Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker -any updates, it's been a couple of years

[leevc5]

http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/22737-fishman-fluence-classic-humbuckers-review

Sound conceptually very interesting. Nothing in music stores around me to try. Anybody here given them a real road test? Would be very interested in your impressions.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker -any updates, it's been a couple of years

Still a PITA to obtain abroad, too. Tele models have been out for months. Still not a sniff over here.

Mr. John Jolly may be able to assist with your question.

Falbo has the answers but, of course, he risks accusations of partiality.

 

[darthphineas]

Re: Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker -any updates, it's been a couple of years

I've been checking them out for a while. I published a review the other week that can be found HERE or via the green links below.

it also references a link to a review of the Classic set from February.

I should have the Devin Townsend set in about 2 weeks.

 

[leevc5]

Re: Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker -any updates, it's been a couple of years

I've been checking them out for a while. I published a review the other week that can be found HERE or via the green links below.

it also references a link to a review of the Classic set from February.

I should have the Devin Townsend set in about 2 weeks.

Fine reviews. I hate to say it because I am afraid I am becoming a persona non grata here but... the definition on the Classic set demo is truly remarkable. I don't think I have heard an SD pup with as much clarity.

 

[Securb]

Re: Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker -any updates, it's been a couple of years

I have like Darth also reviewed the Fluence with the same favorable results. They are an excellent pickup. Fishman is a few miles equidistant from my home and work. I have meant to get over there to check out the new Tele pickups at some point. I have only heard great things about them.

http://www.tmrzoo.com/2014/63358/fishman-fluence-pickups-hands-review

 

[darthphineas]

Re: Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker -any updates, it's been a couple of years

Fine reviews. I hate to say it because I am afraid I am becoming a persona non grata here but... the definition on the Classic set demo is truly remarkable. I don't think I have heard an SD pup with as much clarity.

Thanks

Ken is a great player and I think that video demo he produced for the Classic set is an excellent showcase for what they can do.

 

[Myaccount876]

Re: Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker -any updates, it's been a couple of years

What is the vintage mode on the fluence like - as in, what type of EQ curve? Really low output? Medium output? Spongy attack? Does it have a sharp high/upper mid bite? I'm curious, because I think maybe the FF would sit well with my number 1. It's a single-bridge pickup guitar with one volume knob, and it currently has a DiMarzio Bluesbucker in it. It fares very well for a medium output cross between a P90 and humbucker, but sometimes a song can just call for a higher output pickup/slightly different voicing. I would definitely consider the fluency if the vintage voicing fits the bill, with the extra option of a modern active voicing at the flick of a switch. Also, can the voicing a be changed via push/pull pot? It'll work in a single volume knob configuration, right? Do they just use normal potentiometers (with all the preamp circuitry in the pickup) that are wired as normal or do you have to buy special pots specifically for these pickups? I really don't know much about these pickups/their construction.

 

[darthphineas]

Re: Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker -any updates, it's been a couple of years

The Fluence sets I bought came with wiring and basic pots and push-pull lots and so on. The voice selection can be done via a push-pull if you want...or if you prefer, an applicable switch. As for a single pickup, maybe call in to Fishman if you want and confirm to be totally certain.

The Voice 1 is like a vintage PAF. Voice 2 is like a hot-rodded (read between the lines) humbucker. Neither sounds like an "active" pickup. My review has an official Fishman video of the full set installed in a Slash Les Paul being run through several different styles by 2 different players. Hearing something like that might say a lot more about the versatility.

I also have a DiMarzio Bluesbucker. Cool pickup. I like it. I think you'll get 2 different voicings and I think you'll find the hot-rodded voice to have more output.

 

[Securb]

Re: Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker -any updates, it's been a couple of years

My review has an official Fishman video of the full set installed in a Slash Les Paul

That's Ken's Les Paul, the same guitar I demoed the Fluence pickups on. The action on that guitar is amazing. Talk about a beast of a Les Paul

 

[darthphineas]

Re: Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker -any updates, it's been a couple of years

That's Ken's Les Paul, the same guitar I demoed the Fluence pickups on. The action on that guitar is amazing. Talk about a beast of a Les Paul

they're on tour (or maybe just came off tour?). I think they slipped right pass Dallas from one town to another. he's a nice dude. I hope to catch up with him at some point.

 

[Myaccount876]

Re: Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker -any updates, it's been a couple of years

Are there two Fluence humbucker models? Hot Rod and Classic? Would the Hot Rod have a high output humbucker voicing and a PAF voicing, while the Classic has two different PAF voicings?

And the high output voicing doesn't sound like an active? That's cool - I'd really be equally fine with either an "active" or "passive" voicing as an addition to a lower output voicing.

Now for the PAF voicing, which type of PAF are we talking about? For example: Flat EQ? '59 voicing? Alnico II Pro voicing? Pearly Gates? Antiquity? 36th Ann PAF? I don't mean to ask if the Fluence sounds like any of those pickups exactly - if I wanted any of those pickups' sounds, I'd use the actual pickup. What I'm asking is for a ballpark description - scooped/low output like a '59? Bright and clear like a Jazz? Mellow and smooth like an A2P? Moderate output with upper mid/treble bite/twang like a PG? I'm asking for an estimate.

 

[frankfalbo]

Re: Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker -any updates, it's been a couple of years

I'll try to answer as succinctly as possible, there are a lot of questions there.

First, there is a Classic set, neck and bridge, and there's a Modern Alnico and Modern Ceramic. (Most players will use the M.A. in the neck, M.C. in the bridge, but those are interchangeable) and then the new Devin Townsend and Steph Carpenter sets.

Let's focus on the Classic set. Each pickup has two distinct voices. That's where I think you might be hearing "classic" and "hot rodded". To describe the voices using other pickups you're familiar with, you have to first know that Fluence doesn't have to sound like "one thing" while trading off other things. You can think of it like segmenting off each characteristic. So an under-wound PAF has clarity and openness, which is lost when you over-wind a PAF. We can have the clarity of an under-wound, the output and lower mids of an over-wound, the sweeter top and clearer lows of an Alnico II and the punch of A5, whatever we want really. Whatever combination of positive features from different pickups, and the absence of any of the negatives that go along with them.

Classic Neck Voice 1: Vintage PAF, lots of underwound & Alnico II qualities, but at "regular wind PAF" output level. None of the bassy muddiness of a 59, not scooped like a 59 either. The clarity coexists with sweetness.

Classic Neck Voice 2: A sound not really obtainable prior to Fluence. More detail and presence in the high treble, for almost a single coil or acoustic type of pick attack, but also with even more low mids so it's smooth at the same time. Depending on how you play, it's either giving you very smooth liquidy solos with good pick attack, or chimey cleans.

Classic Bridge Voice 1: punchier, more overwound PAF voice, still with underwound top end clarity, a little of the '78 sizzle on top, too.

Classic Bridge Voice 2: Hot Rodded bridge pickup tone. The tonal footprint falls within the realm of my holy grail 1970's butyrate bobbin double cream JB. (Which does not sound like a new one, they're practically different pickups) but the attack and decay are all Fluence, as is the tonal density and more clarity.

 

[frankfalbo]

Re: Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker -any updates, it's been a couple of years

Fine reviews. I hate to say it because I am afraid I am becoming a persona non grata here but... the definition on the Classic set demo is truly remarkable. I don't think I have heard an SD pup with as much clarity.

Yeah the Zephyrs came close, but they're still a traditional wind. The real difference when we talk about the definition has to do with phase alignment, reduced distributed capacitance, and less comb filtering. The notes hit the amp more aligned, so even under a lot of distortion, the fundamentals of the notes in the chord are preserved and the harmonic multiples are aligned with the fundamental.

 

[JOLLY]

Re: Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker -any updates, it's been a couple of years

Give me a couple of weeks.

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/sho...Two-People-In-The-World-Own-These-Pickups-And

 

[thanaton]

Re: Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker -any updates, it's been a couple of years

Yeah the Zephyrs came close, but they're still a traditional wind. The real difference when we talk about the definition has to do with phase alignment, reduced distributed capacitance, and less comb filtering. The notes hit the amp more aligned, so even under a lot of distortion, the fundamentals of the notes in the chord are preserved and the harmonic multiples are aligned with the fundamental.

That's interesting. I wonder what it is about vintage design pickups that would cause the harmonics to have a different phase angle than the fundamental.

 

[frankfalbo]

Re: Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker -any updates, it's been a couple of years

The higher the frequency, the shorter the wave. In a traditional wound coil, you get close to the strings with the windings, then further away, down at the bottom of the coil. Then you repeat that a bunch of times. There is distributed capacitance, loosely described as crosstalk between the wires, at all different locations within the magnetic field disturbance. It's also often occurring within the magnetic field's return path. That means there is some comb filtering. All of this results in what you might call a phase smearing.

Another way to look at it would be if you had a microphone diaphragm that was 1 foot long, and you placed it near a speaker at a 45° angle. The sound hits the back of the diaphragm later than the front of the diaphragm even though the final outcome is based on the total movement of the diaphragm. Obviously pickups are not hearing microphonically. It is not a perfect analogy but you can see how individual wraps within the coil are basically degrading the signal as the move in and out of proximity of one another, and closer/further from the string, and across different flux patterns.

It's not necessarily group delay, where I can say the bass is first, the mids are next, the highs are last. Instead, there is just a time constant where everything smears. You could loosely relate it to the resonant peak of the coil but since high frequencies are shorter than low frequencies, it doesn't entirely pan out that way.

The Fluence coils, in addition to all being very close to the string, are all compacted in a tight area, and built layer-by-layer. You can't wind a pickup that way. So the audio penetrates the coil one layer at a time, and in order. Zephyr was a small step in this direction because the silver is about 6% more conductive, and the Cryo would lay down impurities and hash on the wire surface (where a disproportionate amount of signal travels). So you could think of Zephyr as being about 6% faster at bundling all of the frequencies together and sending them down the cable. So it's a reduction in smearing, but by a smaller amount. Fluence, for example, has a distributed capacitance that is 10x lower than even the most scatterwound coil. Couple that with the time alignment and that's where you have someone saying they "feel faster" with a more immediate response. They're not wrong and it's not psychosomatic.

 

[JOLLY]

Re: Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker -any updates, it's been a couple of years

^^^^^^^^I love this guy!!

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker -any updates, it's been a couple of years

Shoot. Now, I'm gonna have to buy a set.

 

[Myaccount876]

Re: Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker -any updates, it's been a couple of years

If I can justify allocating some funds for guitar gear in the near future, I'll buy a fluence bridge pickup.

 

[leevc5]

Re: Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker -any updates, it's been a couple of years

I ordered a set of modern humbuckers yesterday. $180 on ebay (with a 6" Fender guitar cord!). Just have been overwhelmed by the positive things that have been posted here about these pups. Thanks all, I hope they live up to your reviews.