Instrument Wireless. Does It Make Sense?

Maybe you are a bit like me. You have guitars and amps, and your playing area starts to look like the pit in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Too many cables. From guitars to amps, from amps to cabinets, to pedal boards to expression pedals, seriously I think that I should own stock in cable companies at this point.

About two years ago, I thought “that’s it” I am going to go wireless for my guitar output to wherever. It worked but I gave upon the idea for a variety of reasons. I recently decided to revisit the space and have found it sufficiently improved to warrant going there again.

First Work

I did some research and talked to folks in various guitar shops and to be candid, the people really had no deep thoughts on the subject. When they played out or at home, they used cables. Cables of all manner of varying qualities. At the time, Line6 was having some issues with their transmitters and I wanted to keep expenses low so I went with a Boss solution. I looked at the WL-20 family and ended up with the WL-50 units. I bought two of them.

In short order I discovered that the transmitter was too bulky to actually be able to plug into some of my guitars and basses. I also discovered it was seemingly always in the way of my hand, or my thigh, and most of the time, I could not see the LED when in use.

I also found that if I plugged it into the receiver it would charge up, but if power was interrupted to the receiver (like turning off the pedal board power supply) the transmitter would drain itself in very short order.

The unit also had an option to simulate the audio loss that comes from the capacitance in a traditional guitar cable. This struck me as a solution to a problem that no one actually cared about, and perhaps some do, but it’s so spurious to me as to make me wonder what the heck they were thinking.

I also took issue with the price. I mean this is short haul 2.4 GHz radio. The same as in a $5 wireless phone. $260 and up struck me as serious wallet lifting.

Bluntly the darn things were such a pain in the ass that I took a big loss when I dumped them both. Wired 1, wireless 0.

Second Go

I bought over time a Yamaha THR II 30 unit. I could not get a transmitter for it because the ones in the market would possible burst into flame. When I got the first fixed one, it did not work and while the second one does work, it has the same fit, bulk and charging issues as that Boss WL-50. Crap.

Then I got a Boss Katana Air, a little digital amp similar to the Yamaha. It’s wireless worked out of the box, but still bulky, charging a pain etc etc etc. I gave the Katana Air to my daughter along with an Ernie Ball guitar cable and she is quite happy. I think that the transmitter is in a drawer somewhere. More crap.

This Time Around

Sennheiser XS

I have used Sennheiser wireless microphones for years with 100% success. Surely Sennheiser had a solution. They do, but as I wanted simple wireless guitar and do not need arena grade wireless, I tried the Sennheiser XS system. It consists of an amp top receiver, that has its own power supply and a belt pack transmitter with a proprietary cable to go from the guitar to the transmitter. Worked with every instrument I tried! Bonus! The receiver has a wall ware power supply and the transmitter runs on normal AA batteries. Unlike my Lavalier kits, everything is made from plastic and the belt clip (strap clip) is the same lousy spring clip as found on my lavalier transmitters, that I call the gravity clip because gravity always makes it fall from attachment to yoink around on the cable. I changed all my lav packs to a different system and could do that for this, but why spend so much for bad design? The receiver box has a nice large display and connectivity was so automatic, it was working when I thought I had more work to do. However, the receiver box, called robust, would not survive the first fall off a stack, so flimsy the plastic case is. And it is too big to put on a pedal board, and if you stepped on it, that would be the only time because it would shard into flakes of sharp plastic. The radio signal and quality was flawless, but I was so uncomfortable with the build quality and proprietary cables that everything got packed neatly back into its box to be returned. Not crap, but unsuitable for me.

Line 6

My most recent unit is the Line 6 G30 system. It consists of a pedal board mounting receiver, that will run off your existing pedal board power supply and a separate strap pack that runs off AA batteries. No worries about charging or any of that nonsense. You run a regular short guitar cable from the guitar or bass to the transmitter and turn it on. The receiver offers six channels to choose from and the audio quality is superb. This device also has the stupid quality diminishing “cable effect”. Still pointless because I have a Tone control on my instruments. The transmitter is compact, the receiver is compact, the power and cabling are standard and like the Sennheiser making it work involved installing the batteries in the transmitter and turning it on. The units are still plastic, which I do not care for, but cost less than the Sennheiser and are far tougher in construction. I do not have to worry about losing or breaking a proprietary cable from the guitar to the transmitter and while a regular cable does not have the Sennheiser’s locking ring, a roll of gaffer tape is always at hand and that works a charm as a cable restraint.

I cannot help but think that this should be simpler, that the designers would actually be guitar players, and not necessarily focused solely on big stage acts. Playing a small club or gig creates the same snakepit of cable risks and those bulky dongle models are really player unfriendly.

I’ve bought the G30 system because it serves my use cases. There are higher end versions, but I have no justification for the higher cost. If you have questions on this or any other topic click here to send in your query. Thanks for reading and until next time, peace.