Bass Wireless

[drumandbass]

Hi guys!

Can't remember whether this was mentioned before. Maybe in another thread briefly.

But do you guys have any recommendations for a wireless system for bass? I'm actually thinking of the X2 systems. But are they still available? And are they any good for bass? Like do they tone suck and suck out all the low end or something like that.

Thanks guys!

 

[lokiregnarok]

Hi guys!

Can't remember whether this was mentioned before. Maybe in another thread briefly.

But do you guys have any recommendations for a wireless system for bass? I'm actually thinking of the X2 systems. But are they still available? And are they any good for bass? Like do they tone suck and suck out all the low end or something like that.

Thanks guys!

Why would you want a wireless system??

 

[cool-beans]

I've heard that wireless systems do affect the tone. Call me old fashioned, but I just don't believe that over-the-air transfer will be equivalent to moving the waves through cables.

They're also pretty expensive too! For the price of a wireless system, you could probably get a ridiculously long cable and enough duct tape to prevent people from tripping.

 

[lokiregnarok]

I've heard that wireless systems do affect the tone. Call me old fashioned, but I just don't believe that over-the-air transfer will be equivalent to moving the waves through cables.

It's actually true in some ways. The sound might be choppy sometimes. Old ways are still the best =).

 

[lordie]

Line6 G30 is on my list its a good investment ;p. my guitarist use a samson wireless unit and he is having lotsa fun at gigs, etc...

 

[alanchia]

bassist typically stay put at where they stand, there's really no need for wireless. unless it's for 'showman-ship'!

 

[drumandbass]

Well I swear by cables and good cables that is. But my band does some small gigs and i double up as the soundman as well for soundchecks and gigs.

I just want that unit basically so I can walk up to the board and adjust what needs to be adjusted and stuff. While still playing of course. After which it's back to good ol' fashioned cables.

Or walking and grooving around on stage if I feel a little crazy.

 

[Resetti]

if it's digital wireless, then the sound quality will definitely depend on the throughput speed of the wireless channel.

moreover, your bass signal needs to be converted to the wireles signal for sending, and then converted back to the analog bass signal on the recieving end too, and i seriously doubt that there will be 100% preservation in the signal.

well, which is fine, if the information loss isn't more than the information loss on a old fashioned cable.

the other problem is that there will be a small lag between when you play the note and when the note comes out from the amp, since I dont' believe that a dgital wireless signal can transmit as fast as through cable.

but it all depends if the lag or the information loss over wireless is noteciable or not.

 

[jbarks]

Line 6 (ex-X2) wireless units seem to work very well. Their G-series is pretty much the same thing, just modified to comply with non-US transmission guidelines. We used the Audio-Technica 2000-series wireless systems at Baybeats and it worked fine for us.

Think about wireless this way—it's the same as using high-speed Wi-Fi for LAN gaming. If it's fast enough to respond to your MW2 twitches, it's fast enough for playing shows.

 

[drumandbass]

Line 6 (ex-X2) wireless units seem to work very well. Their G-series is pretty much the same thing, just modified to comply with non-US transmission guidelines. We used the Audio-Technica 2000-series wireless systems at Baybeats and it worked fine for us.

Think about wireless this way—it's the same as using high-speed Wi-Fi for LAN gaming. If it's fast enough to respond to your MW2 twitches, it's fast enough for playing shows.

Maybe I'll check out the G series. I've heard things about the audio-technica's and shures. But those are probably out of my budget. Moreover i'm only using it to check band mix and for random nonsensical acts on stage occasionally.

And I don't play any games so I won't know the differences haha!

 

[Kimmi]

+1 line6 relay30. using for guitar though.worth every bit.1/4 cables input and output so no special cable required.

only con.battery consumption quite fast but there is always rechargeable batteries. good price too.

 

[MadWerewolfBoy]

i think the line6 relay G30 should be good, there's even an option to change how your signal is affected. you can choose between no change (tone will be like a 0m cable), 5m cable and 10m cable. of course, these simulate signal colouration of passive pickups only since active pickups signal are buffered.

 

[jbarks]

Line6 G30 is on my list its a good investment ;p. my guitarist use a samson wireless unit and he is having lotsa fun at gigs, etc...

Bro have you tried the Samson on bass? Am curious

 

[lordie]

Bro have you tried the Samson on bass? Am curious

the samson unit is for guitars and not bass so cannot try, but imho it looks flimsy coz his version is the guitar bug version

 

[Ken]

Line 6 X 2 for me, served me well in different situations both here and abroad. Rugged and you can throw it around and it will still work.

Not much problem with signal loss.

Unfortunately, i can't say the same about the Audio Technicas, had two sets, both were good but failed the durability test. They didn't last too long, but then again, i didn't exactly use them just to stand still and play... they were trashed but the X2 is still alive. (BTW, i really don;t think that we can assume all bassplayers just stand and play, some folks like to groove to the music too)

Hint to other folks, cheap cables and pedals with high resistance "suck tone" as well, a longer cable made from high resistance material is probably worse than a wireless system.

Might be worth upgrading all the pedals, connectors and cables if you are a stickler for tone.

 

[shinobi]

it's all part of the 'signature tone' lah...

 

[MadWerewolfBoy]

haha yeah, the G30 replaces the X2 here. i think the G30 was made to conform with european standards, while the X2 was made for the american market. not much diff in specs imo, just that city music is only bringing in the G30.

it's true about the tone sucking thing. jimi hendrix used to use a coily cable which was most probably about 27 to 30 feet long, i'm sure loads of high end was lost through that cable.. haha thus the G30 allows people to tweak their signal, as if it was going through a 0m cable (no tone lost at all, good option for active pickups because they don't change much through long cables), 5m cable (most of us using passive would find this the most natural sounding because we tend to use 3m to 5m cables anyway) and 10m cables (emulates those coily tone sucking properties)

i'm eyeing the G30 myself, but just gonna wait for the year end sale cause i'm broke now. lol

 

[drumandbass]

Haha! Agreed on the long cables and tone loss.

If you really want pristine tone with no loss gotta attend to the minute details that are often overlooked.

wondering, is th X2 still in production?

 

[shinobi]

resistance is proportional to the length and inversely proportional to the cross sectional area of the cable. so in theory long cable runs result in tone loss cos of resistance.

but in reality, for it to be serious or even noticeable the cable would have to be really long, much longer than what we would ever use. probably more like PA speaker cable kind of lengths, which could be hundreds of metres.

rather than the length of the cable being the problem it is usually just a matter of the quality of the cable being shit to begin with. and i feel that rather than the cable itself it is usually the shitty connections that causes problems most of the time.

 

[MadWerewolfBoy]

@drumandbass: the X2 is still in production, jus that citymusic, the main distributor of line6 here, choose to bring in only the G30. the cost and function of both are the same, just that the G30 was made to comply with the strict european standards of wireless broadcast thingy, complicated thing i didn't bother to follow up with.

@shinobi: eh not true leh, signals for passive pickups are very very weak so they do get affected by short cable length unless they have been buffered by a pedal like boss, ibanez, most non-true bypass pedals etc. active pickups on the other hand, don't get affected much by cable resistance, same goes for keyboards, acoustic pre-amps, mp3 players or anything that has been pre-amped for that matter. these, like you mentioned, can run for hundreds of meters (good quality) cables and tone will not be changed drastically.

u go try a passive pup equipped instrument on say a canare gs-6, 3m; 5m and 10m! confirm got noticeable difference, macam the tone knob from 10 go down to about 7 - 9 there! i found this out myself from my own experience from my vox 9m coily cable vs my canare 3m cable, but on guitars instead of bass.