Fishman Fluence?

Pwrmac7600

Power User
Am I missing something here? They seem to be really making a big splash this year.
Should I be checking these out? I currently run Suhr Aldrich pickups in all but 2 of my guitars and I am very satisfied with them, but being in a guitarists nature, I can't help but think I am missing out on something with the Fishmans?

opinions, thought?
 
Am I missing something here? They seem to be really making a big splash this year.
Should I be checking these out? I currently run Suhr Aldrich pickups in all but 2 of my guitars and I am very satisfied with them, but being in a guitarists nature, I can't help but think I am missing out on something with the Fishmans?

opinions, thought?
Love them, and have modded several guitars with them. They are truly noiseless, feature boost on all positions, and sound boss. I think i like the single coils and Koch tele set the best, also like the Devin T humbckers on my Strandberg.. but my fave LP i own has Aldrich pups...
 
A friend came to me asking for pickup advice. One of his main concerns is noise. He wants a humbucker set that's as quiet as possible. He has a Duncan JB & 59 set right now. Are the Fluence pickups any quieter than traditional humbuckers?
 
A friend came to me asking for pickup advice. One of his main concerns is noise. He wants a humbucker set that's as quiet as possible. He has a Duncan JB & 59 set right now. Are the Fluence pickups any quieter than traditional humbuckers?
Yes.
 
I'm just wondering how long it takes it to become the EMG of pickups. SO hot, greatest thing since sliced bread.... wait I hate them.
 
And as much as I like low noise pickups, tone is the most important thing to me. I -almost- tried EMGs just to explore the low noise world of active pickups but I like the sounds of my various Dimarzios more than anything EMG offers.
 
I have 2 guitars with the Fishman classics with the rechargeable packs which are totally the way to go! Aggressive but vintage in a PAF medium out put way.

Years ago I had a ESP with the fishman moderns and they were way better than emg's I've used in the past. Both models feel more like passive pups in feel and dynamics than your average active pup.






and this

 
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The Classic Humbuckers and Single Coils are my faves, but the Koch gristletones are also the sh+t. My luthier told me it was the best sounding upgrade he had ever done in a Tele when he did my Relic CustomShop ....
 
A friend came to me asking for pickup advice. One of his main concerns is noise. He wants a humbucker set that's as quiet as possible. He has a Duncan JB & 59 set right now. Are the Fluence pickups any quieter than traditional humbuckers?
I've replaced several sets of Duncan JB/59 pickups with the Fluence Devin Townsend set in my guitars. Make sure you have access to all three voices - the "passive humbucker" voice in these pickups is often overlooked and it is excellent. I find I can switch guitars between my JB/59 setups and guitars with the Fluence Townsends on the humbucker voice without changing anything and they sound great. Very similar character.

I've found the Fluence to be very quiet - certainly no more noise than the JB/59 setup. That also goes for the "passive single-coil" voice. And the sound of that is so good. Adding that voice to my guitar is exactly why I've been changing to these.

EDIT: I will note that I originally had an issue with white noise when I first installed the Fluence. I contact their support and traced it to a bad ground connection with the battery box I had. Using their universal battery pack totally solved this, and it was a very easy change to make.
 
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Yes, rechargeable is better but I just don't like to mess with batteries. Not a tone thing per say, I just don't like to have to depend on batteries to play, that's all.
I hear you on this - I was concerned as well. I will say this though - I have these in two of my guitars now, one of them for several months, and I've still never needed to recharge. One of them even has a PowerBridge + PowerChip preamp running off the same single battery pack and even that hasn't needed to be recharged yet after many weeks of use.
 
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And as much as I like low noise pickups, tone is the most important thing to me. I -almost- tried EMGs just to explore the low noise world of active pickups but I like the sounds of my various Dimarzios more than anything EMG offers.

I'm just wondering how long it takes it to become the EMG of pickups. SO hot, greatest thing since sliced bread.... wait I hate them.

I really dislike the feel of EMGs. Same for other active pickups I've tried (Duncan Blackouts, etc.). I think the reason I get on so well with the Fluence Townsend set is that the magnets are degaussed. Even on the "active humbucker" voice to me they still feel like my passive Duncans.

I apologize for gushing all over this thread - I realize I'm starting to sound like a shill. I just love these pickups so much and unsuccessfully tried so many others before I found them. Now if only Fishman would make a 7 string version of the Townsends...
 
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My local tech builds pick ups too and he hates on my Fishmans all the time. Were going to do an A/B test with his brand, hopefully blind if he will cooperate. He is very old school.
 
I have this thing where I want my guitars to be very consistent, from one to the other, so I end up putting the same (or at least similar) pickup in them. That means if I fell in love with the Fishmans I'd be looking at 32 pickups. ;)
 
Oh man, you guys did it this time... I've heard of these before, but this thread got me to spend some time on their site checking them out. I've narrowed my choices down to either the Killswitch Engage, or Devin's set, or the Classics without covers, or one of the other signature sets... or maybe the modern. I don't know, they all sound pretty good, I just need to do some more critical listening while I get the funds together for the next project.

The other guitar player in my band is a very talented builder and guitar modding specialist, and I'm working out the plans for a custom guitar, with a Ghost bridge and now that I've done a little listening to these Fluence pickups I think I've found what I want to use in the new axe. Right now he is adding a Ghost bridge to my hard tail Warmoth Strat, and doing just a bit of shaping to the neck. If that turns out half as nice as the other work he's done I'll be scraping together the funds for the full custom build soon.
 
I really dislike the feel of EMGs. Same for other active pickups I've tried (Duncan Blackouts, etc.). I think the reason I get on so well with the Fluence Townsend set is that the magnets are degaussed. Even on the "active humbucker" voice to me they still feel like my passive Duncans.

I apologize for gushing all over this thread - I realize I'm starting to sound like a shill. I just love these pickups so much and unsuccessfully tried so many others before I found them. Now if only Fishman would make a 7 string version of the Townsends...

Seems like a 7 string version is on the way...

 
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