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Post by nicholas on Dec 24, 2021 8:06:58 GMT -7
I decided to upgrade one of my guitars with the Fishmam Fluence Greg Koch P90s. I have an ES330 hollow body with dog ears and a LP junior soap bar. I've been looking for something a little different for one of them. For the traditional P90 tone the ES330 is great. No need to mess with that. So I thought I'd try them in my LP Jr.
Since I'll have one guitar with "real" P90's I thought I'd go the noiseless route for the other. I can't believe how much I like the hum free tele pickups in my Suhr. So that started the idea to try some hum free P90s in the Jr.
What grabbed me most about the Fishman P90's is while others make hum free P90's, these have 3 voicings built in to select from w/ push pull pots. Hot, vintage, and strat style single coil. So I figured if I'm going away from a traditional p90 why not have a few different options on board?
The demos I've listened all sound very good. I'll post back when I get them and get it all installed. They offer a rechargeable battery option which I went with. It's the a combination backplate / battery which seems slick.
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Post by Chilly Gibbons (Todd T.) on Dec 24, 2021 9:51:30 GMT -7
Nicholas, do you know how the three voicings work? Are they coil taps?
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Post by Chilly Gibbons (Todd T.) on Dec 24, 2021 9:52:39 GMT -7
Just read the last part, they’re active.
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Post by nicholas on Dec 24, 2021 10:35:10 GMT -7
Just read the last part, they’re active. Yeah, active. You can wire them up several different ways. I'll probably just use two push pull pots and have each pot change both pickups, like in the demo. Fishman seems well regarded with thier active acoustic pickups and preamps. They have been well recieved in the hard rock crowd with the newer Fluence humbuckers. Those have multiple voices too. So it seems like they know how to do the active thing well. I don't expect them to sound exactly like a P90. I'm expecting something cool sounding but different from anything else I have.
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Post by nicholas on Jan 7, 2022 16:14:21 GMT -7
I got the Fishman Gristle Tones in yesterday. They come as a nice kit with everything you need (if you have a 3 pot guitar). So I needed to order a fourth pot as I didn't have any 25k pots around. Other than that everything was in the box. I also got the optional backplate which has a rechargeable battery and charging port. The instructions said you get 260 hours of use on a charge which seems like plenty. It has a little led that lights up when the battery needs a charge. Looks like Gibson changed how they mount P90's. In the past they used wood screws and a piece of foam as a spring for the pickup. Now they use threaded metal plates in the pickup routes with machine screws to secure the pickup to it. There are two steel springs that support the pickup. I was unaware of this the whole time I had this guitar. Seems like a better system to me. The fine thread machine screws allow more intricate adjustments without wearing out. The pickups themselves are pretty low key. You have to look close to see they're any different than normal P90's. This is the backplate. It really rounds out the install. It's nice not having to take off the back plate to change a battery, or route a battery door in the body. I plugged in to test them out after the install and thought they sounded great! I had a little more time today. First few impressions are very favorable. They sound like P90's to me. They have 3 voices that you select with the push / pull pots. I wired it up with the standard voice with both pots in normal position. To me this position sounds similar to the Lollar standard winds in my ES330. When you pull the bridge tone pot it selects voice 2 which sounds like a overwound hot P90. This is the ballpark of the Gibson P90's that were in it, maybe a bit stronger. Very similar. Pulling the neck tone pot selects voice 3, and over rides voice two if it was engaged. This position sounds pretty darn similar to a tele. I've found all 3 positions very useful. Seems well though out on how they switch. I'll check back after I get some more time on them, but I'm pretty blown away. I'm really digging the overwound voice. It gets a great rude and brash P90 type growl when the amp is overdriving, and then I can switch to the "tele" voice and it's almost like turning off an overdrive pedal! Very useful for sure. I'm digging this.
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Post by Chilly Gibbons (Todd T.) on Jan 7, 2022 16:40:05 GMT -7
Very sharp looking setup. And no foam as a “spring” underneath the pickup is a nice evolution for Gibson.
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