A band called The Eagles of Death Metal performed a song on David Letterman’s show tonight. They were set up on the sidewalk outside the Ed Sullivan theater and appeared to be performing live. The drums were miked. They sang into microphones. They played electric guitars and electric bass. There were no cords coming from the instruments or mikes. There were no amplifiers. Also, curiously, there were no visible barricades around them, but that’s not the question. Is it possible that the guitars, bass and microphones were are “radio controlled”? Without amps or speakers, where was the music coming from?
Yes, there are compact wireless transmitters, like the ones people wear on their backs on talk shows. Some people run their bass signal direct to the mixing board without an amplifier or speakers, and prefer it that way.
With guitar, though, the amp and speaker are almost always a part of the sound. Distorted guitar sounds harsh if it’s not put through a guitar speaker. They’d probably have a mic’d amp somewhere else, or maybe a digital amplifier simulator.