I got this cable in a pack with a bass guitar from Thomann. When I first got the cable, no signal made it through. Knowing that Thomann would likely take care of me, but not wanting to deal with the hassle of shipping and waiting between the US and Germany, I unscrewed the ends to see what was going on.
As soon as I unscrewed the metal casing of the angled end, signal made it through the cable. The problem seemed to be that there was too much solder on the hot portion of the cable, and the solder was making contact with the metal casing that shorted the cable right there in that end.
I took out some pliers and very carefully pushed back/chipped off enough solder for there to be clearance between the hot and the ground and screwed the casing back over the cable's end and now it works great.
Seems like a design flaw, or at least something that should have been caught in QC, but now I've got a nice long cable that's working great.
Pros:
- Length of cable
- The cable is wrapped nice and tight with blue cloth, keeping it flexible, but preventing the wire inside from getting too twisted or bent.
- The cable looks good. The blue is great in person. Very rich in color, but not overpowering. I was choosing between the blue and the vintage tweed and I'm glad I went with the blue.
Cons:
- QC issues mentioned above.
Notes:
- The ends seem sturdy enough, but they seem to be a mix of metal and plastic (it's either plastic or a very very light, and likely cheap metal alloy), and I'm not sure how well they'd hold up if they take too much of a beating. For example, if they get caught in between two hard cases in a van and take a good hammering, the weaker plastic bits might crack, leaving you with exposed wiring in the cable ends. If you want just a cable for home use, and it won't be exposed to anything strenuous on the materials other than regular use, this seems like it's a great option. So long as you get one that lets signal through, that is.