In keeping with being dirt cheap and pretty poor nowadays, I was a little bummed when my lead guitarist went wireless. He is even more free now than before and is having a blast on stage.
well, I started looking and rummaging around in the studio. Many of you have been there....trial and error finding the perfect gear for live sound or guitar or whatever...limited budget, spending money twice just because you have lots of it, living and learning what works and what works better.
Over the years past, I was blest with opportunity to buy and try a lot of different gear. I was also blessed to find pretty good solutions on a budget. Of course, the very nature of gear is that it becomes obsolete for one reason or another and either gets sold or stored for later discovery.
Why write all this? I am waiting for a yourube video to upload...lol. It will demonstrate a wireless system i just finished for $0 out-of pocket expense if you consider past gear purchases sunk cost and already paid for with blood sweat and music.
Maybe some of you have stuff like this laying around you can resurrect for use with harp and save a little cash.
In the video, keep in mind the recording is bone dry...not even any room effect since it's line into the soundcard off the wireless receiver. This combo absolutely rocks through my digitech delay and valve junior with 2 12 inch jensens. The range is too far for me to figure out in my prettty large church building and it's been raining, so i really don't know yet. It is definitely over 75 feet through one wall of wood and glass. I also went downstairs for the same distance and could clearly hear my rig playing from the stage upstairs as I demo'd this free rig to my pastor. The sanctuary floor is concrete, so the signal was likely traveling in the stairwells instead of through the floor.
I'm thinking this might still be a pretty good budget solution even if you bought the system at the shack. If, of course, you have the rest on hand..$50 wireless would be pretty hard to beat. If you had to buy a stick of kneadable epoxy, add $5, if you need a mic..you can buy a new system cheaper on sale probably, unless you can find a real cheapo and know for sure it sounds good. Since most of us have a mic..I think you'd be good to go with a cable made to plug it in with capacitor inline....like I mention in the video. Just for fun..excuse the haphazard harp playing, i am not very good at improvising and jamming without a band...simple fact.
Almost there....okay..a few more minutes.
For playing percussion, trumpet, singing, etc...I carry the mic in a ring holster I made from a pvc plumbing srew for under the sink repairs. The ring is perfect to hold the ball of the mic and lets the cord slip freely through when I need it..i run the cable from the bodypack clipped to my left front jean pocket through my belt loops to the right side where the ring is zip tied to the loop behind my right front pocket.the cable runs up from below and is very easy to manage. Since I use my pedal as on/off and occasional volume, i simply step on it before I play after the mic is ready to use. Then I step on it again before I put the cable back and holster the mic. It is very slick.
Is the video done yet? Don't know, but here's the html code. I can't think of any more small talk right now...enjoy.
Hey congaron. That's great. It's amazing how resourceful harp players can be when we build a bit of kit. Thanks for posting that, it sounds great too. ----------
Thanks man. With tube amp, it totally rocks the blues. I wired a shure headset mic too. It is a great ring mic ala hoodoo hand. I cna't sing into it though. It stays dirty once I cup it and I never cared for the tone of it for my vocals. Once it's in my hand, it sits really close to the fingers so it's hard to sing with it. I sing and play together on one song, so for the next gig it's the samson.
Radio shack has an outfit called the singing Machine.. for $20 (when it's in stock). I haVE 2 OF THEM..... THE TRANSMIT GADGET (sIZE OF A CIGARETTE PACK-CLIPS ON UR BELT)(9V BATTERY) Drive it with my shaker Madcat harp mic. (straight in to the gadget), the receiver (also cig pack size and another 9v) has a male plug which can go right into my Reverb pedal or the mixer... Got about a 25 -30 ft range and works well so I can move and not get tangled up in the morass of wire,
I always have my Pignose 20 all the way down on the Bass side plus the same for my EQ (Fishman) so I think it sounds pretty good... remembering I have that shaker Mic at the front end and the reverb and fishman at the other into the amp. Cheap is why I got two of em....Was gonna get another (but the website is out of stock... btw that item is only available online from RS. You also get a (DYNAMIC) mic in a (wear on your head) thing but I dont think much of that for my Harp stuff... I separated out the mic from the head rig but didn't like the way it reproduced the harp....So i stay with my Madcat dynamic.
Last Edited by on Oct 23, 2009 5:50 PM
I know there is a lot to be said for high end professional equipment but I think the manufacturers think Musicians and now including all the harp players are either big spenders or expect their audience to end up paying for the equipment... I just think a lot of this stuff is overpriced riding the wave of a specific interest group. ( as soon as something catches on.... It gets priced out of sight of the average income (in this case harp player) consumer. I think the music not the price should separate the men from the boys.
Very good then. I am going to try one for 20 bucks. I have another use for it if music doesn't work. The simple matter is, you are right. I have been designing and building mu own electret headset mics for years. I play with them like toys. The average cost is under $15 per unit once you get the design figured out. Mine are made with copper head gear or ear hook. either is nearly invisible in the hairline. They run on a 9 volt battery and the sound is pristine for guitar, vocals, percussion...etc. You can wear one and sing, play guitar, percussion, whatever you want. It will pick it all up in a normal acoustic stage environment. They are not best suited for loud rock bands, but a one guy act can wear one and it barely shows from the audience. Nothing but that and a keyboard amp will get it done in a surprising number of places around here. Point is, the parts are cheap..the r&d has been long since done on these products and the rest is simple price gouging to what the market will bear. Wireless is generally considered a "step up" for the growing musician who is "willing" to spend more for the "privilege." I like to give the cheap stuff a shot..or at least I used to when i could afford it. Since this company has beena round for 25 years and is in the karaoke market, they are targeting a crowd that may not be "willing " to pay a premium. It looks like they found it worthwhile to offer this as a sales tool for the systems they sell. Smart marketing. My expectations will be lower, but I will see what kind of typical stage range i get and compare the tone to my franken-wireless. It will be fun, since I have nothing invested so far.
Great job Congaron - Quick question - what capacitor did you use and what is the "simple" explanation of the purpose. I'm starting to dabble in all this malarky. Will the cap boost a dynamic cartridge? ---------- If it ain't got harp - it ain't really blues!!!!
10 microfarad..+ side toward the bodypack on the hot lead which is pin #2 for your xlr connector if you use one, to block the dc from reaching the mic element. The Ac mic signal will pass as usual. You will still see voltage on that pin until you hook a mic to it, BTW. Then it drops to zero.. ont of the reasons I used the 9v connectors is the ability to take measurements with and without things connected, since the contacts are bare and in the open.
