Mic cable rip-off

Am partway through one final task before bed:  finally repairing some microphone cables and instrument cables that I've been meaning to do (one mic and one instrument cable from church, about 6-9 months ago; two mic and two instrument cables of my own, that have needed repairing for maybe 2-3 years).

One mic cable (mine) I'd marked "BAD - THIS END".  Upon disassembly I realized that only two of the three pins were connected: the shield (ground), and one of the "live" pins. (All three pins are supposed to be connected -- one pin to the braided "shield" that goes around the interior of the cable, and each of of the other two pins to each of the wires that runs down the centre.  So I looked at the other end:  same thing.  So maybe I was using a device that relied on one of the non-standard pins -- and that's why it didn't work for me?  (Dunno -- it's been too long.)

Regardless:  that's a rip-off (IMO) to sell a "microphone" cable that doesn't connect all the pins -- because it doesn't have the "noise-suppressing" capability that two interior wires (connected properly) would provide.  Clearly the manufacturer couldn't spring for a slightly better cable that had two wires in the core.

 

It's analagous to selling a car that has some of the bolts that hold the car together:  yeah, it'll work -- but it's not as robust, and you're not getting what you think you're paying for.

I've salvaged the two ends of the mic cable (perfectly decent), and have labelled the cord as a future instrument cable.  I have some extra 1/4" jacks -- but, no hurry, as one of my recent projects was to build a mega cable rack (will remedially post pics at some point), and consolidate all of my cables (mic; instrument; RCA) -- years of accumulation; some in use, but most in various boxes.  Turns out that (including the short cables that go between f/x pedals) I have more cables of each type than I actually need:  I'm glad that when I sold my last two electric guitars (both to beginners) I gave each buyer a few (inexpensive) instrument cables, just to get them started; and, will post a message at work that I have extra cables.   

 

So -- no hurry to build yet another instrument cable:  I have enough.

Still disappointing, though, that someone would sell a "microphone" cable that doesn't meet the minimum standard. 

--GG

 

 

P.S.  I've written this blog entry (and also e-mailed the above to a few musician-y friends) -- so I might just wrap it up rather than getting out my soldering gear:  another night.  :)