I was reading Slash’s apparent “official” fan site called “The Snakepit” today. I say apparent because the site hasn’t been updated since 2004. But it has been around since the mid-1990’s (and looks it), so kudos to the creator of the site for such longevity! In any case, the article on Slash’s equipment mentioned that Slash preferred a now-defunct Nady wireless system. But since I hadn’t heard much about Nady as of late, I went to their site to see what kinds of things they’ve cooked up since I last checked (which was admittedly awhile ago).
Turns out that in September of last year, they came out with a compact wireless system called the MicroMGT-16X.
Nady is known for affordable devices (I have a Nady ribbon mic), and this system is only $199.99. What intrigues me about it is that it truly is compact. As opposed to being a rack-mount or standalone unit. the receiver plugs directly into your amp, or wherever you start your chain – mine would be my board; or to be safe, I’d probably run a male/female 1/4″ cable to put the receiver in a safe place. But in any case, I love the compact size and the fact that it runs on a single AA battery with an apparent life of 8 hours. Not bad.
The transmitter, which you can get in either offset/angled or right-angled, is truly convenient: No body pack and no cable, just plug in the transmitter and you’re set.
Now there are a couple of caveats to this system:
- It’s not frequency stealthy. You have to set the frequency with DIP switches. That’s not necessarily a deal-breaker if you run into interference.
- With only 16 channels, it might be an issue to use this unit where there are a lot of other wireless mics or instruments being used. However, if those are frequency stealthy, then it shouldn’t be too much of an issue.
Here are the features from the Nady web site:
- Miniature, lightweight transmitter plugs directly into guitar, bass (even portable keyboard) output jack. No cord connection needed.
- 16 user-selectable UHF frequencies for interference-free operation
- Unprecedented wireless portability with single AA battery-powered receiver
- ¼” plug for connecting receiver directly into amp
- ASC™ (Auto-Sync Channel) infrared wireless download pairs transmitter to selected receiver frequency for quick, easy setup
- Up to 250 ft. operating range line-of-sight
- Transmitter powered by single AAA battery
Guitar Gear 