Fender cables...

[Ruthie58]

...SUCK!

I have been shocked to find EVERY fender custom shop cable I have ever owned broken in less than a a few months.

I use all super high end cables now, and would never go back. They just last longer even if there is no tone enhancement.

have any of you had the same problem with fender cables? They really are awful and have completely given up on them despite being a fairly cheap cable with a warranty. I have simply had every single one Ive owned become trash after about a month or two of normal use and proper wrapping.

 

[mgenet]

Ruthie, are you using them Pro or Am?
How much use do they get? Daily/hours.

Certainly sound like you should look for another brand...

I am sure some of my MLP compatriots will chime in soon
on thier favs...

just watch out for purple people eaters...

 

[Ruthie58]

I WAS (edit: meaning i still play professionally but dont use these cables) using them professionally. Bought two of the tweed custom cables and some patch tweed cables of the same ilk.

I have about 3 practices and at least 2 gigs a week. I would say its pretty light use compared to some Professional players, but I have found that they are VERY fragile around the jack area, and tend to fade in/out before they go completely caput!

Kindof wanted to see if it was a common problem.

I am currently using a monster coily cable and a custom made lead to go from my board to the amp. Eveything in between is those high end planet waves cables (i cant remember what model they are but they feel very heavy duty and havent failed yet)

I wrap my cables properly, and dont abuse them, but over the course of owning 3 of the fender 20' cables I wont buy again. Owned 3 in a year, and it took me only a few gigs of the stinkin things fading in and out to even realize it was the cable (they were intermittently failing at first)

This saturday was the last straw with a fender patch cable that went from my volume pedal to my pedal board. I was getting a horrible hum (with a LP) and the volume was fading in and out. I pulled the volume pedal and the fender patch cable out of the signal and no more hum or volume fluctuation.

Im a huge fan of fender as a brand, but their cables have disappointed me and are not gig worthy IMO.

 

[Ruthie58]

Ruthie, are you using them Pro or Am?
How much use do they get? Daily/hours.

Certainly sound like you should look for another brand...

I am sure some of my MLP compatriots will chime in soon
on thier favs...

just watch out for purple people eaters...

Already switched brands a while back, but used one of the last working patch cables made by fender that I had in my gig bag to connect a volume pedal and......shocker, it was trash.

 

[mgenet]

Wow, moderate use and falling apart? Yeah time to look elsewhere.
You'd hope to get at least a year out of 'em before they started
to fray and breakdown...

 

[Ruthie58]

Wow, moderate use and falling apart? Yeah time to look elsewhere.
You'd hope to get at least a year out of 'em before they started
to fray and breakdown...

I used to buy VOX coily cables (I love that they dont tangle and stretch to meet the length needs) and they would usually last a little over a year before they were toast. This is perfectly reasonable to me. Just wanted to see if anyone had a similar experience with fender cables (sold everywhere it seems) and also do a buyer beware.

 

[lazz]

I've had the same experience. Was using a custom shop one from my board to my amp and it lasted a few weeks. Terrible terrible quality.

 

[DavidRamey]

I am using the same Planet Waves for 3 years now.

 

[tzd]

Several years back I was buying a lot of cables when I started building out my rig, and I did a lot of research before buying.

I've definitely read bad things about Fender cables, and the Vox coil cable as well. I ended up buying a couple of Bullet coils, and all my other cables are Planet Waves - which are not expensive and have been very reliable so far. The only thing is that the rubber coating on the Planet Waves seem to have whitened/hardened a bit over time.