Pulling the Plug

The connector cord for my son's electric guitar had a broken wire. Although he could technically play his guitar, he couldn't connect it to the amplifier to hear what he was playing. At one time, this would have been a really good thing in our house. However, he recently expanded his repertoire to include more songs than just "Bad to the Bone" and is getting fun to listen to. When you are 13 years old and are practicing for your rock debut (as long as no one looks at you), not being able to connect to your amplifier and shake the windows is a very big deal. We examined the cord thinking it might be possible to remove the broken section and splice the plug back in. Unfortunately, we determined that the wire break was in the center of the cord. Unless he wanted a two foot connection, this wouldn't work. We took a field trip to the Guitar Center and found that a six foot 1/4" male to male amplifier cable (what he had) was $34.95. A ten foot 1/4" male to male cable (his desired cable) was $39.95. We left the cords there and continued on to Radio Shack. Radio Shack had an eighteen foot 1/4" male to male cable for only $23.99. Unfortunately, on-line product reviews indicated that the available cable had a $23.99 sound with a lot of extra pickup noise and feedback. I remembered someone in one of our Financial Peace University classes had mentioned that pawn shops could be a good place to get electronics. So we continued on our way to the local pawn shop where we found the same cord Radio Shack carried for $14.95. I get enough extra noise and unwanted feedback at home. I did not want or need any more even if it was now in the price range. The pawn shop employee recommended that we check on-line as sometimes the cable manufacturers will ship directly to the customer, eliminating the middle man and reducing the price. With some on-line research (about 15 minutes), we were able to find, on eBay from a seller with a 99-percent satisfaction rating over a five year selling history, the same brand of cable the Guitar Center sold. We bid the minimum bid and won it. My son received in the mail last week, two ten-foot 1/4" male to male cables with a dynamic sound and no feedback to speak of. My total bill for both cables including shipping direct from Hong Kong was $8.98. My house is filled once again with the sound of happy teenage son (Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," Metallica's "One," and the occasional "Bad to the Bone.")