Going Wireless!

Voxman

Line 6 G10 Relay.  

John_P

G30 for me.   I’ve had loads over the years and the shire and sennheiser are probably the best and most solid but I’m not convinced the actual signal quality is better plus I like to be able to use standard cable.   I’ve tried and broken akg and Samson cheap ones. 
Smooth hound is great but I hate the bug design and the workarounds with a connector feels a bit botch for me.     If they ever make a belt pack version I’ll get one.   
The g10 looks ok but it’s still a bug type and wouldn’t fit the socket on my jem so that’s worth a check if you go that route. 
On balance the G30 felt like a decent compromise that works, sounds fine and is reliable but cheap enough to just replace if it did break.  

ESBlonde

Yep smooth hound here too. Three transmitters and one receiver.
Pick up guitar and press button, start playing. Press button and take off guitar, pick up next guitar and press button, start playing. It's as fast or faster than cables and a selector footswitch.
Strat, Tele and 335 with the transmitter straight into the jack socket with no problems, the flexible joint still nice and tight.
A decent number of gigs per battery set (but each guitar only works part time). Battery indicator is very good, a couple of weeks ago I changed the batteries during the bass solo of Boogie Oogie Oogie - be warned that new batteries inserted mean it's ON so prepare for the clunk when you reinsert the jack!
I buy branded AAA batteries from pound world or whatever where you get 10-12 for £1 and keep them handy ( I have several packets on hand just in case).
Would buy again is the standard refrain.

midlifecrisis

i bought the cheap alesis guitar link 4 years ago from amazon expecting to send it back as being crap but it was really good. No worse sounding than my mates line 6 or direct cables. at the time they were under £60, i think theyre 70 now. done about 200 gigs with it,  two AAA batts last for two gigs ( more if you risk running flat during  the gig). Neve had an problems with it. it seems sturdier than the line 6 . ive just ordered another one .  I never see the alesis discussed when people talk about wireless. I asked in one guitar shop why they dont stock them and was told there is not enough profit in them.

Arjailer

Been looking for get a wireless system too ... very close to ordering a Smooth Hound ...

I like the look of the Boss WL-50 too, but it doesn't appear to actually be available yet despite being announced back in June.

If it was a slam-dunk I might be willing to wait for the Boss, but it has some downsides that are making it slightly less appealing: the bug transmitter (the S.H. also has a bug, but it can be belt-mounted too), and although a built-in rechargable battery has appeal, you can't just swap it out if you forget to charge it before a rehearsal or gig.

I just wish the Smooth Hound didn't have the sticky-up antennae - not sure how exposed they'll be on my pedalboard ...

dean111music

For the shure glxd16 looks the best but the most expensive!

with strobe tuner, looks tidiest on board and on guitar. Just a lot more money. Better get saving and selling 

Voxman

I should mention the reason I opted for the G10 Relay was that Bax were doing a special deal at the time ...£90 brand new, so it was a no brainer with the G30 which was then at c£150-160.  

Jota

G30 here. Belt clip broke first time I used it!

What I like is that I can use any cable from guitar to transmitter (not possible on the G50) and the receiver is small enough to fit under my pedalboard and be daisy chained with the rest of my board.

I don't use IEM cause I hate them.

hotpickups

I think at the end of the day you pay for what is more suitable/useable. Shure is expensive (I use one) but it ticks all the boxes that have been mentioned so far. I think they're great

dean111music

Pedal board space is tight. So the fact I can kick off my tuner and just replace it with the shure and it be a excellent tuner is a no brainier. 

Im sure the smooth hound will be just the ticket too but the shure has the upper hand 

Arjailer

Just ordered a Smooth Hound - finally convinced myself that it had enough going for it over the other systems I was looking at (Boss and Line 6): replaceable batteries, "belt mountable" transmitter, battery indicator, fully automatic channel switching. The only downside I can see is having antennae on a pedalboard, but I think I can position it to keep them out the way of my clumsy feet    

The Shure looks excellent, but it's right out of my price range 

Arjailer

Used the Smooth Hound at a three hour rehearsal last night - I re-arranged my board so the antennae were well away from my clumsy feet.

Used the transmitter as a bug for the first half, then on my belt for the rest (was undecided on this, but after last night I realise it doesn't really matter - they both work fine) - no issues at all.

Was using rechargable batteries (the Amazon Basic ones that are actually re-branded Eneloops) - started the night at 3 bars out of 4, and ended at 3 out of 4 - nice  :-)

Really happy overall  :-)

The only small bummer with the unit is that the centre positive power means I can't use it with my non-isolated power supply (causes nasty ground interference) - so I'm using it on it's own wall-wart for now while I look into getting a properly isolate supply.

riffpowers

I've been using the line 6 g30 for 2 or 3 years now. I love it.

Snags

Dumb wireless question - what frequencies do things like the Smooth Hound use?

The main place I play makes reasonably heavy use of radio mics (belt pack and handheld), so I've always fought shy of wireless stuff for the guitar in case there's a clash (and to be fair, it's not necessary, but having one less cable to trip over might be nice in a confined space)

Arjailer

Most of the systems being talked about here (Smooth Hound, Line 6, Shure) are all 2.4GHz - they use the same frequencies that 2.4GHz wifi uses.

Snags

Thanks.  I think that means a significant potential for interference in my situation.  Might do a bit of low key research.

Bridgehouse

Snags said:

Thanks.  I think that means a significant potential for interference in my situation.  Might do a bit of low key research.

There’s an interference indicator on the smoothhound. 

I have never had an issue out and about - funnily enough at home I find Bluetooth to be the biggest cause of interference but it still never stops it from doing its job

Snags

There are up to 6 Sennheiser wireless units in use at any one time on the site where I would most likely use this.  I'm not sure I'd want to shove anything else through 2.4GHz and stand a chance of getting a clean channel, particularly not with 200 mobiles on where the owners have forgotten to turn the WiFi off etc. etc.

Lestratcaster

Has anyone had any incidents where other people in the band's wireless receivers have picked up each others signals? Just interested to know if its a case of someone has to turn their one on first, get their frequency then the next one, etc etc.

Arjailer

With the Smooth Hound, each receiver has an id that the transmitter binds to so it'll only talk to it's bound receiver. The receiver apparently looks for free frequencies to use and presumably tells the bound transmitter what it's found so they can talk. This all seems to happen within a second of turning it all on. If something else comes along and starts using the frequencies it picked, it'll apparently move to the next free ones (it's always looking so it has clear backup frequencies ready in case this happens).

Not sure about other systems though - most of ones I looked at seemed to be either manual channel selection (e.g. Line 6 G30), or did auto selection, but it was then a manual process if something started interfering (e.g. with the Boss WL-50 you have to re-insert the bug into the receiver)