Jack

Yes, and it makes me wince every time.

We played the reopening night of a newly refurbished and under new management pub the other night. Safe to say they've got 6 weeks at most. Oh well As I've been told off for this before, the band is The White Line, although don't bother following us as we're winding down and not taking any more bookings. The rig was MIA P > Shure GLX > HX Stomp.

Some of the bug type ones rely on a trs connection for switching and charging too, and active preamps (not pickups, but the two are often confused) can cause issues with that.

Oh indeed other ones may also do something similar or the same. Firstly, I'm on record as saying that every wireless I've ever used (which includes the Smoothhound) has been just fine. I'm sure that the tech is not proprietary to Shure. However, there'll undoubtedly be differences in the algorithms used, transmitter power, all that stuff. As far as I know the Shure is the only one that transmits on several channels at once, but I am happy to be proven wrong on even that. If you've ever used the Shure, you can for instance choose more secure transmitter modes with better signal connections in exchange for higher latency and 'blocking out' more channels. On the flip side, you can chose to transmit on fewer channels at once in order to make more 'room' for other systems. It's the best total package I've ever used but I'm not one of these people who's been through 15 systems and found faults with each one, I don't really think I've had more than 2-3 dropouts in 15 years and 5 or so wireless systems. Maybe I'm lucky, maybe it's good planning. I only 'upgraded' to the Shure because I had a rack Helix and a floor HX Stomp and I wanted one system I could use with both. I'm absolutely not an expert on guitar wireless systems, just a nerd who knows a lot about networking in general. Going back to 2.4/5.8, I recently forced all of my smart home stuff on to 2.4GHz because it was so empty on there. There was I think one old smart bulb that didn't have any 5.8 compatibility but everything else was on 5.8 and cluttering that up. You don't need the speed for streaming spotify or asking what the weather is, so I put all that rubbish on 2.4, leaving 5.8 free for the good stuff. It's 2023, 2.4 is not that busy and 5.8 is not that empty.

Hmmmm, this is oft touted as gospel on here but to be honest it's not as cut and dry as that. I'm sure there are old pubs that still have just 2.4GHz infrastructure but even the free routers that come from ISPs have 5.8GHz these days, and it's been common on the punters' phones for years as well. Any proper 'venue' venue is going to be super busy across both spectra for sure. What's helpful with avoiding wireless clashes is thought, planning and care. One the massive benefits of the Shure GLX (both generations) is being able to scan and pick the least busy channel, they also transmit across multiple channels at once so that when one is temporarily jammed (and other units would drop out until the jamming stops) the Shure is listening across another 2 or 3 depending on mode and so there are no dropouts. There's no free lunch though, because now you're taking up more channels, limiting the options your guitarist's wireless unit has to work on. Tips For wifi mixers be aware of the transmit pattern of your mixer router if you have one, most transmit in a doughnut shape that is parallel to the floor. Turning my mix rack on its side can really change the reception to my tablet! For guitar wireless units think about the turn on order. If you have some 'dumb' units turn those on first and then let the 'scan and see which channels are free ones' work their magic afterwards. 5.8 is not a magic bullet. It's pretty busy these days too and usually has a shorter, more line of sight range than 2.4. The main benefits of a 5.8Ghz system for our purposes are either 1) they do BOTH, allowing more choice, or 2) they move something out of the way of the other, older 2.4GHz only stuff. You can get free wifi scanning apps for your phone that allow to to visualise what's going on in a venue and work around that. Have options, bring cables. I haven't had to use it yet with our new router but I always bring a laptop with an ethernet cable to corporate venues when we play hotels and such, they're usually more congested than pubs and it's saved bacon before.

All the ones I've seen use a proprietary battery for the transmitter and a power supply for the receiver.

An excellent solution to be fair. The problem with the magnets though is that they misalign the electrons in my flow though and cause the tone to arrive with a phase differential that can negatively affect the time smear of my signal. That's my excuse for playing D# when it should have been D anyway.

The argument for wireless in a pub gig is the following. I haven't used a cable in about 15 years.

Brightonion do a footswitch for the Stomp. It's perfect. I know this because I custom ordered a footswitch from him that was specifically designed for my stomp and it became a production model.

I know this was a specific comment about a specific thing and you might be right, but as a general rule I disagree. Don't brag down the pub about how rich you are and don't belittle people who chose to spend money differently to you. The people on benefits taking their kids to McDonalds deserve that treat as much as anyone and you shouldn't concern yourself with the finances of others as dad said. But this conversation was about a guy doing a job. Always talk about pay with your colleagues. Before I was in teachingland and benefiting from an open, fixed pay scale system I worked a few 'proper' jobs and I have helped people negotiate higher salaries before. I once joined a company in the middle of a pay band because I had argued that I was worth it when they offered me the job. I was not brazen or show-offish with my colleagues, but when the subject came up after a few months I was happy to tell them what I had said, point out similar arguments they could make, etc etc. One got the same as me and somebody else actually ended up on more than me (which they deserved).

With regards to the Robert Trujillo stuff, they spent ages with lawyers drawing up an arrangement where he gets a small percentage for a year, then a larger one for a few years, etc etc. Until they met with him and just agreed to spl;it everything 25% immediately, partly as an admission to how badly they had treated Jason Newsted. Even if you're not a Metallica fan, Some Kind of Monster is an awesome documentary and a great look in to the lives of a top-tier band. The scene of bored Hetfield sitting in his daughter's ballet class reading a magasine with all of the other, equally bored, dads is amazing.

Meant to edit, quoted instead. Move along folks

I have not. Firstly, in this particular case it seems like FNG would be expected to pay new prices for what is to them a second hand pa system. Secondly, as a more general point, is this new person expected to cough up for the business cards that were bought last month? The rehearsal rooms that were used last November? The sponsored Facebook posts that were bought last year? All of these things have benefited the band before the new person has joined, and the new person will be receiving some benefit from them. Thirdly, OP, if you are going to expect this of someone, mention it EARLY. I'd be more than a little angry to, say, spend time on my evenings learning 5 songs, driving to a rehearsal room and spend an hour playing to only then be told that you're expecting me to pay for the mortgage you took out in 1992 because the band once had a party in your house 3 years before I joined.

Add me to the "giving £600 to some strangers I met down the pub in the hope I'll get some gigs soon seems like a bad idea" camp.

I was surprised actually. I mean, that is unquestionably a LOT of money, but it's less than a lot of big brand heads (at least their top level stuff) and it's way way less than almost every other small manufacturer. And that's just SS, I can't remember the last tube head I saw for anywhere near that. Good value for sure.

I was quoted £758. Including shipping, excluding taxes. So roughly £900.

There's a new batch ready next month, could go new if you wanted?

IME, try to avoid split ownership. My hard rock band bought a set of speakers and subs for £1000 after we had been gigging for a bit. I bought it and all gig money went to paying it off until it was paid off. 7 years later the drummer left and demanded to be bought out, leading to strong language and general miserableness on our behalves. In the end the 4 of us chucked them £50 each just to be done. It's a real shame because it left a bad taste, money ruins things. In my indie band I own the mixer rack, the drummer owns the tops and the guitarist owns the subs. All bought outright and all looked after by ourselves. The only shirker is the other guitarist but then why make him buy something when we all own it already? Small items, like new cables or something, come straight off the top from a gig payment by mutual agreement beforehand. I think my new function band does it the best to be honest. The singer owns the entire PA and lighting rig and gets £100 right off the top of any gig for maintenance, carrying and setup. In return for a £25 cut in pay I can have no carrying, no maintenance fees, no subs in my house, no worries about leaving stuff in the van? Result.

Thinness, compression and drive when connected to a mixer? Sounds almost like it's a level or possibly impedance mismatch somewhere.

Sorry I deleted that when I realised it was an ancient Facebook post from Leszek and he no longer offers the upgrade with the '2nd gen' wb100.

Thanks

Quick question. You know the metal of the amp box inside the wooden sleeve? Is that a complete box all the way around the amp or are some of the walls missing so that the innards are exposed to the wooden box?

Hard to say! I should have said "the ones that came in my Squier originally" as I have replaced them. My Squier was my first bass and, as my tastes developed a little bit, I started to notice the inherent noise in the signal. In one fell swoop it got new shielding, a new loom and the pickup from my MIA P (which didn't need it as it has a DiMarzio Will Power). I think the pickup was probably fine (and if you want a quote for your for sale ad feel free to use that one! )and I think the problem was the shielding, but I was tearing the thing apart anyway, and I had the MIA pickup right there...

Yeah they look the same as the ones in my 01-02 Affinity P.