How To Go Wireless With Your Guitar

Have you wondered how to go wireless with your guitar?

I've got active pickups (i.e. they have batteries in them) for my acoustic guitars and I plug into a Fishman SA330x vertical, linear PA system when I practice. (I'll tell you all about that in another review.) I do most of my practicing in our home office / exercise room / music room / recording studio ... you get the picture - it's a bit crowded in here. So having mic and guitar cables on the floor can be treacherous at times, as I move around the room. I finally decided to buy a wireless pickup system and I love it.

I tried a few less expensive options that kept popping up in Amazon, but they were fairly flakey and I sent them back. Then I went with a more reputable name and the difference has been amazing. I bought the Boss WL-20L wireless system, shown here. Cost is about $290 CDN.

In a nutshell, you plug them into each other and then connect the "master" unit to a USB charger with the provided cable. Once charged, you plug the master into your amp and the other unit into your guitar. That's all there is to it. No on/off buttons to fuss with, or anything like that. The lights tell you when the units need charging, or when there's a good signal between them. It really couldn't be any simpler and you've got an industry leader supporting them.

There are actually two models; the WL-20 and the WL-20L (shown above). Here's what Boss says about each of them:

"If you play a guitar or bass with standard passive pickups (the most common pickup type), the WL-20 model is probably your best choice. It includes built-in cable tone simulation, which reproduces the natural capacitive effect that’s introduced when using a 10-foot/3-meter guitar cable with passive pickups. This effect rolls off the treble very slightly, giving you the warm tone you’re used to hearing with a normal cable."

"The WL-20L model is functionally identical to the WL-20, with the exception that it eliminates cable tone simulation. This makes it the best choice for instruments where cable capacitance has little or no effect on the tone, such as an acoustic/electric guitar with an onboard preamp, a guitar or bass with active pickups, or a line-level device like a keytar or Roland’s Aerophone digital wind instrument. The WL-20L also works great with passive pickups if you don’t need the subtle treble roll-off provided by cable tone simulation."

Note: The only problem I've had with these units is caused by interference from my wireless router because many routers, as well as most wireless pickup systems like the Boss WL-20 and WL-20L, operate at 2.4 GHz. If I'm using them near my router, the guitar sound will stutter a bit as the signal drops and reconnects. It only lasts for a split second, but it happens intermittently and can be annoying. If I move at least 3 meters away from the router, the problem vanishes and I'm back in musical heaven.

I've used these for live jamming as well as recording, where the master is plugged into my mixing board / recorder, and I love them. They're so much more convenient than cables! They're not cheap, but well worth the investment if you're so inclined.

Thanks to Amajammer member, Keith, for his detailed thoughts on how to go wireless with your guitar.