The Fishman Fluence Thread

[Marv Attaxx]

Great to hear that you like the JR set as there are still not many reviews of these to be found online.

@Kensusiunearth: Really don't know what the problem with Fishman is all about. I mean they are a well established company and the Fluence pickups themselves are top notch, but quality control, support and supply are NOT!
- Bought my first Abasi set recently (my 6th Fluence set in total) and the blue-green-gray cable was missing the gray (thats' where all the magic of the Abasi set is happening),
- asked support for a 5way super switch wiring scheme for classics, but gary never came back to me,
- tried to buy a Zebra set for nearly a year, but distributor says Fishman doesn't deliver,
-...

I also inquired about support for a wiring scheme, nothing. In the meanwhile you contact Dimarzio and chances are that Steve or even Larry himself sends you specific wiring diagrams for your usecase
In the end my tech figuered out how to wire my Abasis correctly so all good.

 

[LCW]

In addition to the above, I feel that the development is anemic when compared to their popularity. Hardly any new sig models in the last 2 years, where is the new revision of the moderns with single coil voice, what about slanted pickups, what about more bass pickups in different formats, J, P/J, etc.? I'm really surprised not too many here commenting on Keith Merrow discontinuing his Fluence model, anyone knows what happened?

Think Keith is going back to Seymour Duncan?

 

[LCW]

That was me, troublemaker that I am ;-)

Keith and Ken both refused to comment so far, it still is on Fishman's and Schecter's webpage, but sometimes it is more about what people do NOT say. Was pretty obvious in Ken's last "Fishman live" when in an answer to a user's request he did NOT mention the KM set in a situation where he had recommended the KM set a thousand times before.

OK - so what would you go with for actives if moving away from Fishman Moderns? EMG 81? SD Blackouts? SD Livewires? Etc. ?

 

[LCW]

Well they "sort of" have a revision to the Moderns, it's called Prophesy and exclusive to Epiphone. Which reinforces my point in a way. Fishman is in the business for too long to not knowing that preferring OEMs over aftermarket customers won't work on the long run. Ask EMG ;-)

They really seem to have a way in frustrating their sig artists. If you follow Thomas McRocklin you probably know how super enthusiastic he was with his purple sig prototype set in the beginning and meanwhile you better NOT ask him about the release date anymore.

Don't get me wrong I still love my Fluence sets and they still are the best pups I have found in over 30 years of guitar playing. It really hurts to see them having such a great technology in their hands and not getting their shit together :-(

Wasn't Matt Heafy going to get a signature set of Fishmans? No sign of them on their site. He did talk about them at some point on his Youtube channel. Wonder if that also fell apart.

 

[bwh0005]

Wasn't Matt Heafy going to get a signature set of Fishmans? No sign of them on their site. He did talk about them at some point on his Youtube channel. Wonder if that also fell apart.

I think Matt said they wouldn’t come out till 2022, when his new epiphones come out.

 

[LCW]

I think Matt said they wouldn’t come out till 2022, when his new epiphones come out.

Ah ok - didn't think those were that far out. But not surprised with all the supply chain issues.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

Pretty sure the Merrow set is gonna be pulled down around NAMM time when they update the site with new models. They've had like... 4 or 5 sig models down the pipeline apparently that have been in the works. Hell Richard Kruspe had that sig set he's been talking about since 2018?

 

[LCW]

Pretty sure the Merrow set is gonna be pulled down around NAMM time when they update the site with new models. They've had like... 4 or 5 sig models down the pipeline apparently that have been in the works. Hell Richard Kruspe had that sig set he's been talking about since 2018?

Vaporware

 

[Stuck_in_a_dream]

Pretty sure the Merrow set is gonna be pulled down around NAMM time when they update the site with new models. They've had like... 4 or 5 sig models down the pipeline apparently that have been in the works. Hell Richard Kruspe had that sig set he's been talking about since 2018?

I hope u're right, but the site just got updated, they added wiring schemes, but KM set still there.

 

[LCW]

Haven’t watched yet but ironically this streamed and posted a couple hours ago…

 

[juka]

OK - so what would you go with for actives if moving away from Fishman Moderns? EMG 81? SD Blackouts? SD Livewires? Etc. ?

Before I completely moved to over to Fishman I really liked the EMG 57/66 line, but they were inconsistent as hell. Had like 5-6 sets in total and each one sounded different.

 

[juka]

Wasn't Matt Heafy going to get a signature set of Fishmans? No sign of them on their site. He did talk about them at some point on his Youtube channel. Wonder if that also fell apart.

Matt Heavy's "signature set" will be a limited edition modern set with a golden "swoosh" or whatever they call this line on their pickup housing. Just different looks, same sound. Matt and Ken both confirmed this several times on their "lives"

 

[juka]

Pretty sure the Merrow set is gonna be pulled down around NAMM time when they update the site with new models. They've had like... 4 or 5 sig models down the pipeline apparently that have been in the works. Hell Richard Kruspe had that sig set he's been talking about since 2018?

Similar to the Matt Heavy set they will be just Moderns with a different look:
MH black with golden stripe,
RK red plastic covers.

Damn, I've def watched too many of Ken's "lives" ;-)

 

[juka]

Haven’t watched yet but ironically this streamed and posted a couple hours ago…

Does it on a weekly basis for quite sometime already. Has one or two bits of new info every time besides lots of repetitive stuff.
Have def watched too many of them recently ;-)

 

[Stuck_in_a_dream]

Well they "sort of" have a revision to the Moderns, it's called Prophesy and exclusive to Epiphone. Which reinforces my point in a way. Fishman is in the business for too long to not knowing that preferring OEMs over aftermarket customers won't work on the long run. Ask EMG ;-)

They really seem to have a way in frustrating their sig artists. If you follow Thomas McRocklin you probably know how super enthusiastic he was with his purple sig prototype set in the beginning and meanwhile you better NOT ask him about the release date anymore.

Don't get me wrong I still love my Fluence sets and they still are the best pups I have found in over 30 years of guitar playing. It really hurts to see them having such a great technology in their hands and not getting their shit together :-(

I remember McRocklin mentioning it a while back, I hope they don't screw this one up. There was a hilarious video from last NAMM (before pandemic) where Stephen Carpenter was insisting he would very much like to revise the voicing of his sig, only to be shut down almost immediately by Ken next to him.

I still do love all the fluences I have and I hate to extrapolate on such little info, but could this behavior (lack of further innovation) be explained by the fact they merely bought the technology and had nothing to do with its development? So, we might be witnessing what I like to refer to as "grocery shop" financial culture at play here? By that I mean an extremely conservative, risk-averse, revenue/profit-oriented mindset where innovation is sprinkled every once in a blue moon to keep things afloat if needed.

We know, mainly from what Keith Merrow described here (maybe even on this same thread), that the Fishman Fluence team has a pickup simulation tool/technology. During the past few years, they could have invested in taking it online, opening up a custom line where a user like myself could upload a DI from one of my guitars with say a Fishman Modern in it, use the online tool to tweak the voicings, and I could then export the final voicings to a pickup that gets printed on-demand. I know, I'll keep dreaming.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

I still do love all the fluences I have and I hate to extrapolate on such little info, but could this behavior (lack of further innovation) be explained by the fact they merely bought the technology and had nothing to do with its development? So, we might be witnessing what I like to refer to as "grocery shop" financial culture at play here? By that I mean an extremely conservative, risk-averse, revenue/profit-oriented mindset where innovation is sprinkled every once in a blue moon to keep things afloat if needed.

Unless he left within the passed year, the guy who developed them (Frank Falbo) works with them. I know he's focused on his own guitar company atm though

 

[LCW]

Unless he left within the passed year, the guy who developed them (Frank Falbo) works with them. I know he's focused on his own guitar company atm though

Isn't Frank Falbo an ex-Seymour Duncan employee? Maybe even manager or director?

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

Isn't Frank Falbo an ex-Seymour Duncan employee? Maybe even manager or director?

VP of production development at SD between '07 - '12. He joined Fishman in '15 - '16?

https://www.premierguitar.com/u/frank_falbo

 

[hensh!n]

I still do love all the fluences I have and I hate to extrapolate on such little info, but could this behavior (lack of further innovation) be explained by the fact they merely bought the technology and had nothing to do with its development? So, we might be witnessing what I like to refer to as "grocery shop" financial culture at play here? By that I mean an extremely conservative, risk-averse, revenue/profit-oriented mindset where innovation is sprinkled every once in a blue moon to keep things afloat if needed.

We know, mainly from what Keith Merrow described here (maybe even on this same thread), that the Fishman Fluence team has a pickup simulation tool/technology. During the past few years, they could have invested in taking it online, opening up a custom line where a user like myself could upload a DI from one of my guitars with say a Fishman Modern in it, use the online tool to tweak the voicings, and I could then export the final voicings to a pickup that gets printed on-demand. I know, I'll keep dreaming.

This is my biggest problem with the brand. Their focus appears to be going after established names in the business and sell sets based off of the name and brand recognition alone. Instead, they could be using their incredibly innovative technology to innovate further in the market by developing pickup sets that truly could not exist even a decade before. I realize some of these features exist in signature sets, but I've gone down that road and ended up back where I started with a good passive set.

 

[TheBolivianSniper]

I would shell out for a fluence custom set since I demand so much versatility from my guitars and my personal taste in tone is a lot different than most things out there. The 2 voicings alongside a single coil is just what I want but moderns have to be manually split and I'm not sure the classics are what I want.

I would say voice 1 would be super high gain active sound with a bouncy low end and some real low mid chunk, with a little bit less on the high mid and a crazy treble fizz and bite. Voice 2 would be a little lower gain, tighten up the bass, thicken up the mids and get really cutting in the high end. Voice 3 would be a nice snappy tele sort of single coil.

No one does anything that solves my want for a punchy, chunky sound and a cutting mix ready tone all at once, you just can't do it. The closest I get is the EMG 57 but that's still smooth on the high end. The X2N is fizzy and super high powered but not quite punchy enough. I'm hoping the Super 3 gets brutal while still being controlled enough and isn't too too smooth. Still would have to solve the problem of that split tone too.

I think if fishman would charge enough for the service like the Duncan custom shop they'd be really winning.