Thoughts on Fishman Fluence pickups?

D

DakenSG

Member
Hello all,

Recently the Fernandes Sustainer pickup in my Native died. This was the second sustainer pickup to be installed in that guitar, as the first one also died. Since this pickup has given me such grief, I've decided to start hunting for new electric guitar pickups.

In my research I ran across the Fishman Fluence system. The videos make it sound pretty intriguing, but I'm curious if anybody here has taken the plunge? Anybody extremely satisfied? Anyone NOT satisfied? I'm especially curious of the humbucker style pickups if you've got experience with them, but would still love to hear reviews on the single coil versions.

I'm also curious if the Fluence pickups are only good for metal/high gain? I primarily play rock (classic 60's/70's to grunge), and some pop/punk rock.

Thanks all.
 
I have the Devin Townsend set in my main guitar. I love them! I had a mini three way toggle routed and now I can select between the three voices. Voice 1 is EMG influenced, voice 2 is PAF like, and voice 3 goes for a Tele sound. I also put in the Fishman battery pack. It stays charged for a long time and an LED blinks when you have about 5 hours of charge left. Versatility is important to me and I'm very happy with this set. I would love to try the KSE and Classic sets too.
 
I just got a set for my handmade Marler Strat. I started with Fender Noiseless then Gilmour EMG DG20 then Seymour Duncan Everything then Joe Barden. All lacked something I was looking for. Then I installed a Fluence set with the dual tones. Texas Sound/Vintage.

First there is no noise. The output is strong but not like an icepick. 2/4 still quacks but 2 especially quacks. I love it. All the positions are useable. The pleasant surprise was in creating presets on my new AX8 I did not have the need to create Strat vs LP presets. The presets I tweaked for the Strat played nicely also on my LP. Volume rolls down nicely.

I got the rechargeable battery pack. 3 hours to charge and it last for eons.

It reminds me of the Gilmour EMG's but with tone. The EMG's were super quiet noise wise with a decent hot output but they sounded like cardboard on my install. The Fluence has some tone.

I'm not ready to call them my 'holy grail' yet but I do like them and I just got them.
 
I use them on my Tele and love them! I love the selected (down) fifties mode. It's enough to overdrive most amps....
 
I am very tempted to get a set for my Strat. The guitar is only 5-6 years old the pickups that came with it were Fender Custom shop and they did sound good but noisy as hell at times. Then went to DiMarzio Area 61 & two 58's, noise was gone, but found these a bit harsh on the top end. Tried Fender Noiseless which are currentally in the guitar, they do sound good. You just have accept the fact they "have the flavor of a single coil" but they are not single coils. More pronounced mids. Top end is pleasant but different from a single coil.

John
 
I am a big fan . Got the Koch pups in my custom shop Tele, a vintage humbucker /single cool combo in my reclaimed redwood Strat, and a strat Pick guard version on my Squier....with a Devin set waiting in the wings....IMO, these can’t be beat.
 
6L6C said:
I am very tempted to get a set for my Strat. The guitar is only 5-6 years old the pickups that came with it were Fender Custom shop and they did sound good but noisy as hell at times. Then went to DiMarzio Area 61 & two 58's, noise was gone, but found these a bit harsh on the top end. Tried Fender Noiseless which are currentally in the guitar, they do sound good. You just have accept the fact they "have the flavor of a single coil" but they are not single coils. More pronounced mids. Top end is pleasant but different from a single coil.
Click to expand...

I put this Clapton Mod Kit in my Deluxe Strat...works/sounds great and no noise, plus, I can boost the mids for a double coil overdrive.
 
I tried the Classic set in my PRS 594 and wasn't overly impressed. I A/B'd against my PRS 594 Single Cut with the stock 58/15 LT's and it sounded very similar. This in a way is very good as many people love both the 594's and the 58/15 LT's, but to me it really had to sound significantly better and/or different for it to be worth it. I also thought that the two different voicings was very similar as well. I didn't try the single coil option but my understanding is that the single coil sound would be similar to typical split and noisy humbuckers.

I would have loved them if the two voicings gave more of a difference and they had like DiMarzio area type stacked humbucker but very much single coil sounding option as well. A classic and hotrodded humbucker combined with a noisefree singlecoil sound would be a dream come true.

As it was it didn't really give me anything I didn't have already.
 
Thanks for the reviews thus far everyone. Johan, I especially appreciate your feedback on A/B'ing the same guitar with different pickups.

Something I'm curious about--you mentioned that they sounded very similar to your stock humbuckers in your PRS 594. Was anything tonally missing or "wrong" about the Fluence pickups? And did you end up going back to stock?

Since this is a new way of building pickups (i.e. printing the circuit onto a board, rather than traditional coil wraps), I'm especially curious if this method causes undesirable artifacts or differences from traditional pickup tones. For example, my Native previously had a Fernandes Sustainer pickup in the neck position (the older version before the company was bought out). This pickup had a very brittle, ice-pick style sound on the unwound B and E strings. Sounded alright on the lower strings, but made it a difficult guitar to work with overall. The novelty of infinite sustain came at a price, at least in my case.

Conversely, using an amp modeler (the Axe FX II) doesn't have the same consequence as the sound is wonderful. The engineering that backs the product is top notch.

I'm still intrigued by the Fluence pickups. Some of the videos do sound very good. Unfortunately there tends to be no way to know how these truly sound without using them yourself. I'd love to avoid an expensive mistake if possible.
 
There was absolutely nothing wrong with the pickups. It was just more of the same for me with the Classics compared to the 58/15 LT's. I would guess that the other models make more sense with clearer benefits - i.e. noiseless strat and tele pickups, and possibly the high-gain pickups but I have very little experience with high gain pickups so can't really comment on that.
 
I really dig the Tele Greg Koch set. For Tele, I would not touch any other pickups than these. Awesome Tele sound, no noise, two voicings.

I also have a set of singles installed in a strat I never play. It didn't give me the "friggin great!" reaction like the Tele set, but it might just be this strat, it's kind of a bad strat. I probably need to adjust pickup height more and such, but I never play it anyway so I didn't pursue it.

Johan Allard said:
I also thought that the two different voicings was very similar as well. I didn't try the single coil option but my understanding is that the single coil sound would be similar to typical split and noisy humbuckers.

I would have loved them if the two voicings gave more of a difference and they had like DiMarzio area type stacked humbucker but very much single coil sounding option as well. A classic and hotrodded humbucker combined with a noisefree singlecoil sound would be a dream come true.

As it was it didn't really give me anything I didn't have already.
Click to expand...

Some of the signature Fluence models do exactly what you want. Like Devin Townsend or Tosin Abasi's signature pickups.
 
@bradlake

It was the Greg Koch set that first got my attention, as far as the Fluence pickups. I seem to have more interest in the singles, and less interest in the humbucker versions. And don’t get me wrong every video I see with them out there (that is done well) they sound great! I think my train of thought is.

: Real singles can sound glorious, but have noise problems. If I am chasing that identical sound (or I should say vibe) without the noise, stacked humbuckers can be close but still not the same. So the Fluence pickups seem to be the solution. And from what I have seen they are.

: Real humbuckers can sound glorious, and dont have the noise problems of the singles. Sooo this is when my interest drifts a bit. Nothing to really correct. (for me and what I do)

The Stack Humbuckers: As posted above I have a set of N3’s in my Strat what got me interested in them was a Tele I got that already had N3’s in them and that guitar sounds great! The N3’s get a bad wrap in my book, they sound great! But are finicky when adjusting the pickup height (which is why they get a bad wrap I would think). They may not have that identical vibe as a real single (but they do sound great)


@favance

I have no doubt they sound great, as mentioned above I love my N3’s but the Fluence sets do intrigue me and I think Fishman has taken a big step forward as far as the guitar pickup.


@yeky83

Getting all 5 positions on a Strat to sound great can be challenging, just noodle with it, you will get there.
 
6L6C said:
@bradlake

It was the Greg Koch set that first got my attention, as far as the Fluence pickups. I seem to have more interest in the singles, and less interest in the humbucker versions. And don’t get me wrong every video I see with them out there (that is done well) they sound great! I think my train of thought is.



: Real singles can sound glorious, but have noise problems. If I am chasing that identical sound (or I should say vibe) without the noise, stacked humbuckers can be close but still not the same. So the Fluence pickups seem to be the solution. And from what I have seen they are.

: Real humbuckers can sound glorious, and dont have the noise problems of the singles. Sooo this is when my interest drifts a bit. Nothing to really correct. (for me and what I do)

The Stack Humbuckers: As posted above I have a set of N3’s in my Strat what got me interested in them was a Tele I got that already had N3’s in them and that guitar sounds great! The N3’s get a bad wrap in my book, they sound great! But are finicky when adjusting the pickup height (which is why they get a bad wrap I would think). They may not have that identical vibe as a real single (but they do sound great)


@favance

I have no doubt they sound great, as mentioned above I love my N3’s but the Fluence sets do intrigue me and I think Fishman has taken a big step forward as far as the guitar pickup.


@yeky83

Getting all 5 positions on a Strat to sound great can be challenging, just noodle with it, you will get there.
Click to expand...
when I had the Greg Koch’s installled in my relic CS .tele, , my luthier commented that he had never heard such a marked improvement in a pickup replacement that he had done.......
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom