Show your Mando "Gig Rig"!

[MojoDaniels]

Very nice, how do you like the Sure GLXD16 wireless? How does it compare to just a cable?
Dan

I thought this wireless was very easy to use and had great life on the rechargaeable battery. I did have issues with dropouts but only when I went to walk the room. There was other WiFi in the spaces between the router the mixer was running on, everyone’s iPads syncing to that for mix and monitor controls, the guitar player also being on 2.4ghz wireless, and WiFi jukeboxes. I think the problem was line of sight with it being down on the floor on my pedal board. The guitarist had no dropouts and was using a racknounted Relay G90. For that reason I sold the Shure and got a rackmount Relay G90 which solved my problem. With good line of sight I did test the Shire unit though and had solid transmission 3 houses down the street. When I would turn so my body was between the pack and the receiver it would drop out though.

Editing because I failed to mention that the sound quality was excellent woth both units. I couldn’t tell it wasn’t a cable.

[Andy Miller]

Very nice, how do you like the Sure GLXD16 wireless? How does it compare to just a cable?
Dan

I've had great results with the GLXD16. As others have pointed out, results can vary in tough RF environments, and/or with poor line-of-sight. In the pedal form factor, keep in mind that receiver has small internal antennae. The Line 6 MojoDaniels mentions has external, probably 1/2-wave antennae, and mounted up a little higher off the floor one would expect those to perform better all around. So there's definitely a trade-off for having that receiver being so compact and living on your pedalboard.

Soundwise I think it's fine with my McIntyre pickup. Input impedance on the bodypack is a little shy of 1Mohm, and I don't feel like it sounds any different than a cable. Maybe if mandolin pickups sounded anything like my mandolin in the first place, I would be fussier about it!

[soliver]

Just ordered myself a Fire-Eye Red-Eye Pre/DI... combineded with a small chromatic tuner and maybe a reverb in the future, I'm hoping to have a decent little rig as mentioned previously.

[Mark Seale]

Here's the basics, looks like I hadn't hooked up the DPA to the mandolin yet, but you get the idea.

[tmg145]

I've been running the tonedexter on mando and fiddle. It's the real deal. I do loop a smidge of delay; almost undetected by the ear.

[dang]

OP update: After a bunch of experimentation and a good number of hours live use I replaced the chorus pedal with an optical compression pedal. The chorus was a decent novelty effect but I ended up using it less and less...

The compression pedal I am using is the Earthquaker Devices “the Warden”. I have it set to mostly give clean signal with just a light touch of compression when turned on. It’s interesting, and as people have warned here using compression live can really reduce the feedback threshold. With a little experimentation I have found I mostly use it to make a solo here or there stand out, or on a particularly fast song I want to be able to lightly float on my chop chord and still have a lot of presence to it. It really helps me get the sound I want (or at least sound a little more natural) at certain noisy times in a live bar setting.


And a quick side story, my banjo/dobro player uses a tonebone pedal. He had an empty beer in a pint glass sitting next to a full one on a table in front of him and a dancing couple bumped into the table spilling both glasses right where the pedal was. A few drops of beer got on the pedal, but the empty glass hit the pedal directly and shattered into thousands of pieces! The pedal was completely unharmed.
So if you ever hear someone describe the tonebone as “built like a brick” - I can attest first hand to the durability!

Dan G

[Mustardman]

My mando rig is simple but effective:
The Loar LM-520
Behringer ADI-21 EQ-DI
Xvive U2 wireless

[journeybear]

My current rig isn't too interesting. I've simplified greatly from a few years ago. These days it's just a Baggs Venue. It has five EQ knobs and a built-in tuner. The XLR output provides a cleaner, stronger signal than the 1/4". I had a Fishman 100 bridge installed, with the wires attached to a 1/4 " end pin jack. Easy connection. I still use Old Blue, my fabric-covered Whirlwind cable from my first band. It's nearly forty years old, so that lifetime guarantee is working out just fine.

But I used to use a bit more equipment. I was in an Americana band, and used an electric as well as the acoustic. The MandoBird was OK for a while, but I upgraded to a Ryder 44. I had an old Arion pedal board for the pedals - mostly EQ/gain and tuner - plus a Morley volume-wah that let me do cool things, like sound like a pedal steel. There was a Yamaha REX50 multi-effects unit, with a distortion+reverb setting I liked, but it became unreliable. I picked up a Fender Super Champ tube amp with a bunch of built-in solid-state effects.

This all fit onto my bike, as seen here. Modeling is my neighbor's sister, who is much better-lookimg than me. The amp would go on top of the back milk crate horizontally, bungied down, with the pedal board lying down atop it. And the mike stand shaft went along the horizontal frame, and the base in the bottom of the crate. Cables, mike, etc went in the green tote bag.