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[Montez Carter]

     I have been having some trouble on a certain genre of shows that I have been doing lately. The wireless handhelds are getting broken. They are the Line 6 VD-75 capsules and the battery cap is getting twisted and tearing the electronic guts out of the mics. This is mainly happening on rap shows. As a matter of fact I have had this happen to 3 in the last 2 months. I like using the Line 6's on these shows as they are not super expensive but It is still cutting into my bottom line replacing them.

    The new ones I ordered came in the other day and the battery cap seems to be made of heavier plastic than my original ones to avoid the cap from cracking from overtigtening and twisting the guts.Also this year I had a Shure UHF-R KSM9 Handheld walk away on one of these shows and it was only used that day because of a rider request.

  My next action is to start maybe hitting the promotors for a 1000 dollar wireless deposit or they can just run around with wired 58's. Are any of you guys who service this genre doing anything similar to this or any suggestions on this situation?

[Ray Aberle]

I would collect a deposit if you think there will be a problem getting the promoter to pay for damages. Otherwise, invoice them for lost/damaged goods. "You broke it, you bought it" can also be your mantra- why bother getting something repaired, having it out of service, and now you're using damaged-then-repaired gear, and it's their fault.

tl;dr: Your bottom line shouldn't be affected by these "Artists" being rough on your gear. The promoter should be making you whole, which will eventually come back to the artist anyways.

Or require them to purchase their own wireless system for use on their shows.

[Steve Loewenthal]

Just a thought, assuming you are there at the shows and are the one replacing the batteries:
Put a piece of tape around the mic where the battery cap meets the mic body.
Use painters tape so it is easy to remove.

[jim whitmer]

    The wireless handhelds are getting broken. They are the Line 6 VD-75 capsules and the battery cap is getting twisted and tearing the electronic guts out of the mics.

If you are the original owner, contact Line 6. They will take care of you on the older style units.

The newer battery cap is a new material, and I'm told the way "the guts" are secured on the latest generation is slightly different. Hopefully that is true as that is my only issue with these. But it is a BIG issue. Just replacing the cap to a newer style will not cure your problem. I actually prefer the older cap as they give/crack before anyone can twist the internal piece off.

If these don't hold up, it's back to Sennheiser. That would be a shame as I MUCH prefer the sound of the Line 6.

[Montez Carter]

I would collect a deposit if you think there will be a problem getting the promoter to pay for damages. Otherwise, invoice them for lost/damaged goods. "You broke it, you bought it" can also be your mantra- why bother getting something repaired, having it out of service, and now you're using damaged-then-repaired gear, and it's their fault.

tl;dr: Your bottom line shouldn't be affected by these "Artists" being rough on your gear. The promoter should be making you whole, which will eventually come back to the artist anyways.

Or require them to purchase their own wireless system for use on their shows.

This is where the problem lies one promoter paid for the capsules but the other two were broken on the same show and I am having trouble collecting from the promoter. I did not have that line in my contract but I do now. I just thought it would be easier to have a deposit just in case of the abuse. The newer ones ARE made of the thicker material so I will see how they hold up. This is not an issue on most of my gigs just those instances. Hell I even had to put a cleaning fee and non liability clause in my contract for the champagne that is spilled on the subs as they are mostly center clustered and mostly turn into stage extensions.

[Ray Aberle]

This is where the problem lies one promoter paid for the capsules but the other two were broken on the same show and I am having trouble collecting from the promoter. I did not have that line in my contract but I do now. I just thought it would be easier to have a deposit just in case of the abuse. The newer ones ARE made of the thicker material so I will see how they hold up. This is not an issue on most of my gigs just those instances. Hell I even had to put a cleaning fee and non liability clause in my contract for the champagne that is spilled on the subs as they are mostly center clustered and mostly turn into stage extensions.

If you are working with the promoter again, it's pretty easy to let them know that this invoice needs to be settled before your next show. Will they pay? Who knows, and you have to be willing to lose the client if they don't pay-- but at the same time, their rep of breaking gear and not taking responsibility for it *will* get around to other providers in the area.

[Luke Robinson]

I used to sing the praises of the line 6 mics, I do love the way that they sound, but I had the very same thing happen to me no less than 7 times. I bought the replacement parts from line 6 and fixed the mics myself I just used up may last battery holder.about a month back. it takes about 10 minutes to replace, and its about $20 worth of parts but if they just made the battery holder (the part that holds the battery not the cap) out of metal like they do the rest of the entire microphone they might be perfect.....

I just started buying the new Shure QLX-D and they are EXCELLENT!

Might be selling some line 6 soon.

[Nils Erickson]

I have had this happen in my band with one microphone, after close to a year of heavy use.  It was fixed by Line 6.  We use four handheld, 4 horn mics (with Shure elements on body packs), and two guitar wireless.  All in all we did 70 shows on them last year and I found them to be very good sounding.  While it was being repaired, I bought a spare handheld which will now serve as back up.
I have replaced about 6-8 of the screw on caps and a couple of grills as well.
I am pleased to hear about the replacement parts for the battery holder, I'll look into this.  Thanks for that!

Cheers,
Nils

[Montez Carter]

I used to sing the praises of the line 6 mics, I do love the way that they sound, but I had the very same thing happen to me no less than 7 times. I bought the replacement parts from line 6 and fixed the mics myself I just used up may last battery holder.about a month back. it takes about 10 minutes to replace, and its about $20 worth of parts but if they just made the battery holder (the part that holds the battery not the cap) out of metal like they do the rest of the entire microphone they might be perfect.....

I just started buying the new Shure QLX-D and they are EXCELLENT!

Might be selling some line 6 soon.

That is good to know about the replacement parts as I did not even try to contact them about it I just purchased new handhelds. I have not used the QLX-D yet but when I use the VD-75 on the standard Line 6 model  every engineer prefers the sibilance of the Line 6 over Shure SLX and below.

[Ray Aberle]

*snip* every engineer prefers the sibilance of the Line 6 over Shure SLX and below.

QLX-D is definitely a step up from SLX/ULXS/P. Of course, the cost reflects that as well!

-Ray

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