fishman transducer bridge

[dwilken]

hey, on page 43 of my new stewart macdonald catalog is a fishman mandolin bridge transducer. $140.00- has anyone tried this??? i've been trying to think of how to amplify my kilburn without doing anything structural.- any tips appreciated-dave in sandusky

[mandroid]

Fishman inlays a piece of Piezo-electric material into the upper bridge piece.
add a clamp on carpenter jack and the body needs no alterations.

best to plan on getting a preamp too , Baggs and Fishman's both seem to work well.

[Folkmusician.com]

I like the tone of the LR-Baggs better. I only like the Fishman for high SPL situations where feedback is a big problem. The Fishman is amplifying more of the string vibrations where a body mounted pickup gets more of the acoustic tone, at the expense of being more prone to feedback.

[journeybear]

I have one of these on my 1917 Gibson A. My luthier installed a 1/4'' end pin jack so the jack it comes with doesn't bang around. That meant drilling a hole in the bottom, but this is a player, not a museum piece. If you're building then of course you can incorporate this modification as you go. It produces a fairly faithful, fairly strong signal. I use a seven band EQ/gain pedal to bring the signal to where I want it. It's actually so strong it is louder than my electric. I thought the M100 was $100 but I checked at Strings and Beyond and it's $140 all right. They're running a deal right now (NFI) - get a free 3-pack of D'Addario strings with your purchase. Plus this will qualify for free shipping. I've been thinking of getting one for my mandola. This might push me off the fence. Hmmm ...

[Tim2723]

My personal experience with the Fishman bridge pickups have run the course from 'eh' to 'yuck'. YMMV, etc.

[dwilken]

no one sound too enthralled with them. i have a little mxr micro amp i could have used to boost signal. but i'm a tone junkie. if it doesn't have a good sound, i'm not interested. whether it matters or not my kilburn is pretty deep, tone wise. not a bright sound. i have a cheap alvarez i drilled out and put a K & K with button jack in. i can always play that when i need volume. it's bright sounding and barks. but man.....that kilburn is mellow!!!!! and i don't want to drill it. what other suggestions to ya have??????dave

[journeybear]

no one sound too enthralled with them.

Eh? You've had three opinions, 1 + , 2 - . A bit too soon to draw a conclusion, if you ask me. Which you did, sort of. Give it time ...

[Kerry Krishna]

I used this pickup for 5 years solid in the acid folk band I played with. With a good preamp, it works well, but you have to remember: this is a totally dated sound. These first came out well over 20 years ago, and these days, almost any piezo pickup (except the K and K minis) are horrid to have to listen through the 'Front Of House ' speakers. What some folks are doing is using the Piezo bridge and preamp, and running that line to floor monitors only, then using another more natural sounding pickup through the front of house. The mando will not feed back, and the player will hear every note. The Front of House soundperson will LOVE the sound of a mic ( if that is the second pickup) too.

Useing a fishman mando pickup and preamp as a solo sound source for soundpeople is common, but certainly on it's way out.

[mandroid]

You could always go back and read the volumes of prior Q & A on those ,
see: archive[bottom R], and search [top R]
while you are waiting for some fresh new opining.

[dwilken]

that's exactly what i did. sat back, read and waited. still not sure. i'm tempted to track down the gentleman that built it and ask if he'd be interested in doing it. luckily i don't play out much so i can take my time.- thanks for all the help so far.

[DeamhanFola]

Before I put a K&K into my custon Bridger, I used a Schertler DYN-M:


It gives excellent sound: way, way better than the Fishman stuff. Better yet, it can be transferred to other instruments--no modifications needed, you just attach it. If memory serves, early on in the Nickel Creek days Chris Thile used one. Downsides: it's expensive (compared to the Fishman solution) & takes a bit of time to set up for a live gig. I opted for the K&K only for the convenience of just plugging in a 1/4".


Here's the Schertler listing. I don't regret buying it even though I electrified my main gigging mando with the K&K, as I've used the DYN-M to good effect on a number of non-electrified instruments (mandos and guitars). If I ever get the pristine 20s Gibson I lust after, I would use the DYN-M on it.
http://www.schertler.com/homepage_sc...r/dynm-en.html

[mandroid]

Still have my Schertler , I stopped thinking of installs after that ..
though I did get a Mix A5 .. it has the built in version..

TRS endpin jack, so the XLR Mic Wiring is the same.
I just plug it into the duplex TRS/XLR jack on my amp.

[mandogoshen]

My personal experience with the Fishman bridge pickups have run the course from 'eh' to 'yuck'. YMMV, etc.

+1

I ended up getting a K&K dual-internal w/an 1/4 " epj. Had I even known about JJBs I would've gone that route instead. The JJB Prestige-430c is designed for classical guitars, but I would not hesitate to replace the K&K w/a 4 point transducer. Especially for mandolin. Fundage is my only obstacle at this point. 60.00? Are you kidding me!? I'd have been all over that had I known a few years ago.

As it is I run my mando through a Boss 10 band inline bass eq w/t top slider pulled all the way out and the other nine in the 'smile' pattern. Some rooms require a little more/less mids, but the highs/lows pretty much stay the same. The K&K as w/t JJBs will work w/o an pre-amp/eq, but they all sound better with one.