Guitarist Magazine Review

[Martyn]

As a result of the Guitarist review I bought the 2xCD plus DVD package - only £5.29 with no postal fees on Amazon and my initial disappointment was with the distortion issues. At first I thought it was me being hyper critical but I replayed the problem tracks and he was definitely experiencing some sort of overload issues. I also thought his open D string was suffering from fret buzz as it was notably fuzzy when struck but the overdriven tones reminded me of a US strat I once owned that was fitted with Fat50s and the neck pickup gave off this really woollen, muffled tone no matter what I did with it. Did I not read somewhere that the Samson radio transmitters were possibly an issue for him on certain concerts and that some sort of partial signal breakup was a contributing factor? Or maybe I'm thinking of something else.

It's still a good purchase at that price and if I can ignore the problem tracks on the early parts of the performance it remains a useful study of their live sound and particularly as not all of the tracks suffered from any obvious issues. Some nice closeups as well of Hank's finger work on the fretboard so as an overall purchase it's still a good deal. Showing my ignorance - what amp was Hank playing through as I didn't recognise it and the cameras didn't linger long enough for any further clues?

[JimN]

Radio transmitters on guitars always sound rubbish as compared with an ordinary, reasonable quality guitar lead. The radio system cannot possibly compete on frequency bandwidth or on dynamic bandwidth: fact.

On balance, it is possible that for a large stage show where slick presentation is the major objective, the transmitter may have something to be said for it. But in a small venue, there is nothing in its favour. I am constantly bemused by the sight of players using transmitters whilst standing - usually stationary - five or six feet from the amplifier. You only ever see it at Shadows nights, never at all-comers jam nights!

[Didier]

As a result of the Guitarist review I bought the 2xCD plus DVD package - only £5.29 with no postal fees on Amazon and my initial disappointment was with the distortion issues. At first I thought it was me being hyper critical but I replayed the problem tracks and he was definitely experiencing some sort of overload issues.

This package can't have been remixed so what I wrote before still apply :
"there is some sound distortion problems on Hank's guitar during the first part of the 2004 "Final Tour" video, there is no such problem on the 2009 "Final Reunion" video. I have both on DVD and Blu Ray, and watched them several times with a good multi channel audio system (using KEF speakers)."
According to some reports, the distortion was caused by the input volume set too high on Hank's Q20 EFTP echo unit during the first part of the recorded concert, which caused some overload distorsion on the Q20 input stage. This was corrected for the second part. The distortion is particularly noticeable on Hank's chords played at the beginning and end of Kon-Tiki.
I attended two Final Tour concerts, in Brighton in 2004 and at the Paris "Grand Rex" in 2005, and there was no such distortion problem.

what amp was Hank playing through as I didn't recognise it and the cameras didn't linger long enough for any further clues?

During the first part of the Final Tour (2004) when the video was recorded, Hank was playing a KCP amp (with separate head and speakers). What he used during the second part of the Final Tour (2005) is a more complex story !

Didier

[Martin Page]

Radio transmitters on guitars always sound rubbish as compared with an ordinary, reasonable quality guitar lead. The radio system cannot possibly compete on frequency bandwidth or on dynamic bandwidth: fact.

On balance, it is possible that for a large stage show where slick presentation is the major objective, the transmitter may have something to be said for it. But in a small venue, there is nothing in its favour. I am constantly bemused by the sight of players using transmitters whilst standing - usually stationary - five or six feet from the amplifier. You only ever see it at Shadows nights, never at all-comers jam nights!

I gave up using my wireless transmitter ages ago - as you say, a good quality guitar lead is superior...

Martin.

[abstamaria]

Anna our bassist tripped on a guitar lead and fell backward at one of our shows. She recovered quickly, didn't lose her composure, and hardly missed a beat. But she was wearing a dress so it was a bit awkward. At the next show, when making the 5-minutes-to-showtime announcement, she said over the PA that she noticed more men in the front rows than at the previous show. She then said they would be disappointed as she wasn't planning to fall baxkward that evening. Everyone laughed at the joke.

We plan to use transmitters next time.

By the way, we just bought Line 6 Relay G30s and tried them out durinf practice last week. They are very good. I was once an audiophile so intuitively prefer cables, but frankly I couldn't tell the difference. They work with the bass guitar too.

Andy

[cockroach]

The more electronic devices in the signal chain, the more there is to go wrong!

I played Shads rhythm guitar at a Shads tribute (seated audience) concert gig at a cinema/theatre a few years ago, and the lead guitarist had everything go wrong from Apache, the opening tune- USA Fender Strat guitar, Atlantis echo unit, Vox AC30 amp etc....I had to take over on lead (Chinese Squier Tele, Marshall tranny amp with echo etc built-in) and we played as a trio- (doing stuff like Nivram and Flingel Bunt) until he sorted his gear out...

When I saw the Shads play here years ago, Bruce's wireless unit went down and he grabbed a normal lead!

Enuff said!