Why do guitar cables stop working?

[Shambo]

So here I am looking at another dead guitar cable.
Nothing unusual there and it wasn't a particularly expensive cable, (a Planet Waves one with the brown card wrapping).
It can't have been more than three months old and it hasn't had a tough life. It's never been accidentally yanked out of my bass or amp.
It's never had a knot in it, always coiled properly, not extensively gigged only used for practice and the occasional jam.
Never rolled over with a flightcase full of power amps or sat in a pool of beer. Always kept at room temperature.
Only ever used by me, it's had a gentle albeit brief life.

I'm at a complete loss as to why it's stopped working. It's not the end of anybody's world, I'm not even slighty irritated.
Playing bass on and off for twenty odd years, it's obviously not the first cable I've killed.
I'm just wondering if any knowledgable basschatters have any theories as to why other cables, (ie power) seem indestructable,
yet musical instrument cables seem so fragile?

Is it the inherent physics of designing instrument cables? Shoddy manufacturing processes? Inbuilt obsolescense? Alien magnetic pulses from outer space?
All theories, practical or abstract, are welcome.

Edited April 23, 2010 by Shambo

[Dood]

The individual strands of wire in a signal / instrument cable is much finer and prone to breaking down / breaking / fraying than the much thicker strands of a mains cable that is designed to carry higher currents. (Amps as opposed to milliAmps!) It also means the physical connection between the wire core and the plugs at each end ar not as strong either, thus, any movement will eventually mean a breakage, if the cable doesn't have a suitable sheathing / cable support in and around the plug.

Cheaper cables are usually less well made - but it sounds like you have been unlucky and have a faulty cable to start with as I feel sure it shouldn't have failed that quickly if you were taking care of it.

[Doddy]

Because they are Planet Waves.

Seriously though,this is why I stopped using them. I had 3 of Planet Waves cables and
all of them failed after a few months. That was when I tried Spectraflex,and I've not had
any problems since.In fact,one of them has been abused quite a bit-screwed up, thrown in
a rucksack etc. and it still works perfectly after about 5 years. That's why I'm happy to
endorse them.

[Happy Jack]

And almost inevitably my two favourite and longest-lasting cables are ... ta-daaaa! ... Planet Waves.

I suspect it's completely random.

A bit like life, really.

[Shambo]

I've bought cheap cables and I've bought expensive ones. I've never really noticed a correlation between cost and lifespan to be honest, (or maybe I've just been unlucky), or tone or signal strength for that matter.

For me, they all shuffle off this *ahem* mortal coil sooner rather than later.

[flyfisher]

Most of my cable failures have been when someone or something has brushed past the jack plug in my old combo and physically broken the plug. This hasn't happened since I've got two cabs and a separate head unit sitting up much higher.

The ones that have not been so abused seem to have lasted for many years.

I'd say a cossetted 3-month old cable failure is a manufacturing fault.

[Pete Academy]

When we used to stock Planet Waves, we had a fair few returned faulty. We've switched to good old Whirlwind and had virtually no returns.

[escholl]

This:

[Ancient Mariner]

That ^

I've only ever known 2 planet waves cables, and they both died in less than a year. I use a mix of cables, mostly cheaper, and they tend to last me a long time. I've been playing 32 years, and I can pretty much remember every cable I've owned in that time including the earliest one made from TV arial coax. I think I've probably had 10.

[Golchen]

Personally I suspect unions. Have you considered your cables working conditions?

[Shambo]

[quote name='Golchen' post='816695' date='Apr 23 2010, 08:45 PM']Personally I suspect unions. Have you considered your cables working conditions?[/quote]
I get the impression official M.U. cables would be terribly expensive and drink alot of tea.


[quote name='escholl' post='816626' date='Apr 23 2010, 07:55 PM']This:

[/quote]
Mice eh?

[chris_b]

Cheap or expensive, most cables break because people stand on them and/or try to stretch them! I don't do either of those things and have never had a cable break. My Whirlwind has been in regular use for 20+ years and now I have an OBBM cable.