Re: Couple Fluence questions for Falbo
From a layman's point of view,
I hated the old Active EMG pickups because to me, they sounded flat, dull, no dynamics, no cool harmonics. Since then, anything that has the label Active on it puts me off my feed.
What if the new Fluence had the dynamics, the harmonics, the rich earthly sound of a passive? Hey, I wouldn't care if they ran on ketchup...
Bingo! You are absolutely correct. If everything were perfect as it stands today, every noiseless single coil maker wouldn't have to use terms like "as close as possible" and six billion PAF variations all claiming to be the holy grail. If things were perfect today, no one would be wondering why a 1980's Super Distortion or JB sounds different than a new one.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the fact that the coils run through an electronic buffer circuit, then bypassed to one or other "voicing" and the output is low-impedance makes 'em the very definition of "active" in my book, at least.
You are right, but with a caveat. Active pickups typically start with a wire-wound coil that contains the steep fall offs on the highs and lows, then a heavy load to flatten (smash) the resonant peak, then "mid boosts" via HPF/LPF and some kind of gain boost from the preamp. All of these things squash the dynamics, but more importantly murder the relationship between the dynamics and the frequency response. The interactive ADSR for lack of a better term. For me, (as a player not a product developer) it feels like band-aids on top of band-aids. Or like running the air conditioning and the heat at the same time.
The term active pickup is kind of a made up anyway. (We don't call condensers "active mics) If it means an EMG or a Blackout, then Fluence isn't an active pickup, it's a new kind of pickup that requires a battery. The coil is doing something very different. The magnetic circuit is very traditional, but highly tweaked and different in each model. It's integral to the sound and feel of each one. But for example, when I switch from Ceramic to Alnico, I don't have to "deal with" the shift in the resonance from the inductance. All I hear is the net effect of the Alnico magnetic field, it's permeability, stray flux in the return path, etc. It's the most rewarding experience I've ever had developing pickups.
There is no room for this product, you can't pop out and buy a neck single to try with your rig because they are not compatible, you have to buy the whole system...
That's sort of true for one single on a Strat, but you can get started with one humbucker by popping out an EMG or Blackout, with the same 3-pin connector. The other features you can wire in, or just use the jumpers to hardwire certain settings until you decide whether you want something on a switch or not.
This product will be obsolete within a year or two because as has been proven time and time and time again
, guitarists are conservative....we still demand valve amps , wooden guitars, linked via pedals and cables.
This product is in complete agreement with your second statement. As for your first statement, what do we do in a year if you're wrong? Shall we all meet back here in this thread January 2016? I think that would be fun.
As for Frank's comments, correct me if I'm wrong but it's his job to promote them is it not, which was the idea behind the thread.
Let me be clear: No, this is not my job and I don't want anyone mistaking this. I've been on this forum for many years, before, during, and after being Seymour Duncan's Product guy. The SDUGF premise has always been we can say what we want about Duncan, but we don't bash competitors or their product, partly because it's in poor taste, partly because they're not here to defend themselves. (I don't think you've crossed the line of bashing a competitor BTW) I'm here to answer questions and correct misstatements, plain and simple. Of course I will get carried away with my love for this product, but most people know I have many guitars, a lot of Seymour Duncans, some Dimarzios, Bartolinis, G&L MFD's, Gibson, Fender, and a lot of other pickups in my guitars. Now I have a some Fluence pickups as well, and they're getting used a lot. I've always spoken objectively here on the forum, never been a company shill for Seymour Duncan, and am not one for Fluence. I'm on the design team, but will not abuse my stature here to promote them. Out of respect for Seymour Duncan I will always keep my replies limited to threads that are specific to Fluence and/or contain falsehoods about them, which benefits everyone including Seymour Duncan.
If you fully believe in this product you should have seized the opportunity to educate us non believers but you failed miserably.
Respectfully, that's a false premise. You can't (and shouldn't) design product to please everybody. You get product that pleases nobody. Ferrari wastes zero time trying to educate and convert the average Honda customer, and vice versa. While at Duncan, I never went into a thread about Blackouts and tried to make someone a believer in the Distortion, or tried to convince an Antiquity customer to try the Jazz. I would love it if you tried these one day, for your own edification. If your opinion changes, that'll be great. Until then there are plenty of people who get what we're doing, many even in this thread. No hard feelings!
