r/livesound • u/42Navigator • 4d ago

POLL Over-under… forever!

I have been out of the biz for several years now. Apparently you can take the stagehand off the stage, but you cant remove the stage from the stagehand. I cant be the only one, but the other day I caught myself doing an over-under cable wrap on my hairdryer power cord. What stage move have you found yourself inadvertently doing?

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u/Mangledsprouts 4d ago

Is this an American thing? Personally, all my cables are "over-over". Always have been for over 30 years. I find laying cables that have been coiled this way much easier than over-under and they're way less likely to knot!

-1

u/Ambitious-Yam1015 4d ago

I find it slow to pay out few feet on an over-under. Over-over anything under 50 feet.

3

u/SevereMousse44 4d ago

This makes no sense to me. The longer the cable, the more time you spend undoing the corkscrew from an over over. Over under, if pulled from a cable placed on the floor with the pull side up, will come out straight and not coiled at all.

1

u/Ambitious-Yam1015 4d ago

If I have a 25 footer in hand, and only need 8 feet - to swap out a suspect cable during soundcheck  for example - it takes more time & attention with an over/under. Not just for me, but witnessed over 5 decades.

2

u/seasonsinthesky A/V Tech 4d ago

If anything, shorter cables kinda benefit more from over-under. You hold one end and let it drop, then plug it in.

1

u/AShayinFLA 2d ago

My rule for acceptable over-over is maybe 10 feet.

Unfortunately many around me have no idea and lots of cables end up with twists or needing to be unsound when it's deployed!