I just bought a G75 to put in my acoustic rack and a G70 to put on my pedal board. This weekend I played a large festival running my acoustic guitar through one transmitter into the G75, out to my K4 preamp, and into the house, and my electric guitar through the second transmitter, into the same G75 and straight out to my Bogner. The flexibility of these units is amazing as I don't have to bring my full rig to mix and match guitars and outputs. And the tone is absolutely flawless! BUT...
The problem is every time I ran across the stage to jam with the other guitar player during solos, when I cam back towards my own backline and my body was in between the transmitter on my back and the G75 receiver, BOTH of my guitars would cut out until I turned around with my back facing my rack and my body was no longer in the way. This happened to both of my guitars through two brand new transmitters set on different channels, every time my body was in between the transmitter and the receiver. I've read a few comments on here about where you are wearing the transmitter makes a difference. That should be a non issue. If I want to stuff this thing in my boot and wear it on my head, it should work.
Yes this was a large stage with 6 different bands and 30,000 in attendance. Yes there were lots of In-Ear systems and large antennas operating. Yes there were probably 50 WiFi signals shooting across the sky, but my question is... Are these units Toys or professional products? And to be clear, they were running on the latest firmware.
If these units are only meant to be used in bars and pubs with a hand full of musicians, and 150 beer drinkers, then that's how they should be marketed. Half way through our set, I realized my body was causing the dropouts so I started shimmying sideways across the stage just to keep the transmitter and receiver facing each other. As long as I looked like an idiot, I could prevent the dropouts from happening. But seriously? I have used a couple $400 dollar, single channel, UHF Shure wireless packs for the last 10 years with NO dropouts ever! I just figured it was finally time to upgrade into the digital age and some newer technology, and all the features of these G70 and 75 units seemed amazing.
I also read the best practices section in the manual and if you rack these units up in any way, you are breaking the rules. We're running a rack of PSM900 ears and everyone but our drummer is wireless on every instrument in some form or another. My rack is full of metal shelves, metal edges, metal clasps, multiple preamps with metal housings, a metal power strip, etc. You can't tell me I've got to keep this thing away from metal objects and other wireless devices or it's not going to work. I can't keep this thing in the cardboard box and set it up on it's own little wooden stand at every show. A great product will work even when it's not supposed to.
I've got a weekend off, and then it's back out to more shows. I'll do some testing around my house and give these another weekend or two, but it they can't compete with the reliability of my 10 year old UHF packs, I'll be sending both the G70 and G75 back for sure. I really do hope they shine over the next few weeks because when they work, they are stellar.
