The Must-Have Accessory for the modern bassist

[Silvia Bluejay]

My favourite colour is mint* green. While I have no basses in that colour for one reason or another, @Happy Jack has no fewer than two. The supercool curly lead is his Christmas present to me - but I'm so going to lend it to him at the next Damo And The Dynamites gig, when he'll be playing the Lull for a few numbers. 😎

*a.k.a. SURF green. 😉

Edited December 28, 2019 by Silvia Bluejay

[Silvia Bluejay]

The look is more understated with two of my own basses.

 

[stewblack]

I wanna red one!! 

[jezzaboy]

Looks like a Bullet lead? I have one that I bought a few years ago and used it on a gig when an old guitarists came up to me and said the curly leads from the 70`s were rubbish, thinking that it was one of those.

I explained that it was brand new with a 44 magnum bullet casing at each end. Impressed him no end.

[Silvia Bluejay]

[Silvia Bluejay]

PS looks like it does come in Fiesta Red! Load the photo above and zoom in on the bottom right hand corner.

[Paul S]

I have a black one of these and it looks cool as anything.  But, boy, is it heavy!  And it needs securing in some fashion otherwise it'll drag any lightweight head off the cab in no time.

[Silvia Bluejay]

Yup, very true. We were talking about that with HJ.

And it happens to be the only Fender item I have in my whole rig, so that's another first for me.

[Lozz196]

19 minutes ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

Yup, very true. We were talking about that with HJ.

And it happens to be the only Fender item I have in my whole rig, so that's another first for me.

Progress, Silvia.....

[ezbass]

1 hour ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

 

That fretless Chowny is way cool.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I have one of those Fender curly cables in daphne blue - it looks great with my JMJ mustang & matching levy’s suede strap

[Silvia Bluejay]

Incidentally, I've found the perfect rig for our new purchase... 😉😛

[gjones]

I owned two fender curly leads. The first one just didn't work when I used it for the first time and the second one, I got as a replacement, sucked all the top end out of my sound.

I gave it away.

I now use a Fender custom shop lead (a straight one), so I don't have a thing against Fender, but make sure @happy jack has replacement with him, when he gigs with his curly lead.

 

[Silvia Bluejay]

We've just tested it - sounds absolutely fine. But yes, we always have plenty of spare 'everything' in our cases at gigs.

[Happy Jack]

3 hours ago, jezzaboy said:

Looks like a Bullet lead? I have one that I bought a few years ago and used it on a gig when an old guitarists came up to me and said the curly leads from the 70`s were rubbish, thinking that it was one of those.

I explained that it was brand new with a 44 magnum bullet casing at each end. Impressed him no end.

I have two of those ... bought them years ago.

They're good, but they're unbelievably heavy.

 

[Woodinblack]

They look great, although the fact they are fender leads would put me off. I love the look of the newer fender leads (the black and white stitched ones) but I haven't and don't know anyone I have played with who hasn't had them fail when playing. Lucky they have a replace when fail policy, the guitarist is on their third. I am on my second but won't gig it any more.

Edited December 25, 2019 by Woodinblack

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

Incidentally, I've found the perfect rig for our new purchase... 😉😛

 

That looks great in that colour!

[Cuzzie]

alternate cab

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F254447193461

[krispn]

The MXR cables have been good. I’ve had fender ones fail twice but like you say had them replaced for free. 
my

[chris_b]

Nice curly cable. . . . . . . . matches my nail polish.

[Lozz196]

I’ve been using Fender leads for a few years now and never had any problems. I’ve got the regular black cable, the black & white stitched cable and the tweed cable, all have been fine.

[TheGreek]

2 hours ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

Incidentally, I've found the perfect rig for our new purchase... 😉😛

Isn't that a right handed rig???

[Silvia Bluejay]

Yes it is. And so are Happy Jack's basses. The curly lead is, however, ambidextrous. Next question? 😛

[Woodinblack]

So on that subject, why did the world stop using curly leads? In the 70s everything was curly leads and then they all disappeared. 

[Doctor J]

The weight and additional tension of the coil as it expands places unnecessary stress on the part of the cable which meets the jack, so you get constant flexing between the immovable and swinging parts of the cable which creates a break point dramatically shortening the life of the cable. If you hook it behind the strap (as one should) and through an cab handle you just move those stresses flex nodes somewhere else with the same end result.