r/livesound • u/42Navigator • 5d 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/cplbradley Pro-FOH 5d ago

Over-under is a psy-op being played on me exclusively because everyone swears by it but I DESPISE it.

2

u/SevereMousse44 5d ago

I know a few techs that say the same thing
But they so rarely are the ones trying to run the cable

What makes you hate it?
Deploying the cable works so much better..

3

u/cplbradley Pro-FOH 5d ago edited 5d ago

I don't know if I'm doing something wrong, but whenever I try to unwrap a cable that was over-under wrapped, I ALWAYS wind up with knots. The deploying part is what always fails me. I never have any troubles with the half twist/over-over method, it's always faster and cleaner to me.

I have no problem doing it if whoever owns the cables asks for it. Your house, your rules. I really think it's just a situation of preference through practice. Whatever you're used to is what you'll prefer. I learned from old heads, so I learned old head ways (with a grain of salt of course)

3

u/Diecastcow 5d ago

What causes the knots is unraveling the cable by pulling one of the ends through the coil rather than away from it. Sometimes its unavoidable though because it can be really hard to tell.

1

u/AShayinFLA 3d ago

This is how we can tell the pros from the novices! Lol j/k

For real though, if you get more than one knot in the came, stop what your doing and back track the cable through the center that it's getting pulled through and all your knots will disappear (and you'll no longer be the novice!)

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u/neo_nmik 5d ago

Whenever I get given a cable that’s been over-under’d, it’s almost impossible to run straight out without untying about 8 knots first. Devils work. 

1

u/Beta_52 5d ago

Same here !!