just that, anyone using a wireless for mandolin? specifically with a K&K. just curious if any has and if there were any impedance issues or suchlike.
just that, anyone using a wireless for mandolin? specifically with a K&K. just curious if any has and if there were any impedance issues or suchlike.
I use one sometimes with an LR Baggs radius. I don't think there have been any issues.
I bought one of the Line 6 G10 wireless systems to use with my K&K pickups. I really wanted it to work but after a couple shows, I sent it back. It just sucked the life out of my tone. It became sort of midrangey with no bottom or clarity in the top. I'm sure it has a lot to do with the impedance. I still hope to try another wireless at some point. Maybe I will find one that give me a good sound. Freedom from a cord would be great but not sacrificing tone. It's already such a compromise using a pickup in the first place. But, that's the only way to compete with a drummer.
Gibson 2016 "Harvey" Fern
Collings MT Mandola
Weber 2017 Bitterroot A20-F Octave Mandolin
Crump BIII Irish Bouzouki
Petersen Level 2 Irish Bouzouki
Eastman MDC805 Mandocello
Collings 0002H
Five & Six String Banjos
Lots of other Guitars
http://www.shadowfields.com
I have used a cheap wireless setup playing R&R with my Strat. I love the freedom to move around AND get out into the crowd and dance with girls while playing Johnny Be Good!
That said, as McIrish says, I won't compromise tone with the mandolin. It's a whole different animal music-wise. Full tonal reproduction is the only thing I'll settle for. I use very expensive cables because it makes a huge difference. I just acquired a Bose L1 Model2 that has the most fantastic sound.
It looks like the better wireless systems are at the $350.00 point and up. Here are lots of cheaper products I see on amazon. I don't know what their qualities are or how good a job they do. It's a lot of $$ to plop down not knowing what they'll sound like.
I do know the cheap set-up, ( that stopped working ) I had for the electric guitar ruined the sound of the mandolin. The Line 6 G10 is at the same price point the last setup I had.
Billy
billypackardmandolin.com
Billy Packard
Gilchrist A3, 1993
Stiver Fern, 1990
Weber Fern, 2007
Gibson F4 Hybrid #1, D. Harvey 2009
Gibson 1923 A2
Numerous wonderful guitars
My wife uses a Samson on her Zeta solid violin. It does not seem to change the tone at all and it has a micro transmitter (bug) that plugs in to the fiddle so she has no wire at all hanging off the side of her instrument.
For solid bodied instruments with magnetic pickups, easy to do. With an acoustic pickup the wireless has to go after the preamp. K&K sells a battery powered preamp that will hang from your belt or whatever so using something like that where you would also have the transmitter on you it should work fine. If you are trying to use the wireless then to to a preamp or a channel that accepts hiZ inputs it will be the same as plugging into whatever amp with no preamp.
THE WORLD IS A BETTER PLACE JUST FOR YOUR SMILE!
The main problem is not the 'wireless' itself - provided you avoid cheap ones, which are universally pretty horrible - but the fact that the input impedance of belt-back transmitters tend to be a very poor match to piezo transducers.
Solution? Use the type of transducer such belt-packs are suited to:
AKG C411L (Electret condenser element + mini-XLR).
Adapters from AKG to other wireless systems are also available, e.g., AT, Shure, Sennheiser etc.
The popular clip-on mics (AT, DPA etc.) are also all available in wireless belt-pack versions.
Gibson F5 'Harvey' Fern, Gibson F5 'Derrington' Fern
Distressed Silverangel F 'Esmerelda' aka 'Maxx'
Northfield Big Mon #127
Ellis F5 Special #288
'39 & '45 D-18's, 1950 D-28.
for the record a Zeta has piezo active pickups, not magnetic.
I use a K&K pick up in my northfield and Have been using the Line 6 G-50. It's a digital system with way more range than you would ever need and it has a feature that lets you simulate a cord length... there is some high end roll off as your physical cord gets longer so most people like to dial in their sound with a specific length of cord and this system lets you emulate that cord length since it is wireless and you don't actual have a cord. I will say that when it comes to wireless you will get what you pay for.. if you buy a $99 system don't expect much but this G-50 system runs around $349 or so and I've had nothing but success with it, no problems ever, no interference, my guitar player uses the exact same system and you can run like 12 of them at a time with no interference. Here is a link: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-a...-guitar-system
Gabriel Wiseman
https://poplme.co/pmywrpAD
www.jtrband.com
Curt Mangan Strings
2021 Duff 2 Point, 1947 Gibson J-50
I've used wireless for guitars and horns before, still use wireless when I'm doing horn gigs since it's a lot easier for the slider monkey with a fixed mike distance/position. I have a K&K twin in my #1 mandolin since we're a pretty loud band overall and am mainly looking to get more cables off my corner of the stage. I was thinking that the impedance would be an issue without a preamp in front of it, looks like that's the case. I may try one of the G60's since I could toss it to the guitar rig if it doesn't work for the mandolin. It sure would be nice to get the cables out of the equation; the constant swaps between electric guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin, and bouzouki would be a lot easier without having to worry about crossing the streams.
Thanks for the feedback, guys. Any ideas are always appreciated.
K&K pickups are weird... they have very low impedance for a passive pickup (1 mega-ohm). Usually you're looking at 10 mega-ohms.
The input impedance for hi-z (i.e. electric instruments) usually isn't anywhere near 1 mega-ohm let alone 10. So I'd be surprised if a passive pickup worked well with any wireless system not explicitly impedance matched for passive pickups.
I say this as a lay person, playing a K&K through a pre-amp yet I notice I can run it right into the board, right into a 600ohm balanced input, and although it doesn't sound great it works well enough for gigis.
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