A helpful website I found...

[bulbasaur_85]

...for checking cables. I was having some intermittent cable problems lately. And I almost shelled out some money for a cable tester and then I googled and found this: http://www.ohmcheck.com/guitarampplug.htm

All you need is a multimeter! Everyone has one of those right? Anyways, I found it very helpful and lo and behold I found my bad patch cable, cut some new cable and made a new one - problem solved. I would recommend checking all your patch cables just to be sure using the method outlined in the website. Hope this helps you guys.

 

[bulbasaur_85]

Anyone recommend a planet waves cable tester/cutter or that behringer cable tester over just using a multimeter to check for shorts/continuity?

 

[guitarsam]

Cool info. Thanks.

 

[plan-x]

Mutimeters cost as little as $10 at walmart and can do alot more than test cables

 

[StompBoxBlues]

Absolutely in a pinch a multi-meter works fine. The problem is it isn't enough, it's only enough for a go-nogo rough check.

Behringer makes a wonderful, almost any-type to any-type cable tester. It is incredibly inexpensive and every guitar player/keyboardist (it even can test MIDI cables) bassist ought to have one in their gig bag.

For one thing (which is really important) there is an "intermittent" LED that will light (and stay lighted...latching) when you have one of those "now and then" cables....intermittent connection. You plug in both ends in their respective jacks, see a matrix of LEDs that tell you exactly what is connected to what (also VERY important for XLR cables, mic cables, some I have run across were wired backwards which can matter) and then...you jiggle the hell out of the cable especially at the ends.

If there is a wire (which I would say happens roughly 50% of bad cables...they get intermittent when they go bad) barely touching, coming off..where you bend the cable one way and it works, but some other bend makes it not...you'll find it with the cable tester.

In addition, something I found VERY useful, a little "tone generator" which can be used if you fiddle with Fuzzes, etc. to send a constant signal.

I have and use several multi-meters all the time but when I check a cable I use the behringer cable tester.

When you test a two-wire cable, it is important also to not just test that tip gets to tip, sleeve to sleeve, but also tip NOT connected to sleeve...
that's three different measurements that the tester does in one...plus intermittent testing.