Fishman Fluence Telecaster pickups stink

[johnstone]

You may remember back when I said I went and ordered the Fluence Tele pickups and I said I would get back and tell ya what I thought. Well I got them about a week ago and didn't have much trouble putting them in the guitar but that was the last of the good news I have to say about these things Luckily the place I bought them from are willing to take them back and they are packaged and on there way back right now. I don't know how to talk about how a guitar or pickup does like most of you but I do know enough to say these things are not what I think a Telecaster should sound like no matter how many switches and gizmos they have put in them. I get better sound just putting my Tele up agaings a door and playing. Well that's just my opinion maybe they sound good to some people I guess they should for what they cost I'm just hear to say that you better play them before you buy them and not make the mistake I made listening to what some other people had to say.

 

[Masta' C]

Re: Fishman Fluence Telecaster pickups stink

Can you elaborate at all?

What issues were you having?

 

[stratguy23]

Re: Fishman Fluence Telecaster pickups stink

I'm curious about the details, too. All the video demos Greg Koch has done have sounded pretty good. Of course, I didn't witness any demos in person, and Koch could make anything sound good, but none of them made me think that the pickups were missing the mark.

Here's one of those demos, selected randomly:

 

[Stratman]

Re: Fishman Fluence Telecaster pickups stink

Without picture of you and that tele -I call BS.

I have a set installed into ASH body with a maple neck and they sound great!

 

[johnstone]

Re: Fishman Fluence Telecaster pickups stink

All I can say is to me they don't have a Telecaster sparkle they just seem flat I don't know how to explain it any better they just aren't right for me. I'm not saying they are are bad for everyone but I think you should listen to them and try them in person so you know if they are right for you like the old saying don't buy a pig in a poke that's what I did and I shouldn't have. Stratman I am glad you are happy with yours and that isn't a picture of me that is a guitar picker who probably was the best Tele player of all time.

 

[darthphineas]

Re: Fishman Fluence Telecaster pickups stink

I don't know how to explain it any better they just aren't right for me. I'm not saying they are are bad for everyone but I think you should listen to them and try them in person so you know if they are right for you

try sharing that with Beantown and you risk condescension and denigration.

I mean, what do we common folk know that the rock stars on the cover of the guitar magazines don't?

 

[Demanic]

Re: Fishman Fluence Telecaster pickups stink

Well, that's why it's good to have lots of choices. One man's trash, you know.
Hope you find a set that suits you better. I'm thinking that you will.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

 

[Luke Duke]

Re: Fishman Fluence Telecaster pickups stink

Man, that's crazy. I've heard those pups in person and they were killer sounding...I thought. Did you charge the battery up
Before you played the pups? It doesn't come charged up.

Just trying to help.

Luke

 

[leevc5]

Re: Fishman Fluence Telecaster pickups stink

We go round and round with this and always end up at pickup choice is subjective. There is no point in saying any one pickup stinks.

I have gathered together four guitars with HH configuration and four different sets of Humbuckers: Fluence Classics; Gibson 498T and 490R; Duncan Jazz neck and Kent Armstrong bridge; SD 59s. I am going to make simple sound samples with them this weekend using a FiiO headphone amp going directly into my computer. I will post a link to these very simple samples so that we can all hear the difference and yes there are significant differences in all these pickups that claim to capture the P.A.F. tone. And they all probably do capture the P.A.F. tone because as we have read there were literally thousands of P.A.F.s built with very poor process control yielding a wide variety of tones.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Fishman Fluence Telecaster pickups stink

Well, I guess we accept all sorts of reviews here. This must be where I step in and show you our wonderful selection of Tele pickups....

 

[Rand-O-Monium]

Re: Fishman Fluence Telecaster pickups stink

Man, that's crazy. I've heard those pups in person and they were killer sounding...I thought. Did you charge the battery up
Before you played the pups? It doesn't come charged up.

Just trying to help.

Luke

Good to know...

 

[LtKojak]

Re: Fishman Fluence Telecaster pickups stink

I think your disappointment is mostly due to lacking specific active p'up setup skills.

Been there, done that, learned my lesson, never happened again.

HTH,

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Fishman Fluence Telecaster pickups stink

The other obvious question is, through what amplification were the pickups tested?

 

[johnstone]

Re: Fishman Fluence Telecaster pickups stink

The other obvious question is, through what amplification were the pickups tested?

I played them through the Aux input on my iHome clock radio do you think that might be why they didn't sound any good?:wrf:

 

[Masta' C]

Re: Fishman Fluence Telecaster pickups stink

I played them through the Aux input on my iHome clock radio do you think that might be why they didn't sound any good?:wrf:

It's cool. You didn't dig 'em. We get it.

A lot of people here are problem solvers and that's a LOT of what the pickup area is about, so we naturally want to figure out what went wrong and part of that is assessing what factors were involved, especially with a product as new, intriguing and positively reviewed as the Fluence pickups.

At this point, it really makes no difference because you already sent the pickups back, but curious minds remain curious

Sorry they weren't what you'd hoped they would be

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Fishman Fluence Telecaster pickups stink

I played them through the Aux input on my iHome clock radio do you think that might be why they didn't sound any good?:wrf:

Sand gets everywhere.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Fishman Fluence Telecaster pickups stink

Pickups and tone are all personal preference.
Those pickups obviously don't work for you.
It feels a little harsh to start a thread just to dump on them tho.

Less than 20 posts on this forum and no track record of considered reviewing or discussion makes me wonder if this thread is not motivated by something other than one player's review of a pickup set. You have also not really given any helpful information apart from the "putting your guitar against a door" and the "clock radio" comment.


If somehow the company had stiffed you on something, such as not accepting returns, poor build quality etc then go for it, but that is not the case.

If someone was considering buying a set and they googled "fishman fluence telecaster review" this thread would show up and someone who might have otherwise liked them will miss out. That, and the fact that it is hard enough starting a guitar business and especially being brave enough to innovate makes me feel that this thread is mean spirited and quite obviously intended to hurt the company.

 

[johnstone]

Re: Fishman Fluence Telecaster pickups stink

Pickups and tone are all personal preference.
Those pickups obviously don't work for you.
It feels a little harsh to start a thread just to dump on them tho.

Less than 20 posts on this forum and no track record of considered reviewing or discussion makes me wonder if this thread is not motivated by something other than one player's review of a pickup set. You have also not really given any helpful information apart from the "putting your guitar against a door" and the "clock radio" comment.


If somehow the company had stiffed you on something, such as not accepting returns, poor build quality etc then go for it, but that is not the case.

If someone was considering buying a set and they googled "fishman fluence telecaster review" this thread would show up and someone who might have otherwise liked them will miss out. That, and the fact that it is hard enough starting a guitar business and especially being brave enough to innovate makes me feel that this thread is mean spirited and quite obviously intended to hurt the company.

You are right and I should not have started this thing the way I did I was disappointed and really allitle mad that the pickups didn't sound any good to me. If there is a way for me to change the name of this thing to the pickups were not right for me I will do it just tell me how I don't want to stop anyone who might like them to miss out. I'm not out to hurt anybody I just shoot from the hip sometimes and most times I do I regret it.

 

[frankfalbo]

Re: Fishman Fluence Telecaster pickups stink

The way I see it there are two different narratives. First, is the notion that everything we do is rooted in personal preference. That part is true, but nebulous.

When we include qualifiers like "doesn't have the sparkle of a Tele" then we're starting to get into harder data, that can be corroborated, debunked, or used to troubleshoot whether something went wrong about install or the pickups. Like, if "sparkle" means the high treble that's above the resonant peak of the pickup, Fluence has MORE of that content than any wire-wound coil does, and I can prove it on a scope. It still doesn't mean you'd have to like it, only that if you didn't hear that sparkle (assuming we're talking about the same thing) then yeah, something was wrong. Either with the install, the tone was rolled down....stuff like that.

I mean Greg Koch is like, one of the current reigning kings of the telecaster. He's over the moon about the increased sparkle for example. He's not nuts, and Fluence is consistent, which leads me to believe something was wrong, but I don't know because I wasn't there. If someday you get to try them again, and they're nothing like you remember these, then that would mean there was something wrong.

 

[leevc5]

Re: Fishman Fluence Telecaster pickups stink

I have a set of Greg Koch Fluence and I am still on the fence as to how good they are.

I was/~am hard over on Tele Twisted Pair sound with four way switch as the only real Telecaster sound. But like all new pups I have ever installed it takes time to adjust and really get a feel for what they really offer. I don't think anyone can just drop a new set of pups in a guitar and expect to appreciate them in an hour or even a week or more. You gotta live with them for a while.