After just spending the better part of £100 on some Musiflex cable and some Neutriks XLR connectors and making up 10 assorted sized leads I wondered about what was the best was to keep them good.

I know Andy (Ads) uses insulation tape to keep the coils together, but I feel that this is both wasteful and messy (leaves glue residue on the cables).

I went to B&Q bright and early this morning and had a look around, I ended up buying 1 mtr of self adhesive 20mm black velcro hooks, 4 mtrs of self adhesive 20mm black velcro non-hook (don't know what its called) and 4 mtrs of 20mm black and yellow webbing.

I stuck the 4 mtrs of non hook velcro onto the 4 mtrs of webbing, I then cut this into lengths of 3", 4.5", 6" and 8". On one end of the other side of the webbing I stuck a small piece of hooked velcro 0.5" for 3", 0.75" for 4.5" and 1" for the 6" and 8" lengths. This gave me a lot of reusable lead tidys, more than enough for 10 assorted XLR cables, 6 assorted Speakon cables and loads of DMX and IEC leads.

Reason for the different lengths was to be more economical and reduce the bulk on the smaller leads and give me more options for their use when not protecting the coils (2 can be combined to give greater lengths).

3" version suits leads upto and including 1.5mtr long

4.5" version suits leads between 2mtr and 5mtr long

6" version suits leads between 5mtr and 12 mtr long (longest I have).

The 8" versions are for holding the assorted cables from my lights to the uprights of the lighting rig, and also for holding speaker cables to the speaker stands on the occassions that they are used. 4.5" and 6" lengths can be used for grouping cables together tidily along their runs back to the mixer/x-over/amps etc.

Got the idea from something similar used for holding made up fishing rods/reels together for transport.

Eddie.

Also while at B&Q bought some Bungee cord for my "black cloth" more user friendly that the net curtain stuff I was using.

I use reusable cable ties.
Maplins £5 for 200

Work fine but sometimes a bit fidly to un-do

Insulating tape

Insulation tape..... cheap and easy....

B&Q, Couple of quid for a pack of 6 rolls!!

BLOODY HELL HOW MUCH AND B&Q

CPC do a box of 24 for about that. Don't but them as they aren't very good, but if you buy in bulk, a I do, it gets cheaper on the better quality stuff.

BTW how long does a roll last, I normally get about five gigs from a roll.

I find insulating tape a bit fiddly and leaves sticky residues.
I used to have re-usable cable ties but found them fiddly too.

Now, I strip out offcuts of 1.5mm flat twin cable and use singles cut to whatever length.
Wrap - flick - twist = done.

When I undo a coiled lead I make a point of doing a quick wrap - flick - twist to keep my cable tidy on its own cable near a plug. That way, they never go walkies and I got 'em ready at the end of the night as I demount.

Insualtion Tape..........
About 5-7 gig seems to be in the right area.......

And there is always that fund of trying to get the piece that got away from the bottom of your shoe................

Alot of big companies seem to use insulation tape, so it must be the best solution... and the stick residue isn't that bad, the dirt from the floor seems to get rid of it!

Oh well, I'll settle for the non sticky, eco friendly version. Works for me



Eddie.

I use double sided velcro ties.... you can get a 4m roll for about £12 from CPC, then just cut it to the sizes you need.

Have to use gaffa tape for cables on the floor though, although really need a better solution as it makes a mess of the cables and doesn't look very good...

Ikea sell the velcro cable ties as well, quite cheap if I remember

Re-usable cable ties for me also, but as Scottsdisco said, they can be a bit fiddly to undo as you have to press in a little tab and bend the tie back a bit.......

But having experienced the use of insulating tape curtesy of ADS, I can wholeheartedly recommend re-usable cable ties to everyone!

Go on, do it! I know you want to!

Velcro ties for me. Asda also sell them.

Double sided Velcro - brought as a group buy on DJU.

Also double purpose:- The lengths are long enough to hold cable coils together in the box, and once undone, are use to secure cables to stands.

Insulating tape is so fiddly to have to get off each time?

Do you guys not find this?


I just reusable velcro cable ties....found this the best way.

I've also gone with the pre-made Ikea velco straps!

Cheezy
Nightsounds

Valcro strips for cables to keep cables tidy that are hanging etc.
On the floor I use rubber car mats for cables that run from the rear to front of set up so I dont trip over them.

I have actually decided there is no need to use any cable tidy for leads at all....It seems as long as you wrap the cable up relatively neatly and put it back in your box you shouldn't have a problem...

After all I have one holdall of leads I use and another as backup....So the leads that I put regularly are getting used at each gig!! Just a pain having to fiddle about taping/ties at 2am when all you can think about is getting something to eat and some rest!

I still prefer re-usable cable ties:
Stops those cables from getting tangled, and leaves no messy residue!