Going wireless worth the switch?

guitarfreak365

Inspired
I've been contemplating going wireless for a while now. First I wanted to hear from some people who have changed already to see if it was worth it to them. I play 2 times a week in an environment that it would be helpful. I'm specifically looking at the Shure GLXD14R but I'm open to suggestions. I'm more curious in general if switching to wireless was worth the extra cash and you ended up liking it or more of a take it or leave it kind of situation. How many of you guys run wireless with your AXE FX units and was it worth it? I have heard some people getting creative with sticking their wireless unit behind their AXE FX so any advice on that would be helpful too. Thanks guys!
 
I have used wireless for years. I have a Line 6 G-90 Relay. Works flawlessly. Couple of thoughts.

When I am playing in a venue that is so small I am standing right next to my rig, then I use old school cable. I generally perform using my AX8, but I like the freedom to wander. In larger venues I always go wireless. If I am playing in a venue that I have never played in before, then I use my wireless to walk out front of the FOH to have a listen. I know how I want my presets to sound, and usually a flat eq gets me there. Once in a while the room has some sonic issues, so a few tweaks to the channel strip might be needed. The point being, with my wireless I can go out a few hundred feet before I really start to waffle.

On my G-90, I did upgrade the cable. I bought a Lava Cable that was better quality than what came with the G-90. I have been using it for years with no problems. So personally, I am very happy with my wireless rig. I like not getting tangled in wires under my feet. I like the freedom it brings. I do not suffer any loss of tone. I am very happy with my FOH sound and get many comments on my tone. There are other units out there, and I would guess that other people have differing opinions on which rig is "the best". That said, I am one who loves my wireless.
 
I have used wireless for years. I have a Line 6 G-90 Relay. Works flawlessly. Couple of thoughts.

When I am playing in a venue that is so small I am standing right next to my rig, then I use old school cable. I generally perform using my AX8, but I like the freedom to wander. In larger venues I always go wireless. If I am playing in a venue that I have never played in before, then I use my wireless to walk out front of the FOH to have a listen. I know how I want my presets to sound, and usually a flat eq gets me there. Once in a while the room has some sonic issues, so a few tweaks to the channel strip might be needed. The point being, with my wireless I can go out a few hundred feet before I really start to waffle.

On my G-90, I did upgrade the cable. I bought a Lava Cable that was better quality than what came with the G-90. I have been using it for years with no problems. So personally, I am very happy with my wireless rig. I like not getting tangled in wires under my feet. I like the freedom it brings. I do not suffer any loss of tone. I am very happy with my FOH sound and get many comments on my tone. There are other units out there, and I would guess that other people have differing opinions on which rig is "the best". That said, I am one who loves my wireless.

That's very helpful and in depth! Seems to confirm its the direction I want to move. Thanks John!
 
I've been using the Line 6 G50 for about 2.5 years now. I haven't had a single issue with it. Not one single dropout ever. I play small clubs to medium size venues and run around the stage a lot.

If you go the Line 6 route, I recommend getting the G50 model or higher because they have a more durable metal casing. The lower model, G30, is all plastic and could break if it takes a couple drops I would assume. I've been pretty reckless with my G50 transmitter and it still works perfectly.

I also second replacing the cable that plugs into your guitar....eventually. It's really not as horrible as everyone makes it sound, but if there was once piece that would go bad first, it's the instrument cable on the transmitter. You could easily get a years worth of heavy gigging with it just fine.
 
If i only had a 1' by 1' space to stand i'd use a wireless. I hate cables, I hate having to stand on a cable, etc, etc... I use the Shure GLX half rack. Rechargeable battery (19 hours per charge) sold me on it after spending a small fortune on 9v's with my old X2. I consider it a few less things I have to worry about at a gig... do i have a battery, and trampling on a cord all night.
 
My AxeFX rig lives in a stack of rack cases that sit next to our drummer (contains our IEM system and laptop for tracks, click, midi, etc). Wireless is almost a necessity for me simply due to the location of my rig. Makes for a clean stage though. We don't have any racks, amps or cabs on the backline, just pedalboards (MFC for me, AX8 for our second guitar player).

I was using an X2 XDR95 (predecessor to the Relay G90) and had absolutely no issues. We started playing a song where our singer would play an acoustic guitar and I'd play a bass, both routed through the AxeFX simultaneously, and I got tired of having wireless for myself, but having to run a lead for the acoustic. This led me to ditch the X2 and pick up 2 Relay G55s (basically the G90 tech in a half-rack). I was worried about this because my X2 ran in the 900mhz band, but the Relay runs on the 2.4ghz band. Even in venues with tons of interference, I've experienced very few dropouts. Granted, I've never had dropouts with the X2, but I was impressed with the performance of the relay. Just scanning through the channels and picking the one with least interference seems to work well enough for me.

I have both my wireless units mounted in the back of my rack. The main input goes to the front input of the axefx. I do this so that I can just unplug the wireless and plug in a cable if I need to instead of having to change the settings in the axefx menus. It's much faster in case of emergency. The second unit goes into input 2 on the back of the axe. I also have the balanced output of the first unit going into the rear input 1 for redundancy, but it's not actually being used at the moment.

From what I understand, the Axe 3 can automatically switch between the rear input and the front input if it detects a cable in the front input, which is super cool and would prevent the need to run the wireless output to the front panel (for emergencies)

 
Last edited:
Thanks for all the replies guys! Very helpful to hear everyone experience with wireless. Seems like no one has really every regretted switching or went back to a cable.
 
Thanks for all the replies guys! Very helpful to hear everyone experience with wireless. Seems like no one has really every regretted switching or went back to a cable.
No regrets. I am in the habit of bringing a cable (just in case) but I have never needed to use it. Somehow, it just gives me peace of mind.
 
Wireless is brilliant. Like others have said even if I'm standing a couple of feet away from my rig it's just nice not to feel shackled by a wire.

Really handy for sound check and for those occasional wander out into the crowd rock star moment.

Using a Line 6 G30 which aside from the battery flap being crap and needing some duct tape to keep closed works flawlessly
 
"Some" folks will whine and claim audio "quality" is "better" using a cable.
That will be a never-ending topic of discussion - like tube vs solid state. :)
Anyways.. been wireless for close to 10 yrs.. I CAN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE.
My rig (guitar and bass) is set up for wireless no matter the venue size...
Ran an L6 90 for close to 7 yrs.. NEVER had a problem with interference, dropouts' latency nor quality, insuring I used a channel as far from my band mates as possible.

Early last year I upgraded to a Senn D1 (auto-sensing digital, so power up and go, with a couple of Li batteries they make for it) as I didn't want to upgrade the L6 xmitter bodypack to the newer "plastic" model - for $300+. The xmitter was starting to fail..
With the Senn, I get pretty much the same level of performance as the G90 except I don't need to pick a channel any longer.
Did I mention I DETEST and ABHOR cables when playing live ???
 
I have a Samson that I've been using for about 10 years, I love it. Even though I usually play on small stages I like not being tethered so I can wander out front to check sound or have a rockstar moment. But even just turning to the rest of the band or jamming w/ the bass player for a moment, it's nice to not have to worry about having to kick the cord out of the way, make sure it isn't tangled in my pedals etc. There's no sound difference that I can tell, and it's not even the latest technology. Never have any issues with it.

Highly recommend you go wireless!
 
Y'all rock with these responses thanks so much! I think I'm going to have to switch to wireless. Now just about figuring out which unit! :)
 
Thanks, haha! Every once in a while, I'm patient enough to do things right and make things look pretty. This was one of those rare occasions :)

Here's the rundown on the full rig if you're interested. The IEM rack is a bit of a disaster compared to the axe rack, but it's functional haha!



I love it! Super tidy!

We use the Presonus RM16AI digital mixer rack and we love it. The ONLY thing I hate about it is it only records audio over FireWire. So when we do multitrack recording of live shows, we have to use an old laptop that has FireWire or has a Thunderbolt 2 port for the FireWire -> Thunderbolt adapter. Thunderbolt 2 is a dying interface and FireWire even more so. I've been considering replacing it with the X32. Being able to tweak on the front panel is pretty nice. The RM16AI is controlled 100% purely through a client computer or a tablet.
 
I was just forced to make the switch to wireless. The director needed me to wander around the stage during a solo. I just couldn't see dragging 30 feet of cable behind me. Been using a Shure GLX-D floor unit for the past couple of weeks. I can't tell the difference between that and the Mogami cables that I was using.
 
I love it! Super tidy!

We use the Presonus RM16AI digital mixer rack and we love it. The ONLY thing I hate about it is it only records audio over FireWire. So when we do multitrack recording of live shows, we have to use an old laptop that has FireWire or has a Thunderbolt 2 port for the FireWire -> Thunderbolt adapter. Thunderbolt 2 is a dying interface and FireWire even more so. I've been considering replacing it with the X32. Being able to tweak on the front panel is pretty nice. The RM16AI is controlled 100% purely through a client computer or a tablet.

To be honest, we rarely touch the front panel. The ipad app is great, and the personal mix apps are wonderful too, though you have to use the midas equivalent on iOS11, since the behringer one isn't updated. Works the exact same though.

The X32 has a new expansion card that is game changing in my opinion. We just installed one in our rig and are going to put it through it's paces tonight. It's called the X-Live card and it lets you record 32 channels of multitrack audio directly to an SD card with no computer interaction. The unit supports up to 2x 32GB cards (though others have had success with larger cards). you can get roughly an hour and a half out of each card, and they roll over seamlessly if one card fills up. Records to multichannel wav files, which can be "exploded" to 32 individual files with utilities or most DAWs. You can also use the USB interface simultaneously to playback / record while the SD card is recording or playing back. They also built in a quick routing switch into the mixer OS that lets you flip quickly between SD card multitrack playback and live inputs, enabling easy virtual soundcheck.

Incredibly cool card. They're backordered like hell though. Have been since they launched them about 6 months ago. Ordered 2 of them in the middle of march and they just delivered beginning of this week.

X-LIVE: http://www.musictri.be/Categories/Behringer/Mixers/Accessories/X-LIVE/p/P0AWR


EDIT: If you'd like to discuss in more detail, please feel free to PM me.
Don't want to hijack this thread, even though we kinda already did :)
 
Last edited:
The most convenient switch I made last year!
I had been playing with a cable for 40 years.
I got 2 Shure GLXD16's. LOVE THEM!

One good thing, by the time I made my purchase, technology had progressed greatly since the 80's
so I never owned a bad wireless unit!
 
I wouldn't ever be without my wireless now at gigs, doesn't matter on stage size (Shure slx).
I still have a cable plugged in ready to go, with an A/B box.

I also have a second transmitter now so I keep one in each of my on stage guitars. (Only One on at a time)

One thing that I will mention, is get one of those holders to attach the transmitter to the strap securely. I used to use the little transmitter clips but found them a bit lacking on stage.
 
Back
Top Bottom