Cable and wireless

[dianec42]

I am actively considering getting one of those wireless transponder thingies for my bass -- you know, the magic thing where you connect one bit to the guitar and plug the other bit into the amp, and you never have to trip over your cable again.

Dumb-ass question: What are those actually called? I'm nosing around Musician's Friend[1] and I'm not entirely sure what to search for.

Slightly less dumb-ass question, does anyone have any recommendations about these? How much to pay, what brands[2] to seek out or avoid, any features that I should watch out for...?

Thanks in advance for any clues.

[1] - I am very, very sad to see that Mars Music (formerly at marsmusic.com) has apparently gone under. The only banner ad I have ever clicked on in my life was one of theirs!

[2] - If I find out Monster Cable have started making these, too, I *will* scream. Loudly. A lot.

Comments

[penk.livejournal.com]

I had no idea you play bass. I do too (http://www.deludedblues.com/). :)

Anyway, it's just a wireless transmitter. There's zilions of them around - i usually do 'wireless bass' on ebay and then seelct the 'musical instruments' category, and it works out nicely.

I'm considering one of them as well, so if you find out the good and the bad, lemme know.

[dianec42.livejournal.com]

I had no idea you play bass. I do too. :)

Hmm, drat. I was going to post a link to my old band, but they've redone the web site and nothing works! )-:

So far all I've found out is that some of them are reasonably priced, and some are OMG expensive; and on the reasonably priced ones, some people love them and some people hate them. Apparently there are certain issues with ruggedness and quality... I'll update when I've actually learned something useful.

[dglenn.livejournal.com]

Until I started playing Scottish music, I thought, "Cute, but probably not worth the [at the time very high] price and possible additional ways for things to go wrong" ... Since then I've realized just how nice such things must be, though I still haven't been able to justify buying a pair plus a receiver (I switch between 6-string and 12-string on stage). So I occasionally step on a cable and yank the pickup out of the sound hole of the 6-string, or have the battery pack for the condenser fall off the 12-string and lose its battery as I'm playing behind my head, and frequently have to kick my way free of cables after a twirl or ask the soundman for "a longer leash" when setting up. I don't think I've tripped any of my bandmates yet, but I've probably come close.

So, ah, no I've got absolutely nothing useful to add here except to agree that a wireless system sure would be nice. I should go research them again in case the prices (for systems worth using) have come down enough since the last time I looked.