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Boss new wireless WL-50 and WL-20

#121
FunkHead said:
I am pretty sad about this. I need a good wireless system and this just looked so dang promising.
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honestly, you should be looking a little higher then.

these sub-$200 guitar "bug" systems are neat but i'd never actually gig with one. expect to spend like $400-500 on something like a shure GLX-D16 or line 6 relay G70-75 if you want reliable onstage use.

if you just have to go cheap then the older line 6 relay G50 can be had for $300 and is still several levels above the little hobbyist bugs.
 
#122
walterw said:
honestly, you should be looking a little higher then.

these sub-$200 guitar "bug" systems are neat but i'd never actually gig with one. expect to spend like $400-500 on something like a shure GLX-D16 or line 6 relay G70-75 if you want reliable onstage use.

if you just have to go cheap then the older line 6 relay G50 can be had for $300 and is still several levels above the little hobbyist bugs.
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Yeah that's a shame. A product should perform as advertised regardless of the price point.
 
#123
FunkHead said:
Yeah that's a shame. A product should perform as advertised regardless of the price point.
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true of course, but i suspect the boss unit that wasn't working right at all may have actually been defective, in which case a replacement may have been just fine.

the issue with active instruments and their TRS jacks can be solved with a simple little adapter cable.

as for "performs as advertised", note the G10 ad copy on the line 6 website: it shows pics of kids in the garage and a dude out on the beach, not a pro working band on stage. that's the market these bug systems are made for, and at least line 6 is honest about it.
 
#124
Dragonlord said:
It also features the WL-50 with the "cable tone" off, which should be the same as the WL-20L soundwise.
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Yes, which means the slam on the WL-20 as "home use only" is not a knock on the 20L. Boss claims 20L performance is same as 50 - and why not? It's the same circuits; only difference is packaging, radio-wise. That's why I'd like to see a comparo using a bass, not a guitar. I did not hear mud of any significance in this comparo. More acoustic mud in bar gig rooms than this comparo, by far.
 
#125
kartiste said:
Yes, which means the slam on the WL-20 as "home use only" is not a knock on the 20L. Boss claims 20L performance is same as 50 - and why not? It's the same circuits; only difference is packaging, radio-wise. That's why I'd like to see a comparo using a bass, not a guitar. I did not hear mud of any significance in this comparo. More acoustic mud in bar gig rooms than this comparo, by far.
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Yeah, I may have overreacted, I was just hoping for no tone degradation at all. Anyway, mud tends to add up, so I prefer to avoid it when possible.
As for this not being a pro unit, well the form factor for me is much better than the $500 systems...
 
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#126
Dragonlord said:
I was just hoping for no tone degradation at all.
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"degradation" is the wrong word.

if you want your passive instrument to still sound like a passive instrument then you want the one that simulates the sound of a cable. if you want your active to still sound active then you want the one that doesn't simulate.

to me this issue alone makes the extra $20 for the WL-50 and its switchable cable simulation obviously worth it.

there's a thread somewhere (can't find it now) where a guy figured out the right capacitor value to wire into a cable adapter so that his wireless that didn't have cable simulation would still sound like a real cable! it made perfect sense because his passive instruments would be affected by the cap while his active instruments wouldn't, just like with a real cable. that way everything still sounded "normal".
 
#127
walterw said:
"degradation" is the wrong word.

if you want your passive instrument to still sound like a passive instrument then you want the one that simulates the sound of a cable. if you want your active to still sound active then you want the one that doesn't simulate.

to me this issue alone makes the extra $20 for the WL-50 and its switchable cable simulation obviously worth it.

there's a thread somewhere (can't find it now) where a guy figured out the right capacitor value to wire into a cable adapter so that his wireless that didn't have cable simulation would still sound like a real cable! it made perfect sense because his passive instruments would be affected by the cap while his active instruments wouldn't, just like with a real cable. that way everything still sounded "normal".
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Maybe degradation isn't the right word as I'm not a native english speaker, however I don't think you realized the context in which I said it. I was referring to the comparison to the Line6 G10 in the video; the G10, with both devices set to cable simulation off, sounds a bit clearer, a bit more open, which means that the WL-50 does "degrade" (worsen?) the tone. FWIW the cable simulation doesn't seem to make a significant difference in the video.
 
#128
Dragonlord said:
I don't think you realized the context in which I said it. I was referring to the comparison to the Line6 G10 in the video; the G10, with both devices set to cable simulation off, sounds a bit clearer, a bit more open, which means that the WL-50 does "degrade" (worsen?) the tone.
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OK yeah you're right, that wasn't what i was referring to.
 
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#130
Aloe said:
G10 cannot be set to cable simulation off as far as I know (I own a G10 myself). it's fixed to 'short' mode.
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That's probably my mistake then. If you watch the video, at some point they say that they compare the WL-50 with the cable sim off to the G10 with the cable sim on and the G10 is still clearer, so I assumed that previously they had the G10 with the cable sim off. They were probably just referring to the G10's default configuration.
 
#131
After a couple of months of regular use for practice and gigs, my WL-20 is performing flawlessly. My basses: Lakland DJ5, Rick 4003, P clone, Squire Bass VI, Epi T Bird VP and a Stingray. There is one thing I worry about. The transmitter. When I'm DI'd, it sticks out of the box waiting to be stepped on. When I'm plugged into my amp, it sticks out of the jack waiting for someone to sit on it. I started bringing my amp wedge to place my combo at an angle to discourage this.
 
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#133
two fingers said:
That little box sticking out of my jack wouldn't last a gig. It would get snapped off quick.

I like a lot about this little unit. But I'll never try one because I would have a box hanging out of my bass. It would look dumb (in my view) and likely get broken quickly.
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I was thinking this very thing.. I'd rather mount it to my strap and run An adapter cable up.. But I was also thinking that backbeat tactile transducer would work great with this.. Cable runs to that then this wireless then pedal board
 
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#135
scubaduba said:
The WL-20L is now available. Anybody try it yet?
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Mine arrived a few days ago (ordered it in August). Haven't used it for a gig yet, but have used it at three practices (three different venues) and a recording session. Worked great in all four cases. Same bass across the board - Ibanez Mikro, which is passive. No issues at all, and sounds great. At the recording session we ran some takes with the cab miked, and then some running straight into the DI. For the latter, I just plugged the WL-20L receiver into the DI. All good.

The only two issues I've seen with it so far: (1) I let a friend try it with his uke (not sure what preamp he was using), into a battery-powered Blackstar guitar amp. It generated a very loud and regular clicking noise, and not much else. (2) My amp and cabinet at home are very close to my home Wi-Fi routers (I have more than one). Using it with the receiver plugged directly into the amp places the receiver just a few feet away from the routers, and there's enough interference to cause significant dropouts. Though if I move the amp even 5 feet further away, the dropouts clear up.

That's all I can report at the moment -- so far, I'm liking it a lot. I'm planning on using it for a gig this weekend, so will let you know how it works out.

Oh, one more thing. For my first charge, it took about 3 hours for the receiver and transmitter to indicate full battery. Since then, I've used them for probably a cumulative 6-7 hours over the past couple of days, without charging in between. It took only an hour this evening to fill them up again. So far, battery life seems good :-)
 
#139
Just had the chance to try it out in a store, loved the form factor and the instant response, literally no difference to a cable. But there was a small but noticeable difference in tone, it sounded a little more compressed. Probably not noticeable or even maybe desirable in a live setting, but it's there.
 
#140
Anyone else having issues with the WL-50 not entering standby after 60 mins of no sound?
On a few occasions I've come back to find the WL-T has completely discharged overnight (from near full to zero). I've tried setting the volume control on the guitar is fully down, and it's a passive pickup system, so it seems odd that it's not entering, or is waking itself, from standby enough to drain the WL-T battery.

Oddly, I also have the Katana Air practice amp with the same WL-T wireless transmitter system. When the WL-T is paired with the Katana Air it configures the WL-T to use a movement based standby system (not volume/sound based), and you can configure how soon standby mode is entered (5 mins, 30 mins, etc.). I find that approach great for home use... pick the guitar up and the Katana Air powers on automatically, and you're ready to go.
It's a shame the movement based "wake" feature isn't an option when the WL-50 is used with the WL-T transmitter.... especially as I'm finding the WL-50 sound based standby feature isn't working well.

On the off chance it's a WL-50 or WL-50's WL-T fault, I'm going to pair the Katana Air's WL-T with the WL-50 and see if that enters standby reliably after the indicated 60 minutes of quiet. Thought I'd see if anyone else is running into similar WL-50 auto-standby issues. Thx
 

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