The Fishman Fluence Thread

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

weren't Javier's and Tosin's engineered with focus on good clean tones rather than high gain tones?

Javier's set gives me that impression, while Tosin's seems perfectly fine for metal rhythm.
EDIT: not to say the Javier's cant, but Voice 1 of the Tosins definitely sound like they were meant for tight chuggachugga rhythm while Javier's set seems overall lower output and less compressed, even darker sounding in some settings.

 

[metaljohn]

A long time ago, Fishman put out their isolated sound bank. I was able to download it. For some reason it disappeared from the internet and I couldnt find it from searching. I put everything from the sound bank into one video. Its organized by pickup and voice.

Sounds like the Townsends and the Adlers are the best to me out of the lineup. Already have the Townsends in one guitar, just need to find the right one(aesthetically) to throw the Adler set into

 

[soldierkahn]

I'm not completely sure, the demos on the fishman channel show a lot of high gain stuff but it's not really chuggy type shit that everyone uses fluences for.

I'm hopefully gonna do a big writeup when I've got a moment with some clips but it's not like they're engineered solely for cleans, they sound batshit insane with gain and boosts piled on top of them. They just aren't voiced like a typical high gain pickup. I think the reason most metal players don't like them is because they're pretty smooth and kind of ridiculously dynamic.

It's pretty much the opposite of an EMG 81, which has this razor sharp cutting high end and great compression that means they're about the most punchy thing in existence. Voice 1 definitely feels a little woofy and relaxed in comparison but even compared to the Bare Knuckle Nailbomb I have in my other guitar it's super clear, very tight still, and sits very well in a mix.

Voice 2 kinda adds some more compression and high mids but really not a lot, it's more of a feel change than a total EQ shift and it's a little bit subtle but definitely good to have. I will say these things kill for lead lines and multi string chords. Not flubby at all, just not the mega tight icepicky high output thing the moderns do in the wrong guitar.

Sorry that ended up being long but like they get heavy as shit and are 100% meant for high gain, just not what's trending right now.

no dont be sorry, i was hoping to get a lot of deep information and every little bit helps! Also helps me make sure that Im not misunderstanding what the pickups excel in

 

[soldierkahn]

Sounds like the Townsends and the Adlers are the best to me out of the lineup. Already have the Townsends in one guitar, just need to find the right one(aesthetically) to throw the Adler set into

theyd look good in a JBM100

 

[metaljohn]

theyd look good in a JBM100

Yeah nah I was thinking something like an Edwards or Greco LPC in black or tobacco sunburst

 

[Chri]

Annoying question incoming:

I have a Schecter KM7 MkIII Artist with the Merrow set, and I’m finding that while the bridge pickup is cool, I’m not too into it for the long haul. It’s overall just too “Fishman-y” for me.

So I want to replace it, but the problem is that I LOVE the neck pickup. I’ve never gotten lead and split coil clean tones as nice as I have with this bad boy.

For you Fishman experts; is there a bridge pickup in their 7 string lineup that is similar to the Duncan Distortion or Black Winter in terms of output and EQ voicing? I would think the classics, but I’ve never used them and don’t want the tone to be similar to the PAF setting on the Merrow.

Obviously the easier option would be to just slap the pickup I know I want in there, but then I’d have to replace the neck pickup, which leads me to question two:

What passive neck pickup is closest to the Merrow neck? My understanding is that it’s a slightly tweaked classic. It’s been forever since I’ve used anything aside from a D Activator, BW, Sentient (not a big fan) or stock neck pickup so I’m out of touch.

TLDR stuff is in bold.

 

[Ralyks]

So it's become my understanding now that you don't need to do any routing for the non-open core Fishmans (Tosins, Moderns, Townsend, etc.) Is that true? I just got a Keith Merrow set for my new Strandberg but I'm almost debating switching the Jaivers out of my main Strandberg and putting Tosins in instead if I don't have to do any routing.

 

[juka]

Annoying question incoming:

I have a Schecter KM7 MkIII Artist with the Merrow set, and I’m finding that while the bridge pickup is cool, I’m not too into it for the long haul. It’s overall just too “Fishman-y” for me.

So I want to replace it, but the problem is that I LOVE the neck pickup. I’ve never gotten lead and split coil clean tones as nice as I have with this bad boy.

For you Fishman experts; is there a bridge pickup in their 7 string lineup that is similar to the Duncan Distortion or Black Winter in terms of output and EQ voicing? I would think the classics, but I’ve never used them and don’t want the tone to be similar to the PAF setting on the Merrow.

Obviously the easier option would be to just slap the pickup I know I want in there, but then I’d have to replace the neck pickup, which leads me to question two:

What passive neck pickup is closest to the Merrow neck? My understanding is that it’s a slightly tweaked classic. It’s been forever since I’ve used anything aside from a D Activator, BW, Sentient (not a big fan) or stock neck pickup so I’m out of touch.

TLDR stuff is in bold.

KM neck PU is just an ordinary Open Core Classic neck PU. Fishman always insisted on that, the neck PU of my early KM7 has a label on it that says so and although my late KM7 set has all slugs (instead of the classic screw/slug combo) I do NOT hear any difference between my early and late set.
KM bridge PU is described as V1 being Keith signature and V2 "brown"(?) sound whereas Classic bridge is V1=PAF and V2=JB(ish). But you should be aware that theses sound descriptions are referring to the sound characteristics and not to the output. Even their classics have output for days, so maybe Classic V2 could be in your ballpark.
Currently I have 2 KM7 sets and 2 Open Core Classic 7 sets and although the KM7 are my favs most of the time I can pretty well live with my Classic7, too.

 

[Chri]

KM neck PU is just an ordinary Open Core Classic neck PU. Fishman always insisted on that, the neck PU of my early KM7 has a label on it that says so and although my late KM7 set has all slugs (instead of the classic screw/slug combo) I do NOT hear any difference between my early and late set.
KM bridge PU is described as V1 being Keith signature and V2 "brown"(?) sound whereas Classic bridge is V1=PAF and V2=JB(ish). But you should be aware that theses sound descriptions are referring to the sound characteristics and not to the output. Even their classics have output for days, so maybe Classic V2 could be in your ballpark.
Currently I have 2 KM7 sets and 2 Open Core Classic 7 sets and although the KM7 are my favs most of the time I can pretty well live with my Classic7, too.

Thank you! This is exactly the input I was looking for.

I’m kind of at an impasse with this. The KM bridge sounds fantastic in a mix, but it’s not exactly my favorite just for playing by myself. I figure most Fishman pickups will still have a similar vibe because of how peaky their frequency spectrum is. Maybe I just need to sit with it some more and see if I can’t come up with some separate patches for playing/writing as opposed to the ones I use for recording.

 

[juka]

For those actually attending the 2022 NAMM show:
Are there any (good) news about the Fluence line???

The bad news seems to be that with Tosin Abasi the next big signature artist after Keith Merrow ended his endorsement in a pretty awkward and abrupt way.

This time by dropping the news right at NAMM about his new signature with EBMM (without Fluence pups!!!):
https://www.sevenstring.org/threads/ebmm-abasi-kaizen.353532/

Seems like really nobody saw this coming.

Not sure what's going on behind the scenes, but if you follow McRocklin and see how he gets more and more frustrated when it comes to Fishman not releasing his signature set to the public for how many months now?

 

[Kyle Jordan]

I doubt Tosin is leaving Fishman. And I also think that the Kaizen is more of a soft brand extension for him rather than his new main or signature. EBMM seem ardent on using their in-house pickups and electronics.

Still, Fishman has had some strangeness going on with the Fluence line since before the pandemic. Kind of seems like they had lost direction with the line, and then covid came through and wrought havoc.

Could certainly be wrong and this signals Tosin leaving. That would be a fairly big blow too.

 

[cmpxchg]

I don't get what's happening with Fluence. There's a PCB and then wire printed on top of the PCB, but somehow they're not using the same PCB for every humbucker. Logistically, this strikes me as a little crazy. It seems like they are entirely focused on sig sets vs letting people mix and match different models like every other pickup maker. I don't see what the point is unless there is something intrinsic to the manufacturing process that prevents mix/match covers/bobbins and requires very large runs of pickups to be produced (see also "why are there so many different PCBs"). Compare to the versatility you get with any other pickup maker, and the lack of sonic customizability from Fishman seems odd.

That said, it looks like there's about to be a rev to the Moderns; the Heafy wiring diagram references both the Heafy sig and the Modern 6/7/8/9 string, and AFAICT they don't have a 9-string Modern currently available. The Heafy sig also seems to have a different voicing than what's listed on the current Modern page (630Hz peak freq for ceramic voice 1 vs 720Hz).

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

For those actually attending the 2022 NAMM show:
Are there any (good) news about the Fluence line???

The bad news seems to be that with Tosin Abasi the next big signature artist after Keith Merrow ended his endorsement in a pretty awkward and abrupt way.

This time by dropping the news right at NAMM about his new signature with EBMM (without Fluence pups!!!):
https://www.sevenstring.org/threads/ebmm-abasi-kaizen.353532/

Seems like really nobody saw this coming.

Not sure what's going on behind the scenes, but if you follow McRocklin and see how he gets more and more frustrated when it comes to Fishman not releasing his signature set to the public for how many months now?

Seems less likely that Tosin stopped using Fishman and that EBMM wanted to use their shiny, brand new pickups on their new guitar.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

^Also to add to that, they just introduced a new model and...

...you guessed it. Fluence pickups.

 

[Kyle Jordan]

^Also to add to that, they just introduced a new model and...

...you guessed it. Fluence pickups.

I heard this in Norm Macdonald’s voice.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

I heard this in Norm Macdonald’s voice.

 

[juka]

Ok, good to know. Still haven't decided on if that's an extremely clever move or just outright dump if you own your own aspiring guitar company and your own signature pups to have a signature guitar with another company, but at least that's not so bad news that the Fluence Abasi set seems to stay.

Back to my original question: Any (really) good news for Fluence at NAMM?
Any McRocklin sig, Fluff sig, this ominous new OpenCore set Ben Eller and Satchel were (road)testing? Anything at all?

 

[Kyle Jordan]

Stolen from the Abasi thread: Looks like Fluence singles in 7 and 8 strings are just about confirmed.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

or just outright dump if you own your own aspiring guitar company and your own signature pups to have a signature guitar with another company

I don't get why people think that. It's *extremely* fucking clever. Dude owns his own company which means he can do whatever the fuck he wants. Dude knows how to make bank playing his niche genre of music.

Stolen from the Abasi thread: Looks like Fluence singles in 7 and 8 strings are just about confirmed.

Yeah, this on top of the Javier 8-string Strat... finally getting those ERG singlecoils.

 

[NoodleFace]

Thank you! This is exactly the input I was looking for.

I’m kind of at an impasse with this. The KM bridge sounds fantastic in a mix, but it’s not exactly my favorite just for playing by myself. I figure most Fishman pickups will still have a similar vibe because of how peaky their frequency spectrum is. Maybe I just need to sit with it some more and see if I can’t come up with some separate patches for playing/writing as opposed to the ones I use for recording.

IIRC those pickups have 3 voicings, do you dislike all 3?

I found the merrow ones my favorites. I have some fluence moderns now that I only like in short bursts.