Fluence Abasi

[JB_From_Hell]

My 8 string came with the Fishman Fluence Abasi set. For those who laugh at the idea of one guitar being able to cover any style, these do it.

Voice 1 on the bridge and neck pickups is a modern, thick sound. The bridge has a lot of low mids, and the neck is very smooth and full for lead playing. The bridge is a little hairy for cleans, but the neck is great.

Voice 2 is an idealized PAF neck, tons of clarity with a little bite, sounds killer from icy clean to massive gain. The bridge is everything you want from a JB. The low F# isn’t as good with heavy gain as V1, but from the top 7 strings are incredible. Old school metal, hairy cleans, chunky riffing, hard rock, it’s all there.

My guitar is wired with a 5 way for neck, neck and bridge single coils voiced like a Tele, both as humbuckers, neck and bridge singles like a Strat, and bridge. As such, I don’t have each pickup split by itself, but the 2 and 4 are excellent.

 

[justFred]

Agreed...put a set in my PRS and find them to cover a wide range and the clean tones beautiful...

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Just an update after the honeymoon is wearing off. I've messed with the pickup heights a little, lowering the bridge very, very slightly. There is nothing these things won't do. Also, I just discovered adding compression on my amp to the single coil tones... dear god. I may never pick up a Strat again.

The option of having an onboard rechargeable battery is great, too. I play it at least an hour every day, some days maybe as much as 3 or 4 hours, and haven't had it die on me yet. I charged it during the first week I had it just because, and plugged it back in today, because I'd kind of forgotten the pickups were active. Fishman advertises "weeks, not hours" of battery life, so it seemed like 3 weeks was a good time to charge it.

The way it's setup, the charging jack is in the cavity cover, so there's no ugly extra compartments or removing screws or anything.

 

[Hot Octopus]

I have the KIllswitch Engage set in my PRS and they’re hifi and articulate. Its something I never expected to get from an active pickup. I always hated actives, but the KSE Fluence seems to have changed all that. Voice 1 is sharp and aggressive and voice 2 sounds like a moderate output Super 3. I’ve thought about trying the 6-string abasi’s but they sound a little nasal from the demos I’ve heard. Is that not the case?

 

[JB_From_Hell]

It depends on the amp setting, but overall, I would not say they're nasal sounding.

 

[Artie]

The way it's setup, the charging jack is in the cavity cover, so there's no ugly extra compartments or removing screws or anything.

This is such a cool idea. I wonder why more company's don't offer this.

Anyway . . . these sound sweet. Now you have me GAS'ing for a set.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Read up on the tech behind them, and know they live up to all the claims.