Cable making popping/cracking sounds

[heminder]

I was hearing popping sounds while I was playing one day, and by process of elimination I determined that the cable I was using has gone bad. It's an Elixir cable which really does sound fantastic due to its ultra low capacitance, and they don't make them any more.

Now, I'm not experienced in bad cables, so I was wondering if this kind of problem usually happens at the connectors or along the cable itself? The reason I ask is that I'd like to try to salvage the cable by replacing the jacks, but if the problem happens along the wire then I may not bother.

Edited August 23, 2015 by heminder

[Dave_the_bass]

Generally it will be at the ends as these are the stress points.

You can generally identify which end is the culprit, while it's in use, by using a controlled wiggle and finding out which end the crackle occurs on. This usually has the added benefit of working out roughly where the cable is degraded.

You may be unlucky and find that the break is somewhere close to the middle as it's happened where a cable has been repeatedly kinked.

Hope this helps

[CH161]

As above, check the connections at both ends - if both are good then it will be in the cable itself somewhere.

Cables can and do break. If you've tried alternative cable then you can assume it's not the instrument's jack socket.

Good expensive cable normally has a long warranty, 10 years or so. I think you have to keep the packaging though!

How many of us do that!

[heminder]

Thanks guys. It only pops very occasionally, but when it does it's pretty damn loud. I'll have a controlled wiggle (lol) and hopefully a good length of it is salvageable. If not, I'll just make patch leads out of it

I did contact Elixir and they set me a pack of strings, since they don't make cables any more. All is well in the end.

[Phil Starr]

If it is infrequent sudden cracks then it is more likely to be a connection, either at the plug/socket joint or in the soldering where the wire joins the plug. It may be a loose bit of wire shorting inside the plug. Insulation breaking down inside the cable tends to be a more constant noise with the cable being microphonic when you move it. If you are absolutely sure it isnt happening with other leads then what I do is cut 15cm of cable off each end and replace the jacks. Removing the bit of the cable that gets the most stress is sensible and new plugs should restore better connections. Once a cable starts playing up however I won't use it live except in emergencies.

[BigRedX]

As others have said are you 100% sure it's the cable itself and not one of the sockets that it is plugged in to?

If it really is the cable then IME there are two reasons why cables go bad. Either they have been severely abused by the user or they simply haven't been made very well in the first place. What sort of use has the cable been put through? Are you gigging regularly or mostly a bedroom player?

It is possible to revive these cables by finding where the problem section is (hopefully near one of the ends) and cutting it out and re-soldering the jack plug to the new end. However as this is a "premium" branded cable the jack plugs might be moulded on. Is that the case? TBH though, this normally only a temporary fix. Unless the problem was caused by an isolated case of extreme cable abuse, it will fail again in the same way at some point, so unless you are happy with an ever shortening lead this isn't really a sensible long term solution.

IME these branded cables never have the same reliability as leads made up from standard high quality components such as Neutrik connectors and Van Damme cable. The leads I made myself with good quality components always end up lasting far longer than any I've bought ready made, irrespective of the brand or price paid. IMO you should bin this cable, and if you have the soldering skills make one yourself with good quality jacks and screened cable or alternatively get Basschat's [url="http://www.rock-wire.uk.com"]OBBM[/url] to make you one up.

EDIT: I've just found a review of what is probably your Elixir cable. I'm sorry but what a load of snake-oil bollocks that is. Well on par with the crap that high-end hifi enthusiasts get fed. It continually amazes me that these manufacturers keep trying to re-invent the wheel (and failing) when it comes to instrument cables, when there are already components like the ones mentioned earlier in this post with many more years of tested reliability behind them.

Edited August 28, 2015 by BigRedX

[heminder]

No, I'll be keeping the cable. I don't bin perfectly usable equipment that just needs some work. As for the snake oil, I bought the cable having compared it first hand in the shop to others and I can definitely hear an improved signal quality. I haven't seen any of their marketing, but cable capacitance is a very real phenomenon if you know anything about electronics.

[BigRedX]

[quote name='heminder' timestamp='1441151432' post='2856545']
No, I'll be keeping the cable. I don't bin perfectly usable equipment that just needs some work. As for the snake oil, I bought the cable having compared it first hand in the shop to others and I can definitely hear an improved signal quality. I haven't seen any of their marketing, but cable capacitance is a very real phenomenon if you know anything about electronics.
[/quote]

Fair enough...

But first you need to ensure that the problem really is with the cable itself and not with the sockets that it is being plugged in to. Have you checked with another cable? Have you tried the Elixir cable with another bass and/or amp? What are the results?

It wasn't obvious from the photos and reviews whether or not the jack plugs on your cable came apart to reveal the solder contacts. However you talk about replacing the jacks and one review does mention "non serviceable proprietary plugs" so I'll assume that you can't, unless you tell me otherwise.

That said. instrument cables rarely fail at the jack plugs and if they do it is because a solder contact has come apart. This can't really happen on moulded plugs because the body is formed tightly around where the wire joins the plug, so the obvious culprit is the cable itself.

So why has it failed? You didn't answer any of my questions about the use the cable has seen. Are you mostly a bedroom player with the bass permanently connected to the amp? Or are you out rehearsing and gigging every week? Do you coil the lead up neatly after use or does it get flung in a tangle into your equipment bag to be sorted out next time you need it? All of this can have a bearing on why and where along the length it has failed.

If it is the cable itself that has failed you could cut out the dodgy section and solder a new jack plug onto the good end. If you are lucky the failure will have happened close to one of the plugs (the section you fit through your guitar strap to stop the jack plug pulling out of the bass is a good place to to start looking) and you won't loose too much length. You can check the cable by holding it in both hands a few inches apart and going along the flexing it until you are able to replicate the popping and crackling sounds. Check the whole length - there may be more than one problem area.

Now how good are your soldering skills? Do you already have all the tools? From the way you asked the question in your OP I'm guessing not. A good set of soldering and wire stripping and cutting tools is a smart investment if you are going to be making up loads of leads and be tinkering around with electronics. But for a couple of cables its not such good value. You will be a lot better off getting replacement leads from OBBM. They are great value and extremely robust. Mine which are now over 5 years old get gigged at least once a week and are still working perfectly.

Finally capacitance. Yes I know all about this and yes it does make a difference. However, a good quality instrument cable has a capacitance of between 55pF and 85pF per meter. Bearing in mind that the capacitor in the tone control of your bass is 0.047µF, for a standard 20ft guitar lead the overall capacitance of good quality cable works out at the worst 1% of the tone capacitor - in other words turning down your tone control just a tiny amount.

I couldn't find any official specifications for your Elixir cable, but one forum post mentioned 10pF per foot which works out at 33pF per meter. OK this is lower than the standard good quality leads but in real terms its the difference between turning down the tone control a tiny amount and a very tiny amount. If you are 16 and can still hear those mosquito alarm things, then you can probably hear a difference when playing on your own. In a band mix? I doubt it. If you were really bothered about loosing HF signal content you'd have gone digital wireless.

And this may well be why your lead has failed. There are two simple ways to reduce capacitance in a cable. Increase the amount of insulation between the conductors, or reduce the area of the conductors themselves. IME when I open up a ready-made cable with moulded plugs, I find a loosely woven screen and a very thin central conductor. I'm not saying this is what you will find in the Elixir cable, but it's the cost effective method - especially when you consider that the vast majority of the people who these cables are sold to are never going to see inside to find out.

Also Elixir claim that their 20ft cable has the frequency response of a 3ft one. I don't know what kind of 3ft cable they were comparing it with, but as you can see from the capacitance figures I've quoted above, it certainly wasn't one of the good ones! Snake oil in my books right there.

Edited September 2, 2015 by BigRedX

[heminder]

OK, I said in the first post that I determined that it is definitely the cable and no other part of my signal chain. Yes, I'm in a band. Yes, I know how to coil a cable the right way. Yes I have soldering skills. Yes, I have electronics equipment. Yes, it measures 36pF/m. Yes, I can hear a better signal and I'm in my 20's. No, I'm not interested in wireless at this point.

[BigRedX]

OK if the jack plugs are moulded ones as I suspect they are from what I've seen and read, then the problem will almost certainly be with the actual cable itself. Check all the way along the length to find the area(s) which are causing the problem and make a decision based on their location whether or not the remaining cable part of the lead is worth salvaging.

Two things to bear in mind. One, if the lead has been designed as a whole changing the moulded plugs to standard solderable ones may well have an effect on the overall capacitance which will obviously be important to you. Two, according to several reviews of the lead that I have found "we use a high strength alloy conductor rather than plain copper". That might not be quite as straight forward to solder compared with the oxygen-free copper than the more normal high quality leads use.

Good luck!