Fishman triple play is it worth the bucks ?

Stringmanipulator

Stringmanipulator

Power User
Just got some gas for fishman tripleplay after watching Dominic Hardy's youtube demo, and since the threads about it
around here are a couple of years old I'm wondering if any of you guys have one and how you feel about it ..

is it worth the investment ?


afraid it's gonna be one of those things after you buy it you play around with it for a couple of hours and then it is
living its life on a shelf .. :)

but it sure seems very cool ;)

any input?
 
Like many of my "investments", mine has been the dust collector for about a year now. I look at it often and think about putting it to good use but then I go back to my Axe realizing that midi will never be as fast or expressive as a modeler. I'm hoping that changes someday but for now, it sits.
 
I had the TriplePlay Strat, which is a Mexi-strat w/ the Fishman installed. What I really liked about it is that since I'm a much better guitarist than keyboardist it makes it easier to play some parts. But what I didn't like was that it really takes some work to be able to get it to track as well as you hear in some of the demos... fast synth leads were just a mess even though as guitar solos they sound great, piano arpeggios had lots of bad notes, things like that. While I know that's mostly caused by my technique - the TP picks up every little thing you do -- I decided it wasn't worth having a Mexi-strat with the lifeless (oops, I mean noiseless) neck/middle pups.

I'm probably going to get the standalone TriplePlay unit because it sure was nice for things like horns and flute lines or piano/organ parts; things that don't require a lot of speed. You should be able to get 30 days return on it from most retailers; try it out and see for yourself.
 
I got one right before I got my Axe, a year and a half ago. I put it on my Petrucci JP6 BFR, with very low action (is there another way with this guitar??). Turned out the midi p/u was to tall to fit underneath the strings, and I wasn't going to raise the action. So Fishman recommended shimming the neck, which I wasn't crazy about, but did. It ended up only needing a Post It note folded in half.

It sounds great, some sounds were amazing. I agree with jefferski, it didn't track as great as I hoped, but again that may have had more to do with my technique. Overall a nice device. But midi guitar just wasn't for me. After I got the Axe, my time and energy was spent getting amazing guitar sounds, working on my playing, etc. I used both on gigs, which did come in handy on 3-piece gigs. I had my laptop with the Fishman software going into my California Blonde amp, with an Akai Head Rush in the FX loop, looped key parts, then was able to play over it. It was all impressive sounding and looking, but a pain in the ass to hook everything up.

After a few months, I wanted to simplify everything, get my guitar back to normal, etc, so I stopped using it. I could see recording with it or jamming with other people using it, but for gigging, it wasn't for me. I think a few people on here use it as part of their rigs. Anyone want to chime in?
 
BTW, my purpose for using it was recording, not gigging. In the studio I can fix mistakes, play it multiple times, etc. Don't think I'd be very comfortable using this on stage except for very simple parts that I know won't glitch... and I can just use the Axe's synth for that ;-)
 
I bought it a year ago and started to use only this summer. Once you had set it up well it works fine but only in studio where you can focus on your technique
 
I'm surprised at the problems people have. I didn't set mine up action-wise, just messed with the string sensitivity, and I've gotten response that's amazing. Seems the main issues are what midi drivers, software, and VSTs you're using, and how the latter two are configured. Then there's technique, too, which if you note in the NAMM youtube he's striking the strings briskly. Essentially, 'making space' between note events. I push that limit as far as possible, because I like to get certain effects from palm-muting and such, which I think is apparent in the recordings below.

Also, the thing about it not fitting on non-Stratocaster guitars is a problem. None of my guitars have room between the saddles and bridge pick-up bezel. So I took out the pick-up screws, stiffly slid the hex pick-up between (no spacers under it), then put two screws back in. All good.

This was through the Triple Play interface, which is a VST and hardware host), using Piano One (free VST). Don't recall the audio driver. The clipping was either that or/and my computer not being able to keep up.






This one was straight through Sample Tank (it auto-recognizes the Triple Play pick-up, tracking is pretty amazing using the ASIO4ALL driver), and using a tenor trombone from the IKM library.

 
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