wireless systems. . .do we love them?

[AAHIHaveNoIdeaWhatImDoing]

Hey hey hey. Lately I've been thinking about a wireless system. On the one hand, it seems stupid since I have never played on anything that might be called a big stage, on the other hand I am a ham and like to move around, and would do so more if I weren't paranoid about tripping myself on my cable. I already do the thing where you loop it through your strap; trust me, it's still always trying to kill me.

For those of you have who have something like the $400ish Line6 wireless system, do you like them? Are they reliable? Coming from a video production background that often includes being the sound guy as well, wireless always make us a little nervous 'cause of interference issues etc. Might different in the music world. . .transmitter and receiver being within very close proximity of each other unless you're AC/DC at the Collisseum or something, maybe some kind of different frequency range or antenna system that makes it more stable. Do you lose anything EQ-wise? Overkill for what I'm doing? (small shows, relatively small stages)? Thanks.

 

[rick16v]

My pal has the line 6 g70. It's great. Latency isn't a problem, and it restored enough high end that he has to use the cable emulator feature on it to dull his tone down.

 

[AAHIHaveNoIdeaWhatImDoing]

Great, thanks. You're saying switching from a cable to the wireless brought back high end the cable was damping when it was in the chain?

 

[rick16v]

Exactly. And its so prominent, line 6 have built in an adjustable treble roll off feature to replicate the high end loss you get from cables. I'm going to get a g70 when I have the funds. Really nice kit.

 

[Dmann]

Been using the Line6 G50 since it came out. 100% reliable, and have never had a drop out. 300 ft is no exaggeration, and latency is very good even at that distance. I don't use cable length roll off feature, never needed too.

Their newest line while looking a bit more modern, I think are still the same core technology, not sure though.

The only issue I've had is that my Carvin IEM transmitter gets all staticy if too close to the line 6 beltpack, so I put the line 6 on my belt on my back left side and the carvin off my pocket on my front right side.

 

[Townsendspecial]

I have a peavey PV-1. it's not too bad. A little more entry level, I think, cost is in the 200 dollar range. It's great not having any cables ( I missed them for about the first 5 seconds), but latency is an issue beyond the 35 foot mark. 35 feet is not that far when the amp is in the garage and I've danced my way up the driveway.

I want one where the unit plugs directly into the guitar, no cable between it and the beltpack. Not sure they make em that small yet???

 

[AAHIHaveNoIdeaWhatImDoing]

cool. so it really is basically "set if and forget it" technology that dumbdumbs can use?

I do not see me getting 35 feet or more away from the receiver any time soon but I'd be willing to go higher than $200 anyway (buy once, cry once, they say).

 

[flyinguitars]

I have the new line 6 g75. I got it in Sept and so far have used it at home, rehearsal, a couple small pub type gigs and a few biggee 2000+ seat gigs. Actually, I bought two of them at the same time (one for me and one for my son) and added spare transmitters for backup guitars. They have worked flawlessly.
We been running them on rechargeable AA batteries. We have 16 rechargeables, so we do soundcheck early in the day and keep the extras on the charger and then right before Showtime we rotate the fresh ones into the transmitters.
The transmitter have a standby/sleep function that sense signal and movement either go into standby or turn on automatically, so you can line your backups up and just grab and go. It's really nice if you are doing multiple guitar changes with little time in between.
Also like stated above it has the cord length simulator which I think is like high end roll-off to smooth out the tone.
As for distance....this I always laugh about..lol...because when I was shopping for a wireless this was always the first thing music store salesman would brag about. I can't ever imagine a situation where i'd ever be more than 50-60' away from my amp or reciever. And once you get farther then that it's impossible to play in time due to the delay by the speed of sound.
I looked around a paid 225.00 pee unit.

 

[AAHIHaveNoIdeaWhatImDoing]

Wow, sounds very cool. I have rechargeables for other things so I guess I'll buy some more and dedicate them to that. If I forget to charge em, I'll always have cables as backup.

 

[Mosher Zone]

I've been wanting to get a wireless for a while now but something else always get's in the way. I looked into them & the Line 6 stuff seems to be the best for the money.

 

[flyinguitars]

I don't have any experience with wireless other than an old audio tech system from the early 90s. I'm happy so far with the line 6 g75. I will try to do a clip and post asap.

 

[AAHIHaveNoIdeaWhatImDoing]

nah, i trust you guys. wireless for guitars must be much simpler than it is for field audio production for video. somehow.

 

[cragginshred]

I have the Line 6 wireless and have used it live for 6-7 years with zero issues. The new door for the battery is a much needed upgrade too.

 

[AAHIHaveNoIdeaWhatImDoing]

which model, then? theres a g50, 70, 75, 90, maybe others.

 

[flyinguitars]

which model, then? theres a g50, 70, 75, 90, maybe others.

The new models are the g70 (floor/pedal board style) and the g75 (conventional amp top style). I believe they are essentially the same internals and use the same transmitters.

 

[rick16v]

I've only tried the g70, it was very impressive and also well built. I looked at the older one in the shop, I think it was the g30, the battery compartment was pretty crappy by comparison. The g70 also uses standard Jack so you can just use a patch cable. The older ones use a 5 pin cable I think.

 

[Jaymz E]

I've played guitar for over 20 years and still haven't tried a wireless system.

 

[AAHIHaveNoIdeaWhatImDoing]

i want the wireless so's i can rock around without tripping. i would need to plug into my pedal board as i dont go straight into amp (unless it was a really simple/short gig where i didnt want to set up my whole regular thing only to have to tear down 15 mins later).

 

[zachman]

I'm still using the Line6 G50, and have never had a problem. I was a beta tester for them before they came out, and the one I have is the pre-commercial release version, and it works great! No drop outs, RF interference etc., and I've done a bunch of shows at military installations w/ no issues.

The only complaints I have is that on the Beta version the belt pack clip SUCKS, and it's not a female 1/4" jack on my transmitter pack.

 

[AAHIHaveNoIdeaWhatImDoing]

yes i have read about that. also some folks on the line6 forums were having some dropout issues with various models. whats up with that? pilot error? extreme rare cases? do any of the models have a stronger signal/reception/less chance of dropouts or interference than any other or are they all the same in that regard?