Fishman pickups, why so much hatred now?

[Ralyks]

Oh, I will say this: their customer service is indeed an issue. Not because they're bad, it's because THERE ARE ONLY TWO REPS IN THE UNITED STATES.

I know this because my tech has had to call them for installations on my Strandberg a couple of times and it's literally what they said.

 

[Randy]

Hand mined metals from old world methods by monks trained from birth. Only raw ore is used to smelt our tonemetals,, no recycled metals with an untonely past life.

Extra virgin tonemetals

 

[M3CHK1LLA]

...Fishmans are rated ~200 hours on a battery, while EMGS and Duncans are rated ~1500 hours.

200 hours? man, i knew i haven't been playing my guitar enough...that battery has been in there over 5 months.

shows i need to practice more, and i'll do that after i put my iphone 3 on its charger...

 

[aWoodenShip]

Oof as someone who just committed to buying a KM7 how do we feel about the Keith Merrow ones?

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Oof as someone who just committed to buying a KM7 how do we feel about the Keith Merrow ones?

meh. They're tweaked classics basically.

 

[MrWulf]

The KM is not bad at all. The neck is open core but the bridge is solid stuff. It's very chunky, tight and have lots of articulation/dynamic with it.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

200 hours? man, i knew i haven't been playing my guitar enough...that battery has been in there over 5 months.

shows i need to practice more, and i'll do that after i put my iphone 3 on its charger...

Yep, straight from the website. Also can confirm because when I had Fluence Classics in my main player, I was changing batteries CONSTANTLY.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I don’t think it is hatred so much as the hype of something new has worn off and in the end, the EMGs just stand the test of time as workhorse active pickups. Look at the range of people who have used the 81 alone, ranging from Steve Lukather to Metallica in the past 40 years.

Having said that, I do find the Greg Koch P90 and Tele sets interesting.

 

[Stuck_in_a_dream]

I still love them, frustrated at lack of diversity (no 7, 8 strings for artists models, how about non-soapbar MS models), hardly any new pickups (nothing since JR set except only cosmetic releases), some passive pickups sound really great, trying out new stuff, all of the above really.

 

[IwantTacos]

I don’t think it is hatred so much as the hype of something new has worn off and in the end, the EMGs just stand the test of time as workhorse active pickups. Look at the range of people who have used the 81 alone, ranging from Steve Lukather to Metallica in the past 40 years.

Having said that, I do find the Greg Koch P90 and Tele sets interesting.

If only they’d release that tele set without all the extra bits.

 

[Lemonbaby]

I used a set of Classics in a 2016 build and that Fishman rechargeable battery pack broke down after four years of use i.e. it only kept power for roughly a week with a few hours of playing. Threw out the PUs and the battery pack and went with other passive HBs. The sound of the Fishman Classics was nothing special, so no big loss (except for the money paid in the first place).

 

[Lozek]

Please keep this thread going. I love my Classics and want to try some Townsends, if you guys can drive down the hype and hopefully pricing, that would be great for me.

 

[RevDrucifer]

Please keep this thread going. I love my Classics and want to try some Townsends, if you guys can drive down the hype and hopefully pricing, that would be great for me.

I LOVE the Townsend’s. They do exactly what they’re advertised to do and quite convincingly.

 

[Tree]

Oof as someone who just committed to buying a KM7 how do we feel about the Keith Merrow ones?

MkIII with all three voicings? Or something with just the 2 voicings by default?

If you have all three they're incredibly versatile. I flip flop on loving them, or just being content, but they're honestly really great. Being that they are tweaked Classics, they actually have useable sounds unlike the Moderns.

Voice 1: the best "feeling" for playing metal rhythms and leads IMO.
Voice 2: while it doesn't feel as good to play on, records the best.
Voice 3: sick as split coil sounds. Honestly very convincing single coil tones as long as you're not doing a direct A/B.

I think you'll be plenty happy with them.

I haven't gotten to try the whole Fishman lineup yet, but the KMs and Classics are probably the best for someone that doesn't only want djent or fucked up Matt Heafy tones

 

[Lemonbaby]

Please keep this thread going. I love my Classics and want to try some Townsends, if you guys can drive down the hype and hopefully pricing, that would be great for me.

Once Fishman's selling figures go down, they'd need to increase prices.

 

[Lozek]

I LOVE the Townsend’s. They do exactly what they’re advertised to do and quite convincingly.

The Classics are perfect in my Horizon because it's a really dark, thick sounding guitar, I've got a Charvel 650xl which is the polar opposite so I'm hoping the Townsends will be a good match.

 

[Ralyks]

I have the Keith Merrow set in my Boden Prog NX, which I keep in Eb Standard and Drop C#. I use it for stuff like older Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel, Slayer, Deftones, and it does everything I need of it.

 

[Grindspine]

Because if you teach a Man to Fish he will eat forever but if you teach a Fish to Man you have created an unholy abomination in the eyes of God and invite his swift and merciless wrath.

I thought if you taught a man to fish he just sat on a boat drinking beer.

People are basing their opinions mostly off the moderns which are a hyper polarizing set of pickups. They sound like ass in anything above C and the claims of being more dynamic than EMGs are true, but the cleans still aren't great. At least an 81 does the drowned in chorus Metallica thing, moderns are too aggressive for that. They're super mid forward and people are plugging them into a 5153 and wondering why their tone is all mids and drowned in gain. For what they do they're king and the ceramic modern is the most pissed off thing made since the EMG 81. I love them but I'm also not using a hyper modern setup.




Now the signature sets are a whole different ball game. Javier Reyes sigs?????? Dynamic, chunky, smooth, great cleans. Waaaaaaay different than the moderns.


Also the wiring is complicated and they eat batteries like a rabid animal.

That is good to read since I just bought an 8 string with Fluences. I have played several of them before when they crossed my tech bench and really did not get a huge opinion of them at the time. I really did not see the hype. They honestly did not sound that different than an EMG 81x to me. Of course, that was running through a little Fender Champ rather than a full high-gain rig.

I figure that between my PRS six strings with Alpha/Omegas, a Dimebucker, a Distortion, EMG 81x & 60x, Duncan JB (alnico VIII magnet swap), Titans, Nazgul, Fusion Edge, I have a lot of aggressive pickups in my guitars. I don't need the consistency of a gigging musician, so I am okay tweaking my drive pedals a touch when switching guitars.

 

[narojo]

I have Fishmans in a Strandberg. They're like so fucking awesome I could write a song about them. I do nothing but sing praises. Been playing guitar for like 18 years, played Strats, Les Pauls, ESPs, all kinds of stuff. The strandberg is the first guitar I've ever played where every single switch position and knob adjustment has a useable tone. When the guitar is perfectly intonated, there is a certain resonance there that you don't get from other pickups, and it is present at every fret position on every string. The tone stack allows me to be extremely precise with dialing in tones. I typically don't like fussing with the tone knobs because I don't like what they do on other guitars. They muddy the sound up in a way I don't like. Not these! I love the clarity and articulation that you get out of it. It's made me a better guitarist, allowed me to become more expressive, and expanded what I can do. I hear mistakes in my playing that I wasn't hearing before and I'm excited to refine my picking and string muting and whatnot. Not everybody wants their guitar to be like that, though. It's very unforgiving. But also, empowering.

 

[NoodleFace]

I like fishman moderns for what they are,.definitely better than EMGs - but I am definitely a passive guy. The way guitarists EQ their guitars in a lot of death core/djent is really strange so that's probably where the hate comes from.