The Fishman Fluence Thread

[elkoki]

How valuable do you folks generally find switching voices on your various Fishmans? Do you use it a lot, or do you tend to just stick to one that you prefer?

A modern set is in my near future and I'm just thinking about how I'm going to wire it up. I only have 1V, 1T and a 3 way to work with, and (I think) you can wire it to have tone pot be a normal tone for both pickups and also switch the voice of one, but simpler set-up to have 1 push-pull switch both voices I think might be more intuitive to use when playing.

What would you go for?

Adding to my last reply.. I used the Classics and I find the split coil option (actually all the voices) to be pretty usable. They are some of the best all around pickups i've ever used, they can do pretty much any style you throw at them. So in talking about the Classics, the voices are all good . In my Will Adlers, it's another story.. I think the bridge voice 1 option sounds great distorted, it's a total metal machine... voice 2 sounds good and is completely usable but it's a bit more compressed and saturated that I don't really bother with it. The cleans are not as good and if you wire them in with a split coil option, they don't split as nicely

 

[TheBolivianSniper]

I really like voice 2, it's not a huge shift but there's a definite change in the focus. It's not chunky like they say but it adds a fair bit of low mids and takes some of that laser high mid sound off of it. It's like going from a D Activator to a Duncan Distortion. This is all first impressions of course but I'm a huge fan. 57 is still great but I prefer the modern to the 81 so far.

 

[diagrammatiks]

The Epiphone prophecy come with fluence now. But they don't say which fluence they are.

It's three voices like a classic but they never call them classics in the press release. the back of the pickup is actually labeled Epiphone prophecy.

I wonder how those are voiced and what they are based on.

 

[Strobe]

The Epiphone prophecy come with fluence now. But they don't say which fluence they are.

It's three voices like a classic but they never call them classics in the press release. the back of the pickup is actually labeled Epiphone prophecy.

I wonder how those are voiced and what they are based on.

They are unique to the prophecy. They have 3 voices. One is PAFish (burstbucker as Gibson would say). Another is a modern active sound. Another is a single coil sound - sounded kind of P90ish to me, which would make sense for a Gibson. I have not played one in person (damn you, pandemic) but they sounded nice in videos to my ears.

 

[slavboi_delight]

They are unique to the prophecy. They have 3 voices. One is PAFish (burstbucker as Gibson would say). Another is a modern active sound. Another is a single coil sound - sounded kind of P90ish to me, which would make sense for a Gibson. I have not played one in person (damn you, pandemic) but they sounded nice in videos to my ears.

I second that.
I saw a video from thomann were the guys were talking about a proprietary voice 1 for epiphone and the rest as stated by strobe.

 

[slavboi_delight]

Now that I've read way too much about cocked wah sounds, everytime i chugg away on my moderns, all i hear is wahchuggchuggwahchuggchuggwah. Great.

 

[diagrammatiks]

Now that I've read way too much about cocked wah sounds, everytime i chugg away on my moderns, all i hear is wahchuggchuggwahchuggchuggwah. Great.

downtune 5 steps. problem solved

 

[slavboi_delight]

downtune 5 steps. problem solved

105 string gauge

 

[TheBolivianSniper]

Now that I've read way too much about cocked wah sounds, everytime i chugg away on my moderns, all i hear is wahchuggchuggwahchuggchuggwah. Great.

lowkey I really like the wah sound, a lot less fatiguing to the ears than the grind noise a lot of metal pickups have.

 

[slavboi_delight]

lowkey I really like the wah sound, a lot less fatiguing to the ears than the grind noise a lot of metal pickups have.

It's weird to be honest. Very love and hate like. Sometimes i like it and as soon as i overthink stuff like pickups, i absolutely despise it.

 

[diagrammatiks]

It's weird to be honest. Very love and hate like. Sometimes i like it and as soon as i overthink stuff like pickups, i absolutely despise it.

people say that about the bkp juggernauts. but I love them.

 

[slavboi_delight]

I

people say that about the bkp juggernauts. but I love them.

Always come back to the moderns though.

Never had a chance to try the juggernauts

 

[RevDrucifer]

They are unique to the prophecy. They have 3 voices. One is PAFish (burstbucker as Gibson would say). Another is a modern active sound. Another is a single coil sound - sounded kind of P90ish to me, which would make sense for a Gibson. I have not played one in person (damn you, pandemic) but they sounded nice in videos to my ears.

I wonder how those compare to the Devin Townsend set, as that sounds exactly like it. Actually, when I first got mine and switched it to the Classic setting, the first thing it reminded me of was a Dimarzio PAF I used to have in my 90’s JEMs.

And fairly dead on with the single coil setting as it doesn’t give that Strat/Tele single coil (even though Dev always say “for when I want to get that Tele single coil sound), it’s much warmer than that and reminds me more of a P90.

 

[Thrashman]

So the main thing that stops me from putting the Classics in everything I own is that the voice 3 isn't hum cancelling...


.. But I just had a thought, since you can select what coil is active on the backside of the pcb by soldering the connection to either south or north... What if I connected both at the same time? Would that put both coils on in parallel in voice 3? In my head it makes perfect sense that it would?

 

[darkinners]

I really like voice 2, it's not a huge shift but there's a definite change in the focus. It's not chunky like they say but it adds a fair bit of low mids and takes some of that laser high mid sound off of it. It's like going from a D Activator to a Duncan Distortion. This is all first impressions of course but I'm a huge fan. 57 is still great but I prefer the modern to the 81 so far.

For the Fluence Modern I like voice 2 better in my Aristides H/0, the voice 1 sounds a bit too "fat" to my taste and the resonance peak shift on voice 2 makes it sound more aggressive.
However it's quite strange, on my friend's Strandberg Prog 7, which have the same pickup, even when we plug it in the same amp, same cab same setting, it has an opposite effect, voice 2 sound teeny tiny in his Strandberg compare to my H/0 but voice 1 sound much tighter than on my H/0.

 

[TheBolivianSniper]

For the Fluence Modern I like voice 2 better in my Aristides H/0, the voice 1 sounds a bit too "fat" to my taste and the resonance peak shift on voice 2 makes it sound more aggressive.
However it's quite strange, on my friend's Strandberg Prog 7, which have the same pickup, even when we plug it in the same amp, same cab same setting, it has an opposite effect, voice 2 sound teeny tiny in his Strandberg compare to my H/0 but voice 1 sound much tighter than on my H/0.

Yeah it's so weird, I find voice 2 to be tighter and more clear for fast riffing but voice one to have huge chord clarity and cut better. Voice 2 is the quintessential death metal tone though, with the right amp I can do anything from the Symbolic tone to Bolt Thrower to Entombed/In Flames. Love it but voice 1 really is one of my favorite tones too.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Yeah it's so weird, I find voice 2 to be tighter and more clear for fast riffing but voice one to have huge chord clarity and cut better. Voice 2 is the quintessential death metal tone though, with the right amp I can do anything from the Symbolic tone to Bolt Thrower to Entombed/In Flames. Love it but voice 1 really is one of my favorite tones too.

It really depends on the guitar imo. I had moderns in 2 different guitars and in the baritone 6 I had them in, V1 was way too middy/cocked wah djenty flavored for what I like, while v2 was perfect for sludgier 90s DM tones. In my E1 I actually prefer v1 since that midrange doesn't feel so cocked in standard, though there's not enough low end for my tastes. V2 is a bit too fat in the E1 for standard tuning imo.

 

[slavboi_delight]

question for somebody who has an idea of frequencies:

Do the Fishmans do something weird in the 4k region? I feel like with all the pickups I own, (every) Fishman really spikes somewhere between 2.5k and 4k. Or is my hearing completely off? Could be my headphones as well since I'm bound to use them.

 

[Noisy Humbucker]

question for somebody who has an idea of frequencies:

Do the Fishmans do something weird in the 4k region? I feel like with all the pickups I own, (every) Fishman really spikes somewhere between 2.5k and 4k. Or is my hearing completely off? Could be my headphones as well since I'm bound to use them.

Ah yes - the “fizz”. Annoyed the crap out of me at first, but I’m used to it now. As far as I’m concerned - whether they realize it or not that’s what really draws some people to them. It’s bringing out things that just aren’t there with most pickups (whether for better or worse is totally subjective).

Not trying to talk smack here - got a set of Moderns in my multi-scale, just sayin’.

 

[slavboi_delight]

Ah yes - the “fizz”. Annoyed the crap out of me at first, but I’m used to it now. As far as I’m concerned - whether they realize it or not that’s what really draws some people to them. It’s bringing out things that just aren’t there with most pickups (whether for better or worse is totally subjective).

Not trying to talk smack here - got a set of Moderns in my multi-scale, just sayin’.

Yep those fizzy highs.
Not talkin smack either, but ever since i slammed the emg hetfields in my guitar, it is getting really obvious, because they have WAY more low mids and a rounder high end. Nothing you can't dial in or out though. But using the same sound on both, it is pretty clear to hear.