Hanks wireless system

[Apache1]

Thanks Anthony, I never even considered the safety aspect of being wireless, you cant always rely on the systems and ring mains on these old Theatres
with regards to loss of tone, Hank on the 2004 and the 2009 Tours did not loose any tone but that could be down to the extent of know how from his
sound engineers, Thanks for you good advise
John

[shindig]

Hi,
I have been using the Samson for years.
It is excellent, dependable and not expensive. The freedom you get on stage is second to none. Buy it.
Best regards
Knud-Erik

[Lee Restarick]

John M - Thank God someone else noticed the problem on those Samson Wireless Systems. I had to stop using mine for the exact problems you mentioned.
1. Adds some awful top end to your sound compared to a lead plugged into same setup. Actually, its probably just the "fullness" of sound that is lost.
2. Notes do definitely "swoop in", all attack is lost.

I thought also it was a problem with my Samson only, until I saw the 2004 Shads concert on DVD and noticed Hank had exactly the same problem. I was really surprised they were using budget wireless systems.

[AlanMcKillop]

I've used a Samson Airline 77 (half rack unit) which is the same as The Shads used in 2004, for some time now and can't say that I've noticed the 'swoop in' as described above. I did play around with the squelch control and the input control until I got it to sound the way I wanted and I do think that too many people just play/use them straight from the box without taking the time to set them up properly.

Regarding them being 'toppy', that was always a problem, however, I found that you could always boost the bass and mids via your amp to compensate. Talking to Charlie Hall about the loss in tone, he suggested puting a capacitor in the transmitter, which would simulate a guitar lead and thicken up the sound. As my eyes are not up to this type of work, Charlie very kindly did me a big favour and inserted a 330pf capicitor, which simulated a 3 meter cable and what a difference it made to the sound, it was much fuller than before and when I A/B tested it against a lead, the difference was very slight and much better than before.

[Pat Seaman]

I've been using a second hand (bargain on e-bay) Samson airline system for a few years now and am really pleased with it, particularly from the safety point of view.

I can't say that I've ever noticed the 'swooping' effect on my system or on Hank's system as used on the Final Tour, but i'll be listening for it the next time I use it!

Alan could be right about the set-up of the squelch, etc, though I can't imagine that Hanks tech guys would get it wrong.

EQ-wise, a little bit of tweeking seems to do the trick, although I would be interested in the details of Charlie Hall's capacitor mod.

Pat.

[Pedro]

Whatever, The Shadows use they probably have the best tech's around to sort out the problem.
Looking at the reunion DVD last night and noticed that the Guitar Tech that HBM used was the same guy who appeared on the Strat Pack assisting Ronnie Wood. Take a look the at the facial exchanges between this tech and Pino Palladino on Ron Woods shenanigans. Interesting

[dave robinson]

For the last nine years all of our instruments have been connected via Samsom Airline systems and never have I had a problem such as those outlined in these posts. I did have to buy a new one after about seven years as mine packed up . . . . . but the new one is OK

[MeBHank]

I've been using a second hand (bargain on e-bay) Samson airline system for a few years now and am really pleased with it, particularly from the safety point of view.

I can't say that I've ever noticed the 'swooping' effect on my system or on Hank's system as used on the Final Tour, but i'll be listening for it the next time I use it!

Alan could be right about the set-up of the squelch, etc, though I can't imagine that Hanks tech guys would get it wrong.

EQ-wise, a little bit of tweeking seems to do the trick, although I would be interested in the details of Charlie Hall's capacitor mod.

Pat.

Pat, listen to the first note of Theme for Young Lovers on the Final Tour DVD. It sounds like it's being partially faded in with a volume pedal. That's the effect the Samson has on the attack.

J

[George Lewis]

I also sometimes use a Samson Ailine 77 with the little bug transmitter. The receiver is usually quite close as it's output goes into a vol pedal. Never detected any swooping but it does suggest a squelch or gain issue. Sounds a bit like a noise gate effect ?
It definitely altered the sound as others have mentioned so I made up a short lead with a capacitor in series with the active. The lead goes into guitar, the bug into the other end and the bug then velcroed onto the guitar strap ... kind of defeats the neatness of the little bug but at the time I hadn't thought of actually opening it up and putting the cap inside.
regards
George

[RogerF]

I used a Samson Airline on stage for many years and after the initial setup never experienced any of the problems expressed here.
I played many Shadows numbers live on stage and never experienced any problems with attack, quite the contrary.
Hank's sound on "The Final Tour" was at times muddy and distorted (e.g. Kon Tiki) but I doubt this was caused by the Tx/Rx setup.
There was much about his general sound which pointed to problems in the chain: guitar-Tx-Rx-pedal-effect(s)-amp which the techs didn't always have under control.
When I saw them live in Preston these problems were not evident - at least to my ear. Was it perhaps just the Cardif gig that was a problem?

I have used a number of guitar transmitters over the years and can honestly say that the Samson was the easiest to use and gave the best sound regardless of price. It is, however, very important to adjust the transmitter to the guitar output level to avoid overloading but once that's done it's pretty plain sailing. I usually used 2 separate Tx/Rx systems, one for my main guitar (a USA standard strat) and one for my 12 string Gerorge Harrison Ricky. I also used one of these systems for acoustic gigs where my acoustic guitar (Stamford with B-band piezo PU) was played through a Zoom A2.1U pedal directly into the mixer via a DI box.
Having used (in chronological order!) Ibanez, Sennheiser, AKG and finally Samson it must be said that the Samson was the only system which allowed me to forget that I wasn't playing via a cable. It gave me zero aggro and never let me down (unlike every otrher system I used).

Clearly some people have experienced problems with the Samson, I just have not.

It's true that the lack of a cable to trip over is a great benefit but for me the knowledge that I am galvanically separated from my amp is far more important. Over the years I have experienced a number of nasty shocks of the electrical variety from microphones whilst playing guitar via cable as a result of dubious earthing situations but with a radio system for the guitar this danger has been almost totally eradicated.

Kind regards

Roger