Madonna Performs At Super Bowl XLVI

The commercials were pretty lame on the way to halftime and the first half of the  game was less than inspirational. It was up to Madonna to blow the roof off of Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis with her live performance. The vital statistics for the halftime show are 8 minutes to set the show up, 12 minutes to blow the world’s minds and 7 minutes to take the show down. Madonna was quoted as saying “That’s a lot of pressure.” So how did the 53-year old Queen Of Pop do in her Super Bowl halftime performance?

In recent years the NFL has stuck with the more seasoned performers for their Super Bowl halftime shows. Ever since the infamous Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” which gave the world an eyeful of a healthy breast the NFL has played it pretty safe. Madonna was admittedly a bit riskier performer than Paul McCartney, Prince or even the Black-Eyed Peas as she has been known to stir up controversy in the past.  

Madonna took the field on a golden chair pulled by a couple dozen young gladiator types. She kicked off her show with an excellent rendition of her hit “Vogue”. The stage was an amazing display of lights and video screens.

The song segued perfectly into Madonna’s song “Music”. The dancers were amazing on this number with one of the guys doing some weird trick with his leg that was pretty eye-popping. Another acrobat bounced on a tight wire and it was really a nice effect. The dancers were really great on this number. The song also featured LMFAO integrating their huge hits “Party Rock Anthem” and “Sexy And I Know It” with Madonna’s music.

This was followed by “Give Me All Your Luvin’” which featured Nicki Minaj and M.I.A.. They did a really nice job singing together and the performance was flawless. Suspiciously flawless actually. But the dancing again was really cool. Madonna proved that even at age 53 a girl isn’t too old to pick up the pom-poms and shake them at the Super Bowl. If there was a controversial moment it happened at the end of this performance with M.I.A. flipping a middle finger at the camera. Nothing says “hot” like a bird-flipping pop starlet!

Then drum major Cee Lo Green led his marching band onto the field to perform “Express Yourself” and “Open Your Heart” with Madonna. The band was really rocking with their marching and drum corps accompaniment.

The song segued into “Like A Prayer” which once again featured Cee Lo Green. The song also featured a full choir backing Madonna up on this song. The stage show wasn’t quite as elaborate on this song but that’s okay because it was all about Madonna. Madonna finished this song by stepping onto a platform and disappearing into a cloud of fog. The show closed with the words “World Peace” displayed on the video stage.

I think the show was a huge success for Madonna. Things went flawlessly with only a small stumble by Madonna during her first song. She easily recovered and gave a perfect show. Was she singing live? It didn’t look like it to me. The performance looked lip-synched and the music was pre-recorded. Madonna looked fabulous though and she made several flawless wardrobe changes. The show was mixed very well and it was very visually entertaining.

There were no surprises, no shocking wardrobe malfunctions or even any really controversial moments during the show. It was rock solid entertainment and a good tribute to Madonna’s professionalism. I enjoyed the show although I can’t say it inspired me and it didn’t really blow the roof off of Lucas Oil Stadium. If you missed Madonna’s performance during the Super Bowl, watch it on YouTube. It will feel just as live as if you did see it during the game. Madonna was live at the Super Bowl even if her singing wasn’t.

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Madonna Super Bowl XLVI Halftime Show Review

Snark SN-2 Chromatic Clip-On Tuner

I’m always looking for good pieces of music equipment that will make my life easier playing in my live band. I’ve never been a fan of having to plug a tuner into my signal chain with my guitar. I also get tired of unplugging my guitar and then plugging it into a tuner over and over through a gig. Enter the Snark SN-2 digital clip-on tuner. This convenient tuner solves both of these problems easily.

The Snark SN-2 tuner clips directly onto your electric guitar or bass and senses the vibrations from the strings to give it an accurate reading of your instruments tuning. The Snark SN-2 will also clip onto any acoustic instrument including guitars, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, oboe or anything that vibrates. The Snark SN-2 also has a built-in microphone so you can tune keyboards with it as well. It’s a chromatic tuner with extended frequency range so it will read any note on the scale and tell you whether you are in tune or not.  

When using the vibration sensing feature of the Snark SN-2 it is very resistant to external noise. You can easily tune your instrument on a noisy stage. Another really nice feature on the SN-2 is the colorful, brightly lit LED readout. The display makes it very easy to see and read the tuning meter in any lighting condition.

I also love how the display is on a 360° swivel which allows you to point the display in any direction. This makes it very easy to clip the tuner onto any instrument or headstock and point the display in the best direction possible for easy viewing.

Another great feature of the Snark SN-2 is the built-in metronome. The metronome is a tap-tempo metronome which makes it easy to set it to a beat by tapping at the speed you desire. One flaw in this is that you can’t set it to an exact tempo very easily. You’re stuck tapping until you get it close to the tempo that you want.

Overall the Snark SN-2 chromatic tuner is an excellent and accurate tuner. I’ve been impressed with how well it tunes my guitar and I just love the convenience. I leave it clipped to the headstock most of the time while I play. It stays securely in place and is always at arms length ready to help me tune my instrument. It’s a great deal too so pick one up today!

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Snark SN-2 Clip On Tuner Review

Alisha Sabin - Young Rocker

   You know those times of your life where you feel complacent and bored? You don’t know why you keep going through the robotic motions of life each day. Maybe you do know why but you aren’t sure how you manage to keep doing it day after day. It can become quickly depressing and you start to lose motivation for other things that are important to you. Exercise, eating healthy and productivity become a thing of the past as you wallow in your oh so boring lifestyle. You need something to keep you going, a productive and healthy change.

   My change came via Facebook message and I couldn’t believe it when I read it. All of these years of singing in the hairbrush and I had been asked to sing a song at the next gig for the cover band Bonne Nuit. Excited and nervous would describe it best. It was Lady Antebellum’s Need You Now. I immediately downloaded it on iTunes and practiced my heart out. I practiced so much that my family can barely stand to hear it at all now. But there was one thing I couldn’t prepare myself for and had no idea how it would dramatically change my performing life forever: Singing live!

   I showed up for my first band practice pretty unsure of what to do. I think that may have been the first thing I said to the band, “I’ve never sung like this before, so I really have no idea what I am doing.” They were extremely patient and gracious to me. Nice as can be; and from the tone of the room I could tell they were all saying to me, “It’s easy…you just sing into the mic.”

   So I did.  I sang into that mic and for the first time heard my voice come through an amp shared by guitars and drums beats. It was thrilling, invigorating, exciting and sounded good! I remember a half smile forming on my face as I realized that the voice I was hearing was mine. It may be to date the single most satisfying feeling I have ever experienced in my life. So, it was a good first run through and I couldn’t wait to do it again.

   Matt tells me, “Let’s run through it again and this time we are going to turn it way up. You won’t be able to hear yourself sing and we don’t want you to get shocked when we perform live. It will actually be louder the night of, but this will give you a good idea of what it will sound like.” Seemed easy enough and sounded like a really good idea. So they turned it up and started playing. Immediately I felt every chord and beat penetrate through my body like a wave of continual electricity that moved from head to toes and back up again. So focused on this new addictive feeling I almost forget to start singing. I hear the sound of my voice again through the mic amplified by the PA system and just like he said, for the first time in my life I couldn’t hear the sound of my voice echo back in my own head. I could only hear it coming through the speakers. It was thrilling, invigorating, exciting, times 10 and sounded fantastic!

   There is no other way to describe what it is like now other than to say it is the most addictive activity I do in my spare time. I craved and hungered after it and every time I got the call for more I couldn’t wait to feed my newfound addiction. I wondered if that feeling would ever go away. The hairbrush never did, so I couldn’t see how this could dull itself. My entire singing career was about to peak and that first live performance was just around the corner.
..

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The Hairbrush Chronicles – Part 3 Getting A Chance With A Band

Alisha Sabin - Singer

   “Really?  You are going to make all of our customers listen to your band’s EP?”  That is the nice version on what I said to Quinn Allman.  We worked at a miniature golf course in our hometown of Pleasant Grove, Utah.  Quinn and I went to high school together and graduated from the same class.  I don’t remember much about him other than the fact that he skated around and didn’t talk to very many people.  Seemed like an outsider.  Now he is the guitarist of The Used.  During the time we worked together he and his live band were just getting started.  Their non-produced music sounded awful to me and I wondered how it would ever become popular.  It just goes to show what a live performance can do. The story as far as I know goes like this…John Feldmann of Goldfinger saw them perform, loved them and produced their first album.  From what I can recall the music he played at work sounded nothing like what they play now.  I like what they play now. 

   I reconnected with Quinn while his girlfriend and I worked together.  No, not the miniature golf course.  This time it was Media Play and it was over a year later.  He gave me a pretty cold-shouldered hello that I deserved after telling him several months before how much I didn’t like his band’s music.   A lot had changed since the mini golf job.  I went to college and struggled mentally and emotionally.  I practically failed out, moved back home and lost myself in rock & roll music.  I purchased and listened to any music I could get my hands on, old, new and unheard of.  I went to every local show that I could and went to my first Big Ass Show and Warped Tour. 

   I started to become that awkward person I always thought Quinn was and I realized how much he was an outsider in high school.  He never let himself conform or accept things in his life because others told him to.  He was Quinn and you accepted him or rejected him and whatever you chose didn’t affect him.  He was real.  Warped Tour is where I saw Quinn for the last time.  This time he didn’t give me the cold shoulder.  He saw that I had changed and I seemed a little more “real” to him.  Watching them perform really lit something in me.  I wanted to be on stage.  I wanted to perform like I had no other care in the world.  I wanted to be a rock & roll singer.  When I got home that night I picked up that hairbrush and got to work.

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The Hairbrush Chronicles – Part 2 Lighting The Fire

Alisha Sabin - Aspiring Rock Singer

   It was just me and my hairbrush, well, and my two sisters.  There I was standing on the bed, hairbrush in hand ready to sing-off to know which sister was the best.  We would compete regularly and usually we would sing the latest Disney movie hit.  This time it was “Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid.  I always knew I was the best but my older sister was, of course, always right and claimed she won each and every time.  I didn’t let that stop me.  I knew that if I kept up my singing into the hairbrush that I would eventually get my chance to sing on a live stage.   The hairbrush singing continued through my teens, young adulthood and even today.  As a matter of fact, I’ll sing into anything that can give me the feeling of actually singing into a microphone.  A toothpaste tube, cell phone or curling irons work too, you know, before they are plugged in and hot.  

   There comes a time when you realize all that singing into the fake microphone just isn’t fulfilling anymore.  You need the real deal.  In my early twenties I watched many live performances and really focused on the singer; their movements, mannerisms and quirks.  Some singers leave you mesmerized by their pure conviction for what they are doing.  I would go home and try to emulate what I had seen and heard.  But when it came down to it there was always a void.  I didn’t have the monitors, guitars, drum beats and PA system penetrating through every fiber of my being like those performers I idolized so much.  That is when I knew one day; I would need to start singing with a live band.

   How was I going to do that?  How in the world would I make that happen?  I had no idea.  I had so many friends who would make that dream come true for themselves.  Most of them, however, had other talents than singing.  As a matter of fact singing wasn’t their first talent.  They could play guitar or piano, write music and would then add singing to their repertoire.   I was just a singer and singing with a live band was one thing I had never done, not even close.  My whole life I have sung in choirs, starting within my own family.  In high school I sang soprano for two choirs and the same goes for my church.

   After starting a family I guess I accepted that choirs would be my singing life and my dream to perform on a live stage had dwindled.   Although I had mostly accepted that I wouldn’t be singing live I still sang my heart out into that hairbrush and I never let that dream completely fade away.  I guess that was a good thing, because it wasn’t too much longer that I received a call from a live band asking me if I would like to sing with them at their next gig.  That’s when the hairbrush became obsolete and my dream to sing live rekindled.   This was it; this was the opportunity I had been waiting for.  All I had to do was not screw it up.  Hopefully all of that singing into the hairbrush was practice enough to prepare me for that first live performance.

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The Hairbrush Chronicles – Part 1 The Dream Of Playing In A Live Band

Alisha Sabin

   Hi all of you live musician’s out there on the world wide web. I’m very excited today to introduce a new author on Live Musician Central. Alisha Sabin will be writing a series of articles chronicling her experience playing in a live band. Alisha has been singing in her very first live rock band and it just happens to be my band Bonne Nuit. So be sure to watch Live Musician Central to read about Alisha’s fascinating journey taking her from singing into her hairbrush in front of her bedroom mirror to taking the stage for a live performance with a real rock band.

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Introducing Alisha Sabin

Dave Grohl Playing Lucite Dan Armstrong Ampeg Guitar

   I was seventeen years old when I bought my first two Foo Fighters albums. Their debut self titled album and their second, “The Colour and the Shape”. I listened to it locked in my bedroom so my parents wouldn’t hear as they thought I was headed the wrong direction by listening to what they considered to be loud and unorganized rock music. Yet it seems over the last thirteen years the Foo Fighters have been the most consistent for me, never letting me down with what they have to offer. That is why on October 11, 2011, I was not going to miss seeing them at the Maverick Center in West Valley City, Utah.  

   It was ten years ago when I first saw them live on the main stage during the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. My greatest memory of that night, besides the freezing cold was Dave’s clear guitar; a Lucite Dan Armstrong Ampeg. I thought at the time I couldn’t love the Foo Fighters more than I already did, but I was wrong. The most recent show at the Maverick Center flooded my brain with memories of why I have never stopped listening to one of the last great, raw, natural rock bands in history. Dave Grohl as a front man is his true calling in life. He plays guitar with pure heart. He sings with full conviction. It amazes me that he can sing the way he does for two and a half hours. So many full and good classic Dave Grohl screams. He has a raw love for what he is doing that draws you so far in you almost forget that there are hundreds of screaming people around you. Let alone what the guitars themselves do for your senses.

   Dave had around 6 guitars changes as well as all of the other members of the band. The Foo Fighters are crowd pleasers playing their old and new melodies mixed well throughout the night keeping you on your toes. You keep hoping their next song is one you can cross off your list of favorites, which is exactly what they did for me. Dave also pleases all who attend by having a really long extension of the main stage so he can walk down through the crowd. It didn’t matter where your seat was, at some point you would always have a good close up of Dave. He doesn’t interact too much with the rest of the band except for when Taylor Hawkins sings “Cold Day In The Sun”. They show everyone how their long friendship stays in tact as Dave teases Taylor by singing harmony into Taylor’s mic instead of his own. Mid-way through Dave takes on Chris Shiflett for a guitar solo war in which the crowd equally cheers for both band members.

   But Dave wants the world to know it’s not just about Dave as he takes time to fully introduce the band and give them their props. Even the keyboardist who only plays on four songs. The band as a whole is so engaging that you forget about the technical glitches; like the vocals not being loud enough on some songs and one of the TV monitors turning on and off throughout the night. Dave points out that if you want to be a true rock and roller, all you need is a guitar. He proves this by starting their encore with just his acoustic. They finish the show with Dave bringing out his memorable Lucite Dan Armstrong Ampeg, (he saves the best for last.) As the last few chords of “Everlong” are played, you feel the conclusion of an amazing night of memorable music.

   Highlights of the night were “My Hero”, “Learn To Fly”, “Walk”, “Monkey Wrench”, “All My Life”, “Everlong” and the acoustic “Times Like These”. The entire set list, (at least to the best of my knowledge), is below. Truly one of the greatest highlights of the night was before The Foo Fighters even began playing. Cage The Elephant’s drummer had emergency surgery due to his appendix bursting and who better than Dave Grohl to fill in on their last 5 songs. No one plays drums quite like Dave. Salt Lake City really did get a special showing unlike any other. The band is touring to promote their lastest album “Wasting Light”. The album offers classic Foo guitars and drums with a solid, matured and well mixed sound. Dave also promised they would record another album and come back out on tour. If you missed this time around, be sure that you don’t miss the next because it was one true rockin’ night to remember!

Bridges Burning
Rope
The Pretender
My Hero
Learn to Fly
White Limo
Arlandia
Breakout
Cold Day in the Sun
Stacked Actors
Walk
Monkey Wrench
Let It Die
These Days
Skin and Bones
This Is a Call
In the Flesh?
All My Life

Encore:
Long Road to Ruin
Best of You
Times Like These
Dear Rosemary
Breakdown
Everlong

In Store Vintage VINTAGE DAN ARMSTRONG PLEXI GUITAR WC StandardVINTAGE DAN ARMSTRONG PLEXI GUITAR WC

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Foo Fighters Concert Review Salt Lake City – October 11, 2011

Alice Cooper - Welcome 2 My Nightmare

   I’ve been an Alice Cooper fan since I was five years old and my older brother played me School’s Out. I used to beg him to play that song over and over again. Alice Cooper has been a huge influence on my stage shows with my live band as well. So I’ve got all of Alice Cooper’s albums and he’s had some great ones as well as some not-so-great ones. Alice was due for a great album and I really feel like he’s delivered a great album with his new release titled Welcome 2 My Nightmare.  

   What makes a great Alice Cooper album? His best albums all have a theme such as Billion Dollar Babies, Killer or School’s Out. His best albums are full of cutting edge, excellent guitar playing along with a super tight band. His best albums are filled with a variety of musical styles instead of just pounding rock from start to finish. Welcome 2 My Nightmare has every one of these qualities in high doses.

   Alice has teamed once again with legendary producer Bob Ezrin on Welcome 2 My Nightmare. Bob produced the best of the best Alice Cooper albums including Billion Dollar Babies, Killer and the original Welcome To My Nightmare. Bob brings that classic feel to Welcome 2 My Nightmare as he is credited as co-writer on every track except “Something To Remember Me By”. Having Bob so involved gives the album that classic Alice Cooper sound and feel.  Bob’s style has also improved with age so Welcome 2 My Nightmare sounds modern, full and punchy at the same time.

   Another great bonus on this album is the return of the living members of the original Alice Cooper Band; Drummer – Neil Smith, Bassist – Dennis Dunaway and guitarist/keyboardist – Michael Bruce. It’s such a sweet sound to hear the original band that started Alice Cooper not only playing together but co-writing the songs together as well. Let’s be honest, that original band put out the best albums in terms of originality. Smith, Dunaway and Bruce play on the songs “A Runaway Train“, “I’ll Bite Your Face Off” and “When Hell Comes Home”. Also writing and playing on this album is Alice Cooper’s guitarist from his early solo years, Dick Wagner.

   Welcome 2 My Nightmare is a sequel to the 1975 Welcome To My Nightmare album which was also Alice Cooper’s first solo album. Welcome 2 My Nightmare follows a theme of a young man afraid to fall asleep where he will slip into a nightmare. As the album progresses there are hints that the lead character on the album is Steven. Each song on the album represents a facet of the man’s nightmare. Another thing I love about this album that hearkens back to Alice’s greatest albums is the diverse musical stylings. The songs run the gamut from modern heavy metal to classic hard rock to rockabilly to disco and vaudeville. Each musical style is chosen to support the lyrics of the songs building the tapestry of the nightmare. The album at first can seem disjointed but upon repeat listenings a flow becomes apparent and it really recaptures the feel of the album Billion Dollar Babies.

   There are tributes to the original Welcome To My Nightmare all over Welcome 2 My Nightmare. For instance, the beautiful ballad “Something To Remember Me By” is the parallel to “Cold Ethyl” in that it features Alice singing to a piece of a corpse. Standard fare for Alice Cooper to take something beautiful and twist it ever so much. But that’s why Alice Cooper fans love Alice Cooper! Another very obvious and fun tribute is the final song “The Underture” which features pieces of songs from the original Welcome To My Nightmare album as well as songs from Welcome 2 My Nightmare. Not only that but “The Underture” features bits of songs from other Alice Cooper songs as well.

   I am very impressed and happy with Welcome 2 My Nightmare. I really feel like it’s the best Alice Cooper album since the 1991 album “Hey Stoopid“. It has everything you love about the best Alice Cooper albums which is sure to please old fans and new fans alike. I’m sure it will translate beautifully to a live show with each song lending itself to an onstage mini-opera which is where Alice Cooper really excels. I highly recommend adding Welcome 2 My Nightmare to your music collection.

   Here is a video that Alice Cooper posted up where he speaks about each track on the album and how it fits within the album sequence. There are some nice insights about each one of the songs and you can click on each song title to hear about that track.

Alice Cooper Explains Welcome 2 My Nightmare

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Alice Cooper – Welcome 2 My Nightmare Album Review

Death Cab For Cutie at Maverick Center, August 22, 2011

   One of my favorite live bands is Death Cab For Cutie who came to play in Salt Lake City, Utah at the Maverick Center on August 22, 2011. I’m a big fan of Death Cab’s albums and Ben Gibbard’s excellent songwriting. Their albums are always a nice mix of good rock songs mixed with some mellow, dreamlike music. The albums are always very well produced so it’s very interesting to see how their songs translate live. Can Death Cab For Cutie bring it for a live show?  

   I have to say that Death Cab For Cutie is one of the best bands I’ve heard play live. What you hear on the albums is what you get at the shows but better. That’s rare for bands that sound so good on their recordings. Death Cab For Cutie recreates all the sounds you hear on the albums with the added bonus of bringing a higher energy to the music when they play it live. They pick up the tempos on some of the songs and Gibbard delivers the lyrics with more urgency in the live setting. It gives the songs a punch that isn’t as present on their albums and that’s one of the things that makes their live shows so enjoyable.

   Another thing that I love about Death Cab For Cutie live is their sound. They use excellent equipment live including Dr. Z amplifiers, Fender amplifiers and a mix of Fender, Vox and Gibson guitars. They also use a variety of vintage electric pianos and keyboards live which give a full, rich sound to their show. The mix always seems to be well balanced and clean whenever I see a Death Cab For Cutie show. The acoustics at the Maverick Center aren’t the best and Death Cab’s sound was a little more brittle than I’ve heard from them in the past but that’s because of the room. If you want to hear good sounding equipment, listen to Death Cab For Cutie live.

   The band was in good form and brought a lot of energy to the stage in Salt Lake City. The crowd was smaller than I’ve seen at other Death Cab For Cutie shows in Salt Lake City. The crowd may have seemed smaller because the Maverick Center is the biggest arena they’ve played in Salt Lake City.  Still, it was only about half full and I’m estimating the crowd to be around 5000 people. Ben Gibbard told the crowd how much he loved playing in Salt Lake City. The crowd that was there gave the band a lot of love and got moving pretty well. I felt like the crowd was more involved with the music and the message of the lyrics than they were with dancing. Still, there were times when everyone in the arena was on their feet and dancing to the music.

   Highlights of the night were fan favorites such as “I Will Posess Your Heart” which kicked off the show. Other songs that brought the crowd to their feet were “Soul Meets Body” as well as “The New Year“. The New Year is one of my personal favorites and is the song which turned me onto Death Cab For Cutie. Their live version of it is amazingly similar to the album yet somehow deeper sounding. The band finished their main set with “We Looked Like Giants”.

   The band is touring in support of their new album Codes and Keys which presents the band in a more experimental frame than on some of the past albums. Still, Codes and Keys has some great rock music that translates well in the live setting. The band played “You Are A Tourist” and “Doors Unlocked and Open” among others from the Codes and Keys album.

   When the band played “We Looked Like Giants” guitarist Chris Walla played bass while bassist Nick Hammer played guitar and keyboards. It was really cool to watch the musicians switch things up and play various instruments. Ben Gibbard even played his own drumset along with drummer Jason McGeer. It was really cool hearing two drumsets rocking out to such a heavy beat.

   The band came back onstage and played a nice set of encores which included the songs “Pictures In An Exhibition”, “Stay Young Go Dancing” and the excellent song “Transatlanticism“. It was a rock solid finish to an excellent night of music. I really enjoyed Death Cab For Cutie this night and I look forward to seeing them play live again. If you have a chance to see Death Cab For Cutie play a live show, don’t miss it!

Death Cab For Cutie – Salt Lake City Set List August 22, 2011

• I Will Possess Your Heart
• Crooked Teeth
• Why You’d Want To Live Here
• Photobooth
• Doors Unlocked and Open
• Long Division
• Grapevine Fires
• Codes and keys
• Summer Skin
• Follow You Into The Dark
• 405
• You Are A Tourist
• The New Year
• Movie Script Ending
• Underneath The Sycamores
• Soul Meets Body
• Expo 86
• Cath
• We Looked Like Giants
• Sound Of Settling

• *encore*
• Title Track
• Pictures In An Exhibition
• Stay Young Go Dancing
• Transatlanticism

Death Cab For Cutie Live In Salt Lake City Playing “I Will Posess Your Heart”

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Death Cab For Cutie Concert Review: Salt Lake City August 22, 2011

Line 6 X2 XDS95 Wireless Guitar System

   I’ve recently been playing in a live band with my Son’s called Bonne Nuit and they were quite envious of my Shure wireless guitar system. I decided to get them their own wireless guitar systems and decided on the Line 6 X2 XDS95 Wireless Guitar System. I got two XDS95′s, one for my bass player and one for my rhythm guitar player. My choice was based mainly on the low price and the fact that this is a full digital wireless guitar system. I have been extremely pleased with this wireless guitar system in terms of reliability and especially in terms of sound quality. It’s one purchase I have never regretted. The following review was written by my son Erik Rushton.  

   “I own a lot of Line 6 gear and have always been amazed by how well it works and sounds. Especially for what I paid for it. The X2 XDS95 digital wireless receiver is no exception to my past experiences with Line 6 equipment.

    On the box of the X2 XDS95, Line 6 states “Wired tone. Wireless freedom.” I practice wired and when I switch to my X2 XDS95 either on stage or in practice, I can tell no difference in sound quality. The X2 XDS95 is a digital 24 bit system which really makes your tone sound a lot better than analog systems. Plus, the digital signal gives you a great wireless freedom. When I first bought my receiver I wanted to test it’s range out. I got about 50 feet and two brick walls between my transmitter and receiver before my sound cut out. On stage I have never had a problem with my signal dropping out.

    Another great thing about having a digital signal over an analog one is there is no loss of sound quality as you get farther away from your receiver. If you happen to get out of range, your sound will just abruptly stop rather than changing to static or distorting. Also, if you run out of battery power your sound will just cut off without any noticeable noise.

   The X2 XDS95 has five different channels to choose from which makes it so five people can be using their own X2 XDS95 at the same time. So when you’re bass player sees how awesome your wireless is, you can tell him to get one too!

   One complaint with the X2 XDS95 is it’s actual battery life. Line 6 claims that the transmitter will operate for 11 hours and the receiver for 8 hours each on just a single 9V battery. In actuality I usually get around 6 hours on the transmitter and 5-6 on the receiver. Luckily, you can operate the receiver  on a standard 9V power adapter. I recommend forking out the extra cash to just get the power adapter. It makes playing that much easier and enjoyable. 

    Another problem I have with the X2 XDS95 is the cable that is provided for the guitar to transmitter connection. It plugs into the guitar with a ¼” plug but plugs into the transmitter with a 1/8” plug. Cables like that are hard to find if you need a replacement and the generally don’t come cheap. I have had no problems with mine so far but I do recommend being extra careful with it.

    What really amazed me about this wireless system, and pretty much all Line 6 gear, is how relatively cheap it was. Great digital wireless receivers from a top of the line company like Shure can cost anywhere from $400 – $600 dollars.  Guitar Center lists the X2 XDS95 at $299.  That pricing difference keeps me coming back to Line 6 over and over again 

   I recommend the Line 6 X2 XDS95 wireless receiver for all musicians wanting wireless freedom for a cheap price. Once you go wireless on stage you’ll never want to go back to wired. And for all the musicians running analog wireless systems, once you go digital you’ll never want to go back.”

   The Line 6 X2 XDS95 is getting harder to find online. The best alternative the X2 XDS95 is the Line 6 Relay G30 Digital Wireless Guitar System. I’m sure you’ll be very happy with either system.

Line 6 X2 XDS-95 24-BIT WIRELESS INSTRUMENT SYSTEM StandardWired tone, wireless freedom, stompbox size.

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Line 6 X2 XDS95 Wireless Guitar System Review