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Do cables degrade over time?

Paulabass

Paulabass

Sep 18, 2017
5,435
21,954
#1
I firmly believe in quality cables. I have a half dozen or so mogami/switchcraft that have served me well, but it occurs to me they are about twelve years old. Properly wrapped, and stored, but have they degraded over time? I certainly have. My hearing is probably not what it was.
All the shorties on my board are George L, and max five years old. They don't get flexed and wrapped, so they will prob. last much longer.
What say the gear mavens?
 
#2
Yes and no. Dirt and corrosion can affect contact points. More importantly, the individual copper strands can break over time. I'm not sure "degrade" is the right word, but it is possible for a cable to wear out.

I have cables that I have been using for years, though, and my ears can tell no difference between them and a new cable.
 
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#5
It all depends on the quality of the plugs and wire. Some cheap wire gets frayed when rolled over or stepped on, or kinked. And the cheapo five buck specials have plugs with fragile clamps and circuit board material that breaks when dropped. Higher quality wire and plugs do last longer and are less prone to damage when kinked or stepped on.
 
#7
Wear and walking on them add up. That's one reason to learn how to coil them properly and not to snarl them up. I have cables that I've had for 20 years and they work fine.

I use technique #1 in this video. With a little practice you just roll the cable in your fingertips to get each wrap to lie correctly. I use velcro cable ties to secure the properly coiled cables. I also do this with power cords. I HATE tangled cables.

 
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#9
Funny you say that. After ten years on the road I put all my gear in the attic in 1991. Wasn't till maybe four years ago once the kids were grown and gone that I dug everything out and reacquainted myself with the low end. My basses were all just as I put them away. New strings and set up and they were superb. My old ultra heavy Peavey amp developed horrid scratchiness in the pots (thank heavens. Its now long gone)..... And the cables. I had a suitcase full. Of the four I routinely used back in the day, two were entirely dead. One worked but popped and cracked each time I moved (indicative of bad internal connections) and one worked fine. Same with my microphone cord. It too popped when I moved. Anyway, I trashed the lot of them and purchased new ones. But I can say that when they went in the attic in 1991, they all worked fine. I would surmise that yes, they do deteriorate over time..... I just wish the permanent cigarette smell in my cases would deteriorate too.....
 
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#12
Ever broken a tip of a cheap TSR male inside input port of your stage monitor?

- Its when you start to understand why not to use those cheap sales bin cables for anything but perhaps between the diy fx boxes: the plastic weakens and the plug tip literally breaks inside the input
 
#13
Aberdumbie said:
Funny you say that. After ten years on the road I put all my gear in the attic in 1991. Wasn't till maybe four years ago once the kids were grown and gone that I dug everything out and reacquainted myself with the low end. My basses were all just as I put them away. New strings and set up and they were superb. My old ultra heavy Peavey amp developed horrid scratchiness in the pots (thank heavens. Its now long gone)..... And the cables. I had a suitcase full. Of the four I routinely used back in the day, two were entirely dead. One worked but popped and cracked each time I moved (indicative of bad internal connections) and one worked fine. Same with my microphone cord. It too popped when I moved. Anyway, I trashed the lot of them and purchased new ones. But I can say that when they went in the attic in 1991, they all worked fine. I would surmise that yes, they do deteriorate over time..... I just wish the permanent cigarette smell in my cases would deteriorate too.....
Click to expand...

In an attic for 25 years.....
 
#14
I used to treat cables...poorly. (wondering if there's a support group for cable abusers). If you let the ends of your cable slap against the floor, the tips will take the brunt of that force, and your connectors won't last very long. Now that I'm older, and treat my gear better, things last a whole lot longer. The copper inside your cables near the connectors, assuming well made cables treated well, is usually the first to go, but well treated cables can last many years. I still carry a spare for every cable in my rig, though.
 

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