The Fishman Fluence Thread

[theblade7]

I am a long time owner of 4 guitars with emg 81, I just picked up a pair of moderns and I like them a lot, it's not so much more that I want to change all my other guitars over I like them both for different reasons

 

[Kyle Jordan]

Was hoping Fishman would unveil the 7 and 8 string single widths this year. Haven't seen anything.

 

[madrigal77]

Is there any difference in sound between the Classics vs Open Core Classics? It’s it purely cosmetic? I have a set of the open core that came in a guitar and I absolutely love them. Want to get a set for another guitar but the standard classic would look better in it.

 

[juka]

Is there any difference in sound between the Classics vs Open Core Classics? It’s it purely cosmetic? I have a set of the open core that came in a guitar and I absolutely love them. Want to get a set for another guitar but the standard classic would look better in it.

Not only do Fluence have a completely different construction than "conventional" pickups, the covers are different, too. Even the covers that look like nickel, chrome or gold consist mainly of plastic with only a thin metal top.
Will you hear a difference? Maybe, but nothing compared to the effect of full metal covers on conventional pups

 

[Sparky8691]

Seeing some people mention the new 3 voice Moderns, I thought I'd share my plan to use them soon!

I got a Schecter KM-7 III Artist recently, has the Keith Merrow Fluence set. Which is actually a normal Open Core Classic in the neck, only the bridge is a customised pickup, apparently a tweaked Classic. Interesting to note that Keith has left Fishman now and his latest Schecter signatures have Lundgrens. I wanted to try a Fluence set with the dedicated single coil voice though so sought out that version.

I really like the neck pickup in the KM-7 but a bit disappointed with the bridge. It just doesn't have the growl and chunkiness I was hoping for, and kinda expected from the type of guitar. It has a lot of clarity but seems to compress a lot when digging in, making it sound a bit weaker on single string chugs. Funnily enough it does sound a lot chunkier with powerchords, odd that the compression I mention seems to affect single strings the most.

Anyways, I have another guitar with Moderns and I do think they have a lot more growl to them. So I'm sure I would be happy with a Modern in the KM-7's bridge. It's routed for passive sized pickups though, hence the Open Core format of the Merrow set. Luckily Fishman have released the new Modern in an open core format too. They don't seem to be available individually at any retailers yet (even on the Fishman website...although that doesn't apply anyway as I'm in the UK). A couple of retailers have soapbar format sets in stock but that's it so I may be waiting a little while until they are available.

The KM-7 has a 3-way pickup selector and a 3-way toggle to go between voice 1/voice 2/voice 3 (single coil - inner). My plan is to add another 3-way toggle so both pickups can be controlled separately. Will also be changing the default coil split to outer coils. Finally, going to add a switch that instantly selects both inner coils. This way there is a quick shortcut to the ideal ambient clean sound - otherwise it could take up to 3 switch flicks to access this position. This should all give me a huge amount of options as I'll be able to mix together the different voices of the Classic and Modern pickups.

I'm doing a similar wiring scheme for a 6 string passive guitar (the 3-way toggles will instead do series/single coil/parallel) and I found a very clever guitar tech who was able to create a wiring diagram for me that does all of that. So I'm hoping I'll be able to also adapt it to the Fluence wiring...should be do-able as Fluence wiring actually seems a bit easier than passive wiring.

Not sure whether to bother implementing the high frequency tilt (HFT) function though. Some posters have mentioned that this feature has been removed from the new 3 voice Moderns but Fishman sent me wiring information when I asked them if my idea would work and it shows that HFT is still available...just activated with solder pads rather than pins. I have noticed that with the version of their Classic pickups that used solder pads for the HFT, the wiring information had a note that said that it carries signal and cannot share a switch with any other HFT/voicing wire. So this would suggest that HFT would have to be separate for each pickup. In contrast, I have seen some other Fluence wiring diagrams where HFT is activated for both pickups at once (I believe in that case the HFT feature was on the pins). The KM-7 is quite a bright sounding guitar so HFT may be a nice feature to have...and all the other elements of my wiring scheme will be done with switches so I could put on some push/pull pots for HFT if I wanted.

 

[madrigal77]

Not only do Fluence have a completely different construction than "conventional" pickups, the covers are different, too. Even the covers that look like nickel, chrome or gold consist mainly of plastic with only a thin metal top.
Will you hear a difference? Maybe, but nothing compared to the effect of full metal covers on conventional pups

I ended up getting a covered classic set for my Eclipse and they sound almost identical. The Open Cores might have a TINY bit more output but that’s it.

 

[theblade7]

Is there any difference in sound between the Classics vs Open Core Classics? It’s it purely cosmetic? I have a set of the open core that came in a guitar and I absolutely love them. Want to get a set for another guitar but the standard classic would look better in it.

They are the same

 

[armsliketeeth]

I find it frustrating that Fishman does not make the Modern 7-string set with the standard humbucker cover in black. The soapbar versions come in black, and they make a standard 6-string version in black, so it just seems silly not to make what I'm describing as well.

The more I think about it, the less their whole line makes sense. Like, why don't they make the Classic set with covers for 7 string, but they do make the open core versions?

Does anyone know how dark the "brushed black nickel" is in comparison to something like an EMG 57 with a black cover?

 

[Chri]

I find it frustrating that Fishman does not make the Modern 7-string set with the standard humbucker cover in black. The soapbar versions come in black, and they make a standard 6-string version in black, so it just seems silly not to make what I'm describing as well.

The more I think about it, the less their whole line makes sense. Like, why don't they make the Classic set with covers for 7 string, but they do make the open core versions?

Does anyone know how dark the "brushed black nickel" is in comparison to something like an EMG 57 with a black cover?

I'd love to have 7 string Classics with covers. You're spot on in how oddly inconsistent they are. I suppose only Ken and Larry know/care enough about the sales to warrant when they expand.

 

[hjmp]

If I were to change pickups on my used Ibanez Prestige that already have Moderns in it...

What would be the most similar option to the Rainmaker / Dreamcatcher set by Dimarzio? I'm mainly looking for a good John Petrucci's like lead tone.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

If I were to change pickups on my used Ibanez Prestige that already have Moderns in it...

What would be the most similar option to the Rainmaker / Dreamcatcher set by Dimarzio? I'm mainly looking for a good John Petrucci's like lead tone.

Why not just redo the guitar for passive and get those actual pickups? Since it's Fluence loaded it should have the bridge ground

 

[hjmp]

Why not just redo the guitar for passive and get those actual pickups? Since it's Fluence loaded it should have the bridge ground

That’s also an option. I just wanted to check if there was anything that would sound great for that kind of leads before doing a rewire and leave an empty hole for batteries

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

That’s also an option. I just wanted to check if there was anything that would sound great for that kind of leads before doing a rewire and leave an empty hole for batteries

A lot of the Fluence pickups are either super bright in the high end and/or have a pretty hard cut in the low end. From what I can tell a lot of the Trooch pickups have a lot of lows and low mids with a high cut, so it's why I really can't think of any that fit the bill.

 

[hjmp]

A lot of the Fluence pickups are either super bright in the high end and/or have a pretty hard cut in the low end. From what I can tell a lot of the Trooch pickups have a lot of lows and low mids with a high cut, so it's why I really can't think of any that fit the bill.

Oh, well. It was worth a try. Thanks!

 

[bjjman]

A lot of the Fluence pickups are either super bright in the high end and/or have a pretty hard cut in the low end. From what I can tell a lot of the Trooch pickups have a lot of lows and low mids with a high cut, so it's why I really can't think of any that fit the bill.

I have a bunch of guitars with various Fluence pickups as well as one with Dreamcatcher/Rainmaker and another with Illuminators. I'd definitely agree there's not much overlap between the Petrucci sig pickups and Fluences.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

Anyone got to mess with the RZK set? Stilll really curious about those, even though they just seem like Moderns with polepieces

 

[MASS DEFECT]

If I were to change pickups on my used Ibanez Prestige that already have Moderns in it...

What would be the most similar option to the Rainmaker / Dreamcatcher set by Dimarzio? I'm mainly looking for a good John Petrucci's like lead tone.

I got a Crunchlab and a D-Sonic and nothing really sounds like those in the Fluence line. The "closest" I can think of that I have in my stable is Voice 2 on the Tosin set, which sounds a bit like his Dimarzio set.

 

[7deadlysins666]

Considering Fluence or EMG's for my RG7421. What are you guys doing to make them fit the pickup routes for direct mount? I know i'll have to open the corners up a little bit, just not sure how much a little bit actually is.

 

[hjmp]

I got a Crunchlab and a D-Sonic and nothing really sounds like those in the Fluence line. The "closest" I can think of that I have in my stable is Voice 2 on the Tosin set, which sounds a bit like his Dimarzio set.

I actually got to try the Tosin set a few days ago, and I'm leaning towards getting a pair!

 

[kriff]

I picked up a secondhand Aristides at the beginning of the year and (as a metal guy) I've been struggling to get the sound I want from the Fishman Classics it had in. Well, I've just swapped in a Will Adler set and it sounds super fucking mean. It's only been a few minutes but I am instantly very impressed.

I've got a pair of moderns in another guitar and I'm tempted to change them over as well. Also, swapping from one set of Fishmans to another was insanely easy. Like, ridiculous.