REVIEW: Stage Ninja Retractable Guitar Cable Reel

by | Jun 7, 2018 | Best Guitar Picks, Effects Pedals, & Accessories

Cables get tangled, regardless of the way they’re coiled up after a gig, or how they’re stored, and unfurling them is a pain. Stage Ninja has a great solution to this problem.

With 20’ of instrument cable in a spring-loaded ABS housing, it follows the same idea applied to extension cables and pneumatic air lines in workshops. Just grab one end and pull enough cable you need. A quick tug locks it into place. When it’s time to pack up, another quick tug, and it retracts into the unit, coiling itself neatly in the housing without any fuss or tangling.

The extension end has a plastic ball to ensure the jack doesn’t get sucked into the housing. With 6’ feet at the other end there’s plenty of length to plug in to an amp, and not be draped inelegantly over your gear. The cable ends are well done, and by Neutrik, so there should be no issue there for the actual connections. The casing’s design is meant to be stackable, and although they don’t snap in together like Legos, they do seem to stay put pretty well on stage and in the studio.

Stage Ninja offers these in several different cable configurations for a number of needs, and it’s just a great idea, especially in the instrument or speaker cables. One other interesting application should be of interest to guitar players: some players like the slight signal drop when using long cables; it warms up the sound a bit, just ask Buddy Guy! It gives the chance to get that nice warm capacitance drop, without a spaghetti mess of tangled cables to clean up or trip over.

PROS: Great idea, plenty of musical applications.

CONS: None.

PRICE: appx $30