Please help me decide on which Fishman Fluence set to get next!

[Rex_Rocker]

I'm back in love with active pickups! Particularly, Fishman Fluences. I have the Will Adlers on my Epi and the KSE's on my Gibson.

I want to try some other set. I'm trying to decide between all of the active-voiced models.

Moderns - I've already had a set and loved them. These would be the safest bet, but I like trying different stuff out as well. Plus the passive voice on these, while usable, doesn't excite me all that much, TBH.

Devins - The clips sounds pretty cool! Like fatter and warmer moderns, exactly the opposite of the KSE's. However, the focus on these seems to the be the single coil mode. For me, it's nice to have a single coil mode available, but not necessary. I'd rather have a killer passive-sounding humbucker voice, and the passive voice on these seems to me like more of an afterthought. But maybe I'm wrong?

Tosins - Don't really know much about these other than one of the voices is a tweaked version of Moderns' Voice 1. If so, does anyone know what way is it tweaked in?

So which ones do you think I should go for next?

Thanks!

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Skip the Tosins if you're not trying to duplicate all his tones.

Just out of curiosity, have you put EMGs back in anything since you got into Fluence?

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Skip the Tosins if you're not trying to duplicate all his tones.

Just out of curiosity, have you put EMGs back in anything since you got into Fluence?

I haven't had EMG's for a while, but when I first got the Fluences, my other guitar had EMG's, so I did had a chance to compare them.

Some time later, I did have the EMG Jim Roots, but those sound completely different from the usual go to EMG's.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Was just curious. When I want *that* sound, EMG ultimately won out for me.

I’m still curious to try the (now discontinued) Keith Merrow Fluences. It’s a Classic neck with a tweaked Classic bridge. At the same time, Keith semi-recently went to Lundgren, so…

I really do need to try some 6 string Fluences. Lots of ERG players end up feeling like I did about the Fluences, but the 6 string guys seem to keep liking them.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Was just curious. When I want *that* sound, EMG ultimately won out for me.

I’m still curious to try the (now discontinued) Keith Merrow Fluences. It’s a Classic neck with a tweaked Classic bridge. At the same time, Keith semi-recently went to Lundgren, so…

I really do need to try some 6 string Fluences. Lots of ERG players end up feeling like I did about the Fluences, but the 6 string guys seem to keep liking them.

Well, it depends on what you want. For me, through my setup, I feel the Fluence Modern Ceramic did what I liked about the 81, just better, but there's a few other EMG's that don't have a Fishman equivalent that are worth at least trying. I still like the 60, Hets, and 57/66 set. But it seems like something changed in newer EMG's regarding the components they used that the newer ones just don't sound the same.

That being said, there are a couple Fluences that do the passive feel and tone way better than anything from the "standard" EMG lineup. I still feel that the passive voicings on Fluences still have their own thing going on (compared to actual passives), but the Fluence Classics are WAY closer than the 57/66, which is EMG's most passive-like offering (other than the Retroactives, which I'm not all that interested in, TBH), I guess.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

I think actives that feel passive are something I'm not really interested in anymore. The more passive like they get, the less they do the thing I wanted them to do. I do like the EMG 81x, which seems very similar to 18V. There is a little more headroom, but they're still 100% *that* sound.

My current favorite sounding guitar is a Carvin DC127, has the house brand Lithium pickups, and the FIshman piezo bridge. I don't use the piezo or the treble boost, so 3 of the 4 knobs are worthless, but it sounds absolutely ferocious.

Have you tried the Blackout preamp with passives?

edit- apologies for the semi-hijack, but you’re pretty much the only other person on here who still prefers hot bridge pickups.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

No worries, I love chatting about pickups!

No, I have not tried the modular Blackout thing. I have only tried the standard AHB-1B Blackout as far as Duncan actives go.

 

[JOLLY]

No worries, I love chatting about pickups!

No, I have not tried the modular Blackout thing. I have only tried the standard AHB-1B Blackout as far as Duncan actives go.

You should try the Blackout neck pickup in the bridge position. I love it

 

[Rex_Rocker]

You should try the Blackout neck pickup in the bridge position. I love it

Isn't that one like fatter even than the Ceramic bridge one?

 

[jeremy]

the neck model in the bridge will be clearer and have less output than the bridge model. its fat and warm in the neck but much less so in the bridge

 

[JOLLY]

Isn't that one like fatter even than the Ceramic bridge one?

Jeremy pretty much nailed it.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

So I ended up going for Moderns, and man, I adore these pickups.

I'm undecided wether I dig the KSE's or these better. The KSE's have got a vicious attack, but the Moderns are incredible as well.

 

[rollingpap7]

Fishman - Fluence Open Core Classic.

Set or Bridge only, either way PLEASE GIVE IT A TRY.

Active version of the very first hum-bucking pickups; it will sound good on any guitar only 3 voicing option added.

Huge leap from Modern.

 

[Seashore]

Fishman - Fluence Open Core Classic.

Set or Bridge only, either way PLEASE GIVE IT A TRY.

Active version of the very first hum-bucking pickups; it will sound good on any guitar only 3 voicing option added.

Huge leap from Modern.

If only they offered 7 string versions that fit the same mounting holes as the Moderns.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Fishman - Fluence Open Core Classic.

Set or Bridge only, either way PLEASE GIVE IT A TRY.

Active version of the very first hum-bucking pickups; it will sound good on any guitar only 3 voicing option added.

Huge leap from Modern.

Already tried them. Love them! Or at least the bridge pickup. The neck, not so much. :biglaugh:

 

[rollingpap7]

Already tried them. Love them! Or at least the bridge pickup. The neck, not so much. :biglaugh:

happens to be only way to fulfill two humbucker routed guitar matching the bridge.
or single coil in the Neck and Classic bridge?

anyone tried matching Classic Bridge with different Fishman Humbucker?

 

[Rex_Rocker]

happens to be only way to fulfill two humbucker routed guitar matching the bridge.
or single coil in the Neck and Classic bridge?

anyone tried matching Classic Bridge with different Fishman Humbucker?

The thing for me is that when I had them, Voice 2 on the bridge was my default. Voice 1 on the bridge was useable, but not typically what I reached out for.

I thought Voice 1 in the neck was underpowered for Voice 2 in the bridge, and Voice 2 in the neck I never really got what to use it for. It just sounded odd to me. Like REALLY round with a weird peak in the uppermost treble. I've read some people claim it's meant to sound like a semihollow, others claim it's one of the Fender wide range humbuckers. Either way, it just didn't sound good to me.

 

[misterwhizzy]

This is off-topic for the thread, but how does the switching on these work? There are two voices and a coil split accessible via a push-pull pot?

 

[krovatron]

This is off-topic for the thread, but how does the switching on these work? There are two voices and a coil split accessible via a push-pull pot?

Any kind of switching device that would allow to terminate/connect a ground. Most use push/pull pots or 2 or 3 way mini switches. On some models Jackson uses a mega multi 5 way switch to put single coil voice on position 2 and 4. I dig using a switch in such a way.

 

[Seashore]

This is off-topic for the thread, but how does the switching on these work? There are two voices and a coil split accessible via a push-pull pot?

I've had a couple different setups. The push-pulls on my 2-knob guitars switched between humbucker voices (V for the neck pickup and T for the bridge) and the coil split wasn't wired up. The Moderns in those guitars had pins for a high-frequency tilt and a low-volume setting, but didn't have pins for the coil taps - just small solder points labeled on the board. My LP came with the Matt Heafy Moderns, which use the Modern humbucker voices but also have pins for the coil split. The push-pull on the volume knob for each pickup switched between humbucker voices and the tone knobs activated the coil splits. Single coil voice on those sounded great.