Despite their future vision sheen, Fishman’s Fluence pickups reference the past’s classic tones that we guitar players desire. How exactly do they do that?
At this year’s NAMM show, Fishman took the wraps off three new Fluence signature pickup sets for Tosin Abasi, Killswitch Engage and Will Adler, adding to those already released for Stephen Carpenter, Devin Townsend and Greg Koch. It’s more than indication that, since its launch in 2014, Fishman’s Fluence pickup technology is being taken very seriously. The Fluence concept is based around a solid core instead of a coil of wire, although the magnet structures are pretty conventional. Then there is a preamp (onboard, with the exception of the Greg Koch ‘Gristle-Tone’ set) that shapes what we hear and offers multi ‘voicings’. The active pickups can be powered by a standard nine-volt block battery, although various battery packs can be recharged from their USB sockets. It all amounts to a pretty through redesign of the electric guitar pickup as we know it.
“The starting point, sound-wise, of the Fluence solid core coils is a neutral wide bandwidth response, so we have the flexibility to steer it in different directions,” explains Fishman’s senior electrical engineer John Eck.
Would that in itself be a useful sound? “You’d get something that you might find interesting for some use, but if you’re trying to recreate more classic tones, very specific tones, it wouldn’t get you there.”
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