Odd cable failure

[Arny Krueger]

Over the years I've repaired dozens of XLR mic cables. The usual fire drill
is to cut off about 3 feet of the failing end (usually the end that plugs
into the mic) and move the connector to the fresh cut end.

We've got a vocalist at church that loves to twirl his mic cable. It tends
to get a bit knotted, but it can be untwisted. This has been going on with
the same cable for about 3 years, Sunday morning service and Wednesday
evening rehearsal.

His cable finally failed and I proceeded to administer the usual repair.

Didn't work.

The repaired cable had one conductor that tested OK (the shield) but the
other two conductors metered out at several K. The resistance would vary but
not completely open up as I moved the cable around.

So I cut the other end off, and tested the remainder with the meter. Same
problem.

So then I cut another 5 feet off the first end I worked on, and tested the
remainder with the meter. Same problem.

In the end the 20 foot cable had no more than 2 3-5 foot sections that
tested out to be like wire.

Needless to say, I'm scrapping the whole cable.

OK, so now I'm educated a little more. ;-)

[[email protected]]

On 2007-12-11 said:
>Over the years I've repaired dozens of XLR mic cables. The usual
>fire drill is to cut off about 3 feet of the failing end (usually
>the end that plugs into the mic) and move the connector to the
>fresh cut end.
>We've got a vocalist at church that loves to twirl his mic cable.
>It tends to get a bit knotted, but it can be untwisted. This has
>been going on with the same cable for about 3 years, Sunday morning
>service and Wednesday evening rehearsal.
>His cable finally failed and I proceeded to administer the usual
>repair.
And had no luck of course.

WHat to do? GIve this fool a dummy to twirl around and make
him sing into a stationary mic. tHis isn't a rock concert,
and money doesn't grow on trees.
AS a good steward of church resources you should explain to
this guy that he's not playing with a rock band at the
sports arena and he needs to modify his behavior.

I've got a similar thing going on with a large multicore,
200 ft. I"m thinking of cutting it up, putting my lk
connector on one end and various other connectors to mate
with the rest of the live sound world on other, this way
I"ll probablyhave three or four short runs of multicore to
adapt to the rest of the world eventually.

MEanwhile it lives in my storage unit.




Richard webb,
Replace anything before the @ symbol with elspider for real
email address.



a good captain is hoisting his first drink in a bar
when the storm hits

[Scott Dorsey]

> wrote:
>
>WHat to do? GIve this fool a dummy to twirl around and make
>him sing into a stationary mic. tHis isn't a rock concert,
>and money doesn't grow on trees.

OR use Belden 8412 or even Belden 8428. Even Elvis couldn't damage it.

Not very good shield coverage, not terribly good spacing stability, high
shunt capacitance and it smells funny. But man, it's almost impossible to
damage.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Paul Stamler]

"Scott Dorsey" > wrote in message
...
> > wrote:
> >
> >WHat to do? GIve this fool a dummy to twirl around and make
> >him sing into a stationary mic. tHis isn't a rock concert,
> >and money doesn't grow on trees.
>
> OR use Belden 8412 or even Belden 8428. Even Elvis couldn't damage it.
>
> Not very good shield coverage, not terribly good spacing stability, high
> shunt capacitance and it smells funny. But man, it's almost impossible to
> damage.

Or get him a wireless mic and let him try twirling *that*.

Peace,
Paul

[Roy W. Rising[_2_]]

"Paul Stamler" > wrote:
> "Scott Dorsey" > wrote in message
> ...
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > >WHat to do? GIve this fool a dummy to twirl around and make
> > >him sing into a stationary mic. tHis isn't a rock concert,
> > >and money doesn't grow on trees.
> >
> > OR use Belden 8412 or even Belden 8428. Even Elvis couldn't damage it.
> >
> > Not very good shield coverage, not terribly good spacing stability,
> > high shunt capacitance and it smells funny. But man, it's almost
> > impossible to damage.
>
> Or get him a wireless mic and let him try twirling *that*.
>
> Peace,
> Paul

On the '60s R&R show "Shindig", Beyer M160s were used as hand mics because
"they" liked the look. Bobbie Hatfield twirled one during a bridge and it
was dead when the verse continued. Ribbons are like that. This is one of
the reasons EV developed the 635A.

--
~
~ Roy
"If you notice the sound, it's wrong!"

[Mark]

>
> WHat to do? GIve this fool a dummy to twirl around and make
> him sing into a stationary mic. tHis isn't a rock concert,
> and money doesn't grow on trees.
> AS a good steward of church resources you should explain to
> this guy that he's not playing with a rock band at the
> sports arena and he needs to modify his behavior.
>
>

I thought our job was to help the "talent" give their best possible
performance... going through 1 mic cable every 3 years isn't exactly
a squandering of resources...

I just saw Neil Young at the Tower Theater in Phily last night, the
sound was great, he was great, ...I can just try to imagine the crew
asking Neil to go a little easy on the mic cable... :-)

Mark

[Arny Krueger]

"Mark" > wrote in message


>> WHat to do? GIve this fool a dummy to twirl around and
>> make him sing into a stationary mic. tHis isn't a rock
>> concert, and money doesn't grow on trees.

>> AS a good steward of church resources you should explain
>> to this guy that he's not playing with a rock band at the
>> sports arena and he needs to modify his behavior.

> I thought our job was to help the "talent" give their
> best possible performance... going through 1 mic cable
> every 3 years isn't exactly a squandering of resources...

Agreed.

> I just saw Neil Young at the Tower Theater in Phily last
> night, the sound was great, he was great, ...I can just
> try to imagine the crew asking Neil to go a little easy
> on the mic cable... :-)

That's the approach we're taking. Mic cables are cheap compared to talent.

[Mike Rivers]

On Dec 11, 2:22 pm, "Paul Stamler" > wrote:

> Or get him a wireless mic and let him try twirling *that*.

He'd probably not remember that there was no cable and it would go
flying across the room.

[D C[_2_]]

wrote:

> WHat to do? GIve this fool a dummy to twirl around and make
> him sing into a stationary mic. tHis isn't a rock concert,
> and money doesn't grow on trees.
> AS a good steward of church resources you should explain to
> this guy that he's not playing with a rock band at the
> sports arena and he needs to modify his behavior.

I agree. I think churches should go back to just organs, anyway.

Who was it in the seventies that had wads of tape on his mic to keep it
from detaching from the cable? Maybe Rod Stewart.

[[email protected]]

On 2007-12-11 said:
>> WHat to do? GIve this fool a dummy to twirl around and make
>> him sing into a stationary mic. tHis isn't a rock concert,
>> and money doesn't grow on trees.
>> AS a good steward of church resources you should explain to
>> this guy that he's not playing with a rock band at the
>> sports arena and he needs to modify his behavior.
>I thought our job was to help the "talent" give their best possible
>performance... going through 1 mic cable every 3 years isn't
>exactly a squandering of resources...
True enough, lucky it lasted three years. SEe ROy's story
about the ribbon and the idiot twirling it around.
I've seen them fail much quicker with that kind of
treatment. IF you're hired by the talent actually then as
long as they're not using a good ribbon or something let 'em
twirl and be fools, but with something such as a church
you're not dealing with talent that's paying you to put on a
show. USually nobody's getting paid, and resources are
finite. IF you're buying your own mics and cables treat 'em
any way you want, but when contributions pay the bills and
the maintenance I'd be a bit strong on that one myself.

WOrked with more than one "singer" that didn't even buy
his/her own microphone. Usually these are the ones that
seem to delight in such antics.

IN one case I think I went through mic cables at least every
other month with this guy. FInally told him he wasn't
RObert Plant, and until he should choose to buy his own gear
he wasn't going to keep messing mine up.
I had enough 25 foot ic cables become totally useless in
this guy's hands, and even a destroyed microphone.
FOlks, sm-58 and 57's are not indestructible.

SEcond case I"m thinking of, dingbat broad doing her thing
for a talent showcase for a church event coinciding with
July 4 steak fry. Between her abuse of mics etc. and
pointing them at monitors and everywehre else I finally just
told her that the mic remains on the stand.
COuldn't convince her not to point the mic at the monitors,
couldn't convince her not to cup the mic.

>I just saw Neil Young at the Tower Theater in Phily last night, the
>sound was great, he was great, ...I can just try to imagine the
>crew asking Neil to go a little easy on the mic cable... :-)
true enough, but nEil's shows are for profit events, you
write off that trashed mic cable, or even the trashed mic.
Either the hire company does, or Niil's production pays, as
they do eventually either way.
A bit of a different business model.

I always ask about how "talent" treats equipment before I
choose what to use on them. I'm not going to put a good
ribbon on somebody who treats equipment rough for example.
IF you're "talent" and you want to tear up equipment you do it with your stuff
thank you. THis goes tripple if it's a volunteer gig or the
organization that owns the equipment does the beg for
operating funds.


SAw elsewhere ARnie and the church look at it as talent
being harder to replace than a mic cable, and three years is
a good run in such hands. the church gig I mentioned above
was all volunteer, and my gear.





Richard webb,
Replace anything before the @ symbol with elspider for real
email address.



I'm so poor I can't even pay attention.

[Dave Morrison]

"D C" > wrote in message
. ..
> wrote:

<snip>
> I agree. I think churches should go back to just organs, anyway.
>
> Who was it in the seventies that had wads of tape on his mic to keep it
> from detaching from the cable? Maybe Rod Stewart.

Roger Daltrey

[D C[_2_]]

Dave Morrison wrote:

>> Who was it in the seventies that had wads of tape on his mic to keep it
>> from detaching from the cable? Maybe Rod Stewart.
>
> Roger Daltrey


Right you are. I had just seen the new Who documentary recently, and it
was him.

Thanks.

[Steve]

On Dec 11, 7:22 pm, "Paul Stamler" > wrote:
> "Scott Dorsey" > wrote in message
>
> ...
>
> > > wrote:
>
> > >WHat to do? GIve this fool a dummy to twirl around and make
> > >him sing into a stationary mic. tHis isn't a rock concert,
> > >and money doesn't grow on trees.
>
> > OR use Belden 8412 or even Belden 8428. Even Elvis couldn't damage it.
>
> > Not very good shield coverage, not terribly good spacing stability, high
> > shunt capacitance and it smells funny. But man, it's almost impossible to
> > damage.
>
> Or get him a wireless mic and let him try twirling *that*.
>
> Peace,
> Paul

Just tell him it's Gods way of telling him not to twirl the D****d
cable !!

Steve

[Steve Tew]

"Soundhaspriority" > wrote in message
...
> > wrote in message Z4B7j.20060$_m.
> ...
>> WHat to do? GIve this fool a dummy to twirl around and make
>> him sing into a stationary mic. tHis isn't a rock concert,
>> and money doesn't grow on trees.
>> AS a good steward of church resources you should explain to
>> this guy that he's not playing with a rock band at the
>> sports arena and he needs to modify his behavior.
>
> Even better, give him a MAC10 and have him cruise the church for Jews,
> homos, and other non-Christians and gun them down. That seems to be
> all the rage now!

In the Muslim community.....







>
> Bob Morein
> (215) 646-4894

[[email protected]]

On Dec 11, 7:54 pm, D C > wrote:
> wrote:

>
> Who was it in the seventies that had wads of tape on his mic to keep it
> from detaching from thecable? Maybe Rod Stewart.

Roger Daltrey, in the 60's.
Notably at Woodstock '69, with a Shure 565 Unisphere.