Eldest has started playing my old guitar, just bought an Orange Crush 12 for him and myself to mess about on. My old leads which were cheap and nasty at the time are cutting out so need some new ones.

Have seen some nice looking braided ones on ebay by Spartan but have no idea if they are decent or terrible. What would people recommend?

I have a Fender lead. Works fine.

I use these with the Van Damme cable and Neutrik jacks. I have two for Pedal board/FX to amps and a couple of 3m ones for guitar to board or in smaller rooms.
Good prices great delivery.

https://www.designacable.com/musician-leads/instrument-lead

Noise free and just the right balance of anti-twist/flexibility for me.

I bought some Roland RIC10’s recently and am impressed by them. Just home use though so I can’t vouch for their durability (seem pretty solid though)
Good quality, solid, you can choose straight / angled end combos and various lengths and cheap – £10 for a 3m one.

I’ve got a couple of Planet Waves leads that I gigged heavily with for years.

They now do duty in my home studio, and are still going strong.

Every other lead I owned died during that time, but these 2 just kept on going.

One has a signal cutting switch on the jack, which is great for swapping instruments or leaving a guitar plugged into a live amp without getting feedback.

Mainly Fender.

Fender because they look cool and aren’t expensive. But if you want to sound like Hendrix, you’ve gotta use a massive 25m curly cable apparently.

Fender here

Planet waves here…at least 15 years old and still going strong, although the gold plating long since wore of the plugs.

Pedalboard uses DIY patch cables using George L’s 155 with KMMK SP400 jacks. Pretty new but no problems.

if you are worried about the sound more than the looks, go for some cable with a low capacitance, especially if you are going to use a longish lead.

a decent bit of guitar cable will also have some layers of insulators to stop it being to microphonic. Mogami or Klotz are good brands

I use Evidence Audio ‘The Melody’ cables at £80 a pop here because I’m worth it and can DEFINITELY hear the difference.

+1 for Van Damme & Neutrik, my local shop makes them up to order.

Interesting, all Planet Waves cables I’ve ever had have failed. TBH most of the the other cables I’ve used over the years have also gone!

The one (thus far) that’s lasted for me is an MXR with a lifetime guarantee.

A lot of these suggestions are kind of overkill for the OP’s situation.

Personally I’d go to the guitar shop and buy the cheapest one you can find with a lifetme warranty.
Then when it breaks you can take it back and get another one.
They all break eventually.

Not quite the cheapest but cheap and easily repaired with a soldering iron when years of abuse get the better of it:

https://www.andertons.co.uk/bass-dept/bass-guitar-strings-accessories/guitar-cables/fender-original-series-instrument-cable-186-surf-green

They do a clear blue plastic one which is stronger if you can find one in stock somewhere.

Thoman sssnake – I’m a long way off anything more expensive…