A Quick Review/Observation
The Pros
I’ve been using my Boss WL20 wireless system for rehearsals and gigs since October 2019 and on the whole it’s been a very handy addition to my rig. The convenience it provides cannot be understated.
The freedom of being un-tethered to my pedal board is great. Not because I like to go running around all over the stage, but it’s great for stepping offstage at soundcheck to listen to the mix. It’s also good for when I need to turn around and make adjustments to the mixer (I’m often the band’s sound engineer) without worrying about getting tangled up or stepping on my cable and unplugging myself by mistake!
In the past I have experienced my guitar strings being live due to bad electrical wiring in the venue I’m playing. While that is very rare, having a wireless does make me far less paranoid about things like that!
The Cons
However, the Boss WL20 is not without it’s problems, which I only really came to realise in the last few days, having so much more time on my hands during this COVID19 lockdown. I really like this wireless system, but to put it bluntly, it doesn’t sound very good!
I’m torn between the convenience and the tonal impact. I’ve been trying different ways to get around this and find a combination of things to correct the tone issues I’m having, but I don’t think I can.
Here’s the low-down: This wireless system is pretty hot. The signal going into my pedalboard is a fair bit higher than when using a cable. It’s also got more treble and some difference going on in the midrange, all contributing to a signal that my pedals and amp respond to in a far less pleasing way than with a cable.
If only it was a case of being able to turn down the tone & volume controls on the guitar a little to compensate… Sadly it’s not.
A Frustrating Reality
I only really noticed the extent of the difference the other day after settling on a signal chain that I really like (setup using a cable). After using that setup for a while in the studio I tried my wireless into the rig and noticed that my lead sound (my Lovepedal Amp50 on max and first in the signal chain) was noisier with the wireless. Enough so that it was above the threshold of my noise gate and I needed to turn that up to a point where it was set too high when the Amp50 was off – PITA!
Maybe my power supply doesn’t help (I’m using a daisy chain hooked up to a USB 5v to 9v converter from a rechargeable power bank). I also know that the Amp50 on max is quite noisy, but maximum is THE tone I want for my lead and solos and for the noise gate to work when using the wireless I have back the Amp50 off to below 4 o’clock, which is a totally different sound without the sustain I need for lead!
Besides it’s not just the noise that is the issue. It was the noise that led me to the discovery that the tone and interaction of the elements in my rig is drastically affected.
So I listened more closely to the tone in general with all my settings; clean, overdrive and max’d-out lead. It all sounded different – Harsher, thinner and just… cheaper sounding. I was pretty bummed out. What could I do to fix this?
It’s become painfully clear to me that my entire rig gets downgraded in tonal quality when I use the Boss WL20, something I didn’t notice straight away. I knew it sounded different from the get-go, but I didn’t realise just how different it really does sound. Maybe if I was using a modelling rig or a multiFX unit, which has less interactivity along the signal chain than individual pedals and maybe even benefits from a quieter power supply.
In Conclusion
So far I haven’t found a way to fix this and I suspect that I won’t be able to find a solution to my wireless woes. The best case scenario is that I’ll find certain compromises that may work in certain gigging situations, so it looks like I’m going back to using the cable!
For now I’m going to keep the Boss WL20 as a backup in case there is an essential need (i.e. potentially life-saving) for me to be isolated from my pedalboard. For example as a way to avoid an electric shock, whilst playing on a wet stage due to an earlier rain shower. That is not uncommon where I play.
On a less dramatic note, some gigs I play with bands where I predominantly play clean and rhythm guitar. I can dial in a decent clean tone with the Boss WL20 and probably tolerate the quality of my overdrive/distortion tone where in such a situation it’s less important to me. I can probably dial in one tone I’m happy with using the wireless, either clean or a distorted lead tone, but not both it seems. Such is life, but I guess there are worse problems to have.
So if I were to recommend the Boss WL20 I would say that it would likely work well for you if your setup consists of guitar into amp and you play predominantly one sound. I’d say you could set your amp up to sound close to how it would be with your cable and sometimes I wish that was all I needed to play the gigs I normally play. Maybe I’ll get a gig where I just have one sound and play rhythm guitar all night long. I like that idea – then the Boss WL20 will probably suit me just fine.
So it’s not a totally lost cause, but it’s no longer in the driving seat of my rig.
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