Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This is a first-class product with some user-unfriendly things about it. Functionally, I couldn't be happier. The manual that came with the unit, however, was lacking in completion. This often occurs when "rush to ship" during the manufacturing process is ahead of the tech writers. However, having an RF background, I could figure out where the 50-ohm loads should be applied. (Very nice little 50-ohm BNC loads, by the way. Very pleasing.) Online, the manual was found through another website and Revision F still contained an error on about page 5 that says: "Press CHANNEL SELECT button, then press the SELECT button." This was intended to be instructions as to how to display all available channels. I just corrected the manual by writing in "SETUP" for the word "SELECT". If you already have this unit, you've probably figured this out on your own. As I said, this unit has great features and is worth the cost, in my opinion, IF you can accept certain weaknesses (covered later). The receiver/transmitter range is very, very good and not so much as a single bit of noise or co-channel interference is evident. The fact that I live within 1/4 mile of a NASA rocket telemetry installation operating high RF levels in the 2-6 GHz frequency range was a concern before I received and tested this unit's operation. Not a problem. That was a relief and my kudos to the LINE6 designer team. However, there are a couple of concerns I have. One solvable, one not.
1. (Solvable) The transmitter comes with the instrument cable with a standard 1/4-inch plug for your guitar. The other end has a very, very unique male multi-pin, mini connector that you won't find at any Radio Shack, that's for sure. Though the cable is well constructed, and even though I repaired almost every cable type known to man (humbly stated), this is not a repair I'd want to do during intermission at a gig. Since we all know that 90% of problems we have during performances are related to cable problems, it makes sense to have spares. This unit does NOT come with a spare cable. IT SHOULD for the price class of the unit. At the very least, LINE 6 should include information about connector part numbers, spare parts, etc so the consumer can have options. IT DOESN'T. You'll find yourself going blue in the face if this cable goes bad. Believe me, it is the weak link and WILL be the first thing to likely fail on you. Good luck unless you purchase a spare. I hesitate to ruin the fun I'm having with this unit by looking up the LINE 6 price for this cable. (If you don't anticipate certain types of system or cable problems, you'll all-of-a-sudden find yourself only able to play the cow bell or tamberine at the gig!) I know that the following solution is not part of the review but if you can see a solution, perhaps the problem won't be a big obstacle for you to buy this unit. Anyway, I minimized this almost certain cable failure (depending on how much you use it) by building a "pig tail" cable that mates with the transmitter cable. I put an inline female 1/4" connector on one end (to mate with the transmitter's instrument plug) and on the other end, I put a 90-degree, 1/4-inch instrument connector. The 90-degree works better with my Jazz Bass than the straight connector that comes with the transmitter anyway. Finally, I bundled the transmitter's cable neatly and tie-wrapped it to the belt clip. I never liked the idea of clipping the unit to my belt anyway. The transmitter is powerful enough to go through walls (I tested that) so, being in my pocket makes no difference in the receiver's strength display - NO difference. I tested that theory to 75 feet with not one iota of noise or signal problem. With this setup, the transmitter's cable will NEVER flex and I won't incur the cost and frustration of repairing it prematurely. The cable I built takes all the punishment but is replaceable for about 5 bucks. I'd hate to even look at LINE6's price for that cable based upon the transmitter's replacement cost. This leads me to problem 2, which has no solution.
2. (Unsolvable) I was really enjoying my new setup until I made the mistake of looking up the cost of a spare TBP12 Transmitter that comes with this unit. Accidents happen. Rain happens. #%&^ happens. The price was an astounding $199 !! ANNOYING to say the least. Add shipping and you've paid about half the cost of a complete new system. Before I spend $199 for just the transmitter, I'd buy the whole system and then sell the main unit which is less likely to fail because you can't drop it onto the stage.
Overall, I give this unit's operation, quality, design, mounting (rack), controls, back panel, and overall appearance 5-stars. For the high cost of replacement items, I recommend purchasing this only if you can afford to support it and from a maintainability perspective, I give this 2-stars. The average is 3.5 stars and that's an honest review. If the replacement transmitter were in the $100 maximum (only with proof of original purchase) and if the product had included a spare instrument cable, then for the overall price and operation of the unit, I would have given it 5-stars. So, you decide what is important to you and extract the rating which pertains. Good luck. Regardless, you will surely enjoy this unit right out of the box. Of that, I am sure. Oh, yes, one final comment about the unit's feature of simulating the effects of instrument cables. Since using this unit means that you only have a couple of feet of cable between your guitar and the transmitter, you won't have the high frequency rolloff that accompanys ALL cables. (If you bought a cable claiming it has no frequency loss and no inline capacitance, you bought a pig in a poke. There is no such animal. But that's for another day.) Now, LINE 6 recognizes that people may not like the "brighter" sound resulting from lack of a lengthy instrument cable. So, they cleverly add internal, selectable frequency attenuation presented to the user in units of cable length. So, for example, you can choose from about 6 to 10 different cable simulations from 3 feet up to 125 feet. As the length increases, so does the amount of high-frequency attenuation (rolloff). (For my Jazz Bass, I disable this feature (zero cable length) so I get a nice brighter tone if I wish. I use the guitar's tone control to reduce that if needed.) That's about it. I'm uncomfortable not having "spare parts" because Murphy is always lurking. People I asked about wireless systems often times have owned them in the past but went back to straight cables; not because the wireless systems weren't nice but because they had cable problems or transmitters got wet, etc. It is an expensive "cable substitute" but with the availability of spare parts and lower costs of replacement components, these systems could become mainstream and we'd actually use additional RELAY units in our stage racks. Rock on!
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Line 6 Relay G90 Relay G90 Pro Rack-mountable Wireless Guitar System
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