some head scratching until I found out.
Easily fixed by recutting and/or polishing.
Cheers,
susiwong

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Sat Apr 09, 2011 4:01 pm

I have never owned a cable testor, but since I was about ten I always had a multi-meter. TBH the last time I needed it to check a cable must have been around 2004 and it was a midi cable. But I dont gig, I dont take my gear out of the house so unless I do something stupid I rarely have issue. Case in point, somehow I bent the connector on one of my cables even though it still works I have to send it in for a replacement. Yes it's a monster cable, when I worked at Mars I got MC for 10% below cost and then at the end of the month 2 additionla dollars for every cable I sold including to myself, a 25 fotter with on right angle plug cost me the same as the street price (or less) of mogami. There was a time when my whole chain was MC, but now that I use the splitter and have my crazy routing it's only half MC. (MC was bought then for the warranty)

I never understood why a midi cable that never was moved died but it did. I no longer have it obviously, but in the mid 80s I had a cable that was about a foot and a half long that was my first 'real* guitar cable from my childhood (at one point it was 20 feet long). Cables last me longer now because I'm sitinng most of the time and not standing twisting around in circles.

here's the deal though, when I worked at other music stores 'cable up' (Teac, and they make the best headphone extension I have seen) and Hosa cost me cents so whenever I bought something that needed cables I bought double what I needed. So I have two large boxes of cables of all types of cables, including crazy ass cables that came with my tivo that I have never used.

I should never have to buy common cables again

*as opposed to those cheay cables that came with guitars.

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Sat Apr 09, 2011 4:05 pm

susiwong wrote:
whyterabbyt wrote:Couldnt have stayed(*) sane reorganising my studio over the last week without one.

(*) okay, the sanity phased in and out a bit. f**king optical f**king cables.
Been there, done that, too often.
But it's always amazing to see how many unused cables had been hiding there all the time ...

I use to have this bad habit (now that my studio is 'set' and a lot of ITB I dont do this as often) it use to be that if I replaced a piece of gear or just took it out of the rack and put it back in, instead of using the same cable I would just drop the old ones and use new ones...behind my desk was a serious rat's nest.

susiwong · Post by **susiwong** » Sat Apr 09, 2011 4:25 pm

Hink wrote:I have never owned a cable testor, but since I was about ten I always had a multi-meter. TBH the last time I needed it to check a cable must have been around 2004 and it was a midi cable. But I dont gig, I dont take my gear out of the house so unless I do something stupid I rarely have issue.

here's the deal though, when I worked at other music stores 'cable up' (Teac, and they make the best headphone extension I have seen) and Hosa cost me cents so whenever I bought something that needed cables I bought double what I needed. So I have two large boxes of cables of all types of cables, including crazy ass cables that came with my tivo that I have never used.

The good thing about that 25 € CT-100 is the convenience, you actually use it.
One glance and you know what's up.

Of course I have a multimeter or two, but not for cabling.
Checking a MIDI- or footswitch cable with a MM is not my idea of fun.

Ymmv,
susiwong

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Sat Apr 09, 2011 4:36 pm

susiwong wrote:
Hink wrote:I have never owned a cable testor, but since I was about ten I always had a multi-meter. TBH the last time I needed it to check a cable must have been around 2004 and it was a midi cable. But I dont gig, I dont take my gear out of the house so unless I do something stupid I rarely have issue.

here's the deal though, when I worked at other music stores 'cable up' (Teac, and they make the best headphone extension I have seen) and Hosa cost me cents so whenever I bought something that needed cables I bought double what I needed. So I have two large boxes of cables of all types of cables, including crazy ass cables that came with my tivo that I have never used.
The good thing about that 25 € CT-100 is the convenience, you actually use it.
One glance and you know what's up.
Of course I have a multimeter or two, but not for cabling.
Checking a MIDI- or footswitch cable with a MM is not my idea of fun.

Ymmv,
susiwong

Forgive me but I do not see the need for me...however I use alligator leads with my multi-meter (look in my stratoblaster build and you'll see them) for cables...I can see if I checked cables often and did a lot of trouble shooting where a testor would come in handy...for the amount I would use it a testor is really not worth the money

Mind you, I'm not saying your suggestion isn't a good one for most

GaryG · Post by **GaryG** » Sun Apr 10, 2011 11:34 pm

Best gizmo for cable testing i ever had was a cheap continuity tester from Maplin (UK electronics chain)

Pen-like, used your body as a conductor so you just held the tester against one end of a cable and touched the other with your fingers. So much easier than faffing around with leads and probes etc. Maybe a little tricky on smaller connectors but doable with a little practice.

Just checked, as expected they don't stock it anymore (must have been twenty years ago) but they now sell a screwdriver version; could be even easier...

http://www.maplin.co.uk/continuity-tester-7030

Cable tester