How do you put away your cables after a gig?

[vjf1968]

It's the end of the night and the note of that last chord is still ringing in your ear. You go to the bar and get your "end of gig" libation and talk to your band mates about the gig you just finished. Soon, the bar is calling "last call" and you start to break down your gear. Do you carefully coil you cables using both your hands or do you wrap them over your arm as if it was an extension cord?

 

[bingy]

Coil with both hands then wrap the last 2' around the coil like a new guitar string.
No kinks or bends.

 

[grasspicker]

Well, I actually do try to get things coiled up and put away, fairly fast. I do like to clear out early with the wife and all.
HOWEVER, gig before last, I left my cable bag in the garage...opened. So, I show up at the last gig and I notice that my mic cables ALL have exposed wiring. Turns out, rats got into my bag and gnawed on my mic cables! NOT GOOD.

 

[vjf1968]

That's what I do. Whenever I see someone do it the "other way" I cringe. I also make a mental note to never lend any cables (mic, instrument) to that person ever. I have had the same cables for close to 10 years for constant gigging and never had a problem. Yet.

 

[grasspicker]

Oh...I do coil mine around like a rope...and then use the little velcroe ties

 

[Nick JD]

I coil using alternate looping. Every second coil the wrist is flipped 180 degrees, so each coil cancels each other out and there's no twisting.

Learnt it when I was a kid.

A cheap cable will last forever if it isn't forever fighting to regain the twist it spends 99% of its time in...

 

[Nash]

I wrap it with both hands after laying it straight out and making sure it isn't twisted. I don't use the roadie wrap because it doesn't simply uncoil you have to kinda shake the tangle out of it. I like to just take one end and then go with it, if you use the roadie wrap technique you will be stopped because it'll tangle. That being said, I do use this style when in a hurry or just when I'm impatient. A good cable will last forever if you keep it properly wound, I cringe when people just wrap the cable around their arm or worse, around there hand

 

[tiktok]

I coil it and then tie it up with a velcro wrap.

 

[Daddydex]

I fold the chord in half, then in half again and then tie a loop knot as if you were tying your shoe. I have not had to replace a chord in, well I don't remember and I have been doing this a long time.

Dan

 

[hamish5178]

I fold the chord in half, then in half again and then tie a loop knot as if you were tying your shoe. I have not had to replace a chord in, well I don't remember and I have been doing this a long time.

Dan

I use this at gigs with cheaper cables. However with my thicker (more expensive) cables it does not feel good. Those stay at home though and get wrapped the "alternate" way.

 

[dobrodoc]

What's a "gig?"

 

[Nick JD]

... if you use the roadie wrap technique you will be stopped because it'll tangle.

Roadies use this technique to stop tangle.

 

[Tim Armstrong]

I fold the chord in half, then in half again and then tie a loop knot as if you were tying your shoe. I have not had to replace a chord in, well I don't remember and I have been doing this a long time.

Dan

I did the "roadie wrap" for years, but have been doing it this way for the past few years and am a believer!

Tim

 

[DMace]

Ball 'em up, stuff 'em in the gigbag. 30 years of gigging, never had a problem.

 

[JCSouthpawtele]

A sound engineer for 14 years and I still don't have a set style for cable wrapping. It seems XLR's have a shorter life span before having to resolder some connections. I'm lefty also so when somebody else unwraps one of my cables I usually hear a grumble out of there mouth about being backwards.

 

[beep.click]

I've used several techniques over the years.

First was the extension cord wrap. Did that for a couple years -- no issues with tangles or cord wear/breakage.

Next, I started using both hands, just making a pretty coil in my left hand. A "loop-loop-loop" technique. Similar to the extension cord method, but paying more attention to the feel of the cable, not fighting any natural curving or twists it might have. Again, no issues with tangles or cord wear/breakage.

Recently, I've been trying the roadie wrap at home. No issues with wear/breakage, but sonofagun -- that's the ONLY method I've tried where I go to unroll the cord, and there's a tangle!!!

 

[<jbc>]

Like Daddyex execpt no knotting.

Begin with both ends in one hand, find the center with the other, fold. Lather, rinse repeat until the cable fits into a drum-case. Add cardboard separator to case, Lather rinse repeat.

 

[superchicken_VI]

Two hands, like a rope. Velcro ties. No over-the-shoulder crap here.

 

[marshman]

I loop 'em nice & gentle, about 10" diameter. I had my sis, who runs a interior design shop (she makes huge curtains and such) show me how to run a sewing machine, I raided her scrap bin and made a dozen or so little bags. Each cord gets it's own bag, and then they all go in a little storage tub. Orange bags for speaker cables, blue for mics (accident, but it worked out).

I don't get too twisted when a cord gets a little tangled (which doesn't happen too often with my system) but I HATE when several cords get tangled together.

 

[Chris Browne]

I bought some cheap cable clamps and they're great.