Cable a founding member of the Welsh rock band, which rose to fame in the 1990s, but he quit the group in 2003 for a career presenting a weekend rock show on BBC Radio Wales, he also formed a new band, Killing for Company.
Cable grew up in the same Welsh village as the band's frontman Kelly Jones. The group released their first album "Word Gets Around" in 1997, and won a Brit award for best British newcomer a year later.
"Stuart has travelled all over the world with the band and I have worried myself silly," his mother Mabel, 79, is quoted by the Western Mail newspaper in Cardiff as saying. "He is now settled down and then this has happens. It has not sunk in yet."
The following announcement "Rest peacefully. Stuart Cable 19 May 1970 - 7 June 2010. You will be missed," was left on Killing for Company's website.
South Wales Police confirmed the sudden death of a 40-year-old man at a house in the town of Aberdare at 0430 GMT on Monday morning.
"Cause of death has not yet been established, however there are no suspicious circumstances at this stage. Next of kin have been informed," police said in a statement.