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How to straighten a bent lavalier cable


foliver

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Hi all.

In my lav case, I've some mke2's with bent cables.

Cables are clean, capsules too, but the cable is not straight, and is impossible to use them with light garment....at least for me, I prefer to go with another ones.

But for some situations, I would like to have a straight mke2..

Someone knows if they are a magic thing to do, to help them to find a straight line?

I've tested with coconut oil, and despite to clean, and soften a little bit the surface......

 

Any tip?

 

Please avoid the " buy a new one" answers.

 

Thanks!

 

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Try blowing hot air on it, with a hairdryer for example, while laying the cable straight and flat. It should warm up the cable jacket and soften the rubber. Let it cool down flat and straight and it should get rid of all the kinks and twists. I do this with XLR cable and it works pretty good. 

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I used to cover Marc Gilmartin on double-up days. He had a cable hanging bracket attached to his cart. I don't know if this is the exact model he used but it's the idea:

 

https://www.pacrad.com/middle-atlantic-equipment-accessories-claw.html

 

Ordinarily, this is used to manage the pigtails that might otherwise clutter a sound studio. Marc used it to hang his lavalier microphones. He would either put a collar on the cable or attach a strip to make the slot more narrow. A cable that was particularly kinky might have a weight attached at the bottom to help stretch things out. He would routinely store lav cables this way and they tended to lie straight. Of course, he would pack up the lavs in the normal way when moving locations.

 

David

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11 hours ago, David Waelder said:

I used to cover Marc Gilmartin on double-up days. He had a cable hanging bracket attached to his cart. I don't know if this is the exact model he used but it's the idea:

 

https://www.pacrad.com/middle-atlantic-equipment-accessories-claw.html

 

Ordinarily, this is used to manage the pigtails that might otherwise clutter a sound studio. Marc used it to hang his lavalier microphones. He would either put a collar on the cable or attach a strip to make the slot more narrow. A cable that was particularly kinky might have a weight attached at the bottom to help stretch things out. He would routinely store lav cables this way and they tended to lie straight. Of course, he would pack up the lavs in the normal way when moving locations.

 

David

Nice story, and practice.

i remember dpa advice  to use coconut oil to keep the lav cables softs.

i think May be it can help to do that and sun bath 

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The problem with the MKE-2s specifically is that they contain 2 braided wires that are used to hold the shape & strengthen the lav cable. Which makes them tough but once they get kinked, it's game over. It's not the rubber shield/casing that's getting twisted & bent, so no amount of hanging/heating/drying/applying oils is going to remedy it. I've yet to find a solution

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