Yes, it's true. It was bound to happen. sat back, all plugged in and no sound. I started to lean forward to check the amp and had noise all of a sudden. That staticky type, every time I moved noise. Being after 9:00 PM and far too lazy to go get my spare, I put the wire back in the chain (from comp to amp) where it would not move and played the evening from that position.
The best is this, I bring it in. It's been 5 years or so. I don't remember where or when I got each cord. I thought I was going to get some sob story about not having a receipt or something. Not today! The guy at Guitar Center said "oh, you got a bad one? Hang on a sec", and then reappears with a new one in the package with my old one getting ready to be tagged. Asked for my name so he could do the zero-sum sale in the computer and I was done. In and out in three minutes. (well, I woould have been, but I stuck around a bit. :) :twisted: )
Don't you love no hassle warrenties?
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
That's good to know.
I have two and so far so good.
Bish
"I play live as playing dead is harder than it sounds!"
I've got one that has been run over every day for years in my office. It's still ticking.
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
I just had mine die -- in the middle of a gig. it had to be either the Monster Cable or the E-B volume pedal. one is a great design that is well-executed with quality materials and built under very good quality control. the other is an over-hyped, over-priced product that substitutes marketing and packaging for quality.
when I opened the cable connector and saw it was basically "built to fail", I was pretty annoyed with Monster. A lifetime replacement warranty does not make up for a screwing a gig.
I feel stupid for ever suspecting it could be the volume pedal.
-=tension & release=-
I've had two Monster cables in my life. I now have two broken Monster cables. :(
NEZTOK, I guess upside is that you can get them replaed for free, or close to it. Time, money, convenience, etc, not withstanding.Theoretically, I should not have to purchase a new cable....ever.
So gnease, what told you or brought to your attention a "designed to fail" element in the cables with you took the ends off? I'm not into electronics enough to know what appears to be non-wear items look like and actual non-wear items look like.
So in closing, perhaps I better stio recommending them. Still, though, I was going throgh a cable every 6 months before buying Moster Cables. Say I got a year out of old ones and 5 now out of Monsters, and the Monser replacement is free. then you gotta factor in hiher priced units to begin with.....I be I'm not ahead of the game as I think. :? Still, the over hyped marketing is being followed up with very rare service. If Monster were to shut doen, I'm thinking of making my own if that's feasible and f high quality.
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
I'm with Greg - the hype isn't worth it. Even when you factor in the free replacement.
I use decent quality cables, which cost about $15 each. I could buy similar Monsters for about $25. As a guitar teacher, my cables take a beating - the student's cable gets plugged & unplugged north of 2500 times per year. And I track the failure rate, which runs in the 4-6% range on an annual basis. Even if I figure 8% failure (replacing 1 cable out of 12 each year) on my current cables, that's an expense of $1.20 per year for each cable... so it would take about 8 years before my replacement cost of less expensive cables caught up to Monsters.
Because of the design of Monster's connectors, I'm guessing their failure rate would be higher. I have used Monsters in the past, but before I started the music school, so I've got less data. But in my own teaching, Monsters didn't last as long as other cables I've used.
The way we use cables at the school, I'm guessing the failure rate on Monsters would probably be in the 15-20% range. And since I don't have the option of having a student wait while I run out and replace a cable, that means I'd need to keep more spares around... while I currently keep 4 spares on hand for the school, I'd have to up that to six or so with Monsters to feel safe. That's an additional $50 tied up. So my break-even moves out to 10 or 12 years. And during that time, I'd probably be making several more trips to get replacements - there's a cost for the gas, wear and tear on my car, and my time. I don't think they'd ever be less expensive when you figure everything in.
I don't think my assumptions are out of whack. Your cable went bad after 5 years or so. If you practice every day and gig twice a week, in 5 years you'll do about 2300 cycles of connect/disconnect - or roughly what a student cable goes through in a year. While cables used on stage get more wear and tear from moving around and being stepped on compared to being used in a lesson where the student is sitting in one place... I'm still getting nearly 20x the number of connection cycles out of each cable. So even if the Monsters I tried were duds, and their actual performance is five times better than my experience with them, I'm still better off with "cheaper" (less expensive, but better constructed) cables.
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
