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  1. frank falbo

    Pickups don't matter?

    It’s no different than saying “all cars get you where you’re going” and that faster cars don’t really get you to your destination any faster, because traffic patterns are the main determiner of travel times. It completely ignores the user experience.
  2. frank falbo

    Fishman pickups, why so much hatred now?

    You can. I have unique experiences and data that spans new product releases, legacy product lifecycles and trendy product hype arcs, and no reason to be disingenuous.
  3. frank falbo

    Fishman pickups, why so much hatred now?

    As you might surmise, I’ve been in the pickups R&D and product development game for a long time. And I have a lot of data that isn’t just the thread counts in which someone says they tried (usually the moderns) and hated them. It’s normal, healthy, and it relates to their actual popularity...
  4. frank falbo

    How do I get Coil Tap from Fishman Fluence Moderns?

    Solder a wire to the CT solder pad. Then, in the control cavity you can switch that to ground, which gives you one coil, or switch it to a wire soldered to the H pad if you want the other coil.
  5. frank falbo

    The Duncan JB and it's clones

    I can’t tell whether you’re disagreeing or not so let me clarify. When we’re talking about JB’s and other brands that are making their version of something JB-ish, to me that means pole piece construction with a standard sized A5 magnet (unless they’re deliberately pitching it as a magnet...
  6. frank falbo

    The Duncan JB and it's clones

    The Abasi V2 is not JB-based. It began in a mid-output passive space, before refinement. As others mentioned, it’s the Classic V2 that goes head to head with my 1970s holy grail double cream butyrate JB. And of course has the Fluence attributes like better phase alignment and clarity. People...
  7. frank falbo

    URGENTLY NEED HELP - re Fishman Fluence pickups...

    FYI not sure if you got this sorted yet but yes, you can drop the bridge single into any position and make it work. If someone were buying pickups new for a project like this, the SSP is like the drone that has no preamp, and the SSA is the pickup with the preamp. However, it’s a slightly...
  8. frank falbo

    Blind Fret slots

    It is. It’s the reason we need to monitor the climate and moisture content of each piece when joining, but there’s a lot of forgiveness because both pieces are wood, so they’re both going to swell, the join will dry, then they’ll shrink. With frets, the metal isn’t expanding. Only the wood swells.
  9. frank falbo

    Blind Fret slots

    My only apprehension to wood glue is that it introduces moisture, which swells the wood. Then, the glue dries while the wood is still swollen with the excess moisture, and then over some vague period of time the wood equalizes. But of course plenty of people use it successfully.
  10. frank falbo

    Blind Fret slots

    Worth noting that if it’s a multiscale, then the amount you leave between the edge of the board and the slot will actually leave more or less fret crown material based on the angle of the fret. For me, I leave .100” but I draw my fret slots as engravings that follow the fingerboard radius...
  11. frank falbo

    Aluminum or steel 8-string fixed bridge with through body stringing

    In individual string bridges I found brass, solid contact, and increased mass per bridge to be a tonal improvement. The rules for individual bridges are different than block bridges. So my monorails are milled brass, but then I have a baseplate version that uses the same brass saddles but brings...
  12. frank falbo

    Alternating between a 6 string and an 8 string

    I like playing 7’s, but if I’m going to switch between them live, like between songs, I actually prefer to switch between 6 & 8 because they feel deliberately different. Switching between 6 & 7 is a smaller difference, and it can mess with my head a little differently.
  13. frank falbo

    Fishman Fluence Moderns excessive feedback

    Well they don’t have coil windings to be able to even feed back at all like a regular wire wound pickup. So what’s more likely is they’re vibrating in the mount of the guitar. Is it a very high pitched squeal? Or a midrange howl?
  14. frank falbo

    NGD: Falbo 9 string - curved fret edition!

    @Thaeon I always try to credit Daniel/Oni with the e-scale when discussing the design, he and I had several discussions when I started. It's difficult to get patent protection on nuanced IP like this, so all we can do is stick together and give credit where due. The difference here is rather...
  15. frank falbo

    Falbo 9 string build

    For upper fret access, yes getting your hand up there is easy, you can play the highest fret without effort. But if you’re asking what it’s like to play the curved frets up on the higher notes, that’s exactly why I did the top 3 strings all as 25.5” scale and only started to expand the frets...
  16. frank falbo

    Split pickup outputs: on a nylon string?

    He says it’s for a nylon string. ;)
  17. frank falbo

    Split pickup outputs: on a nylon string?

    It’s fine. Crosstalk is minimal if you split the saddle. When Yamaha and Ovation did the 1/3/5 & 2/4/6 splits on their piezos they just used some silicone dampening between each individual saddle and it was pretty good. But if the saddle is a different piece it’ll be fine.
  18. frank falbo

    Falbo 9 string build

    Each thing is its own variable. A larger diameter pole piece is producing a wider field and therefore listening to a longer length of the string. That's a harmonic content issue. (Thicker tone from treble strings, crisper tone from bass strings) Proximity to the string is a different thing...
  19. frank falbo

    Falbo 9 string build

    Maybe he meant bobbin tops? The tops are made from figured Walnut, lighter in color than the body for some contrast. The poles are Alnico V. The Limba in that photo is just a stick to hold the pickups while painting the gloss poly protective coat.
  20. frank falbo

    Falbo 9 string build

    Right the larger poles are the plain treble strings, but what is harder to see is the middle 3 poles are also a little larger than the bottom 3. I’ve made strat pickups this way and played around with varied aperture for quite awhile, since before Duncan actually. Also since the bridge...
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