Fishman Power Bridge for Tele?

[jhundt]

anyone here using a Fishman? I have one laying around that I want to try out, I'm wondering how other users have theirs wired up. Are you using onboard preamps? Y cords? special amp for acoustic sound?

[Rich Rice]

I'm using one. I'm loving it, but having a problem with crackling noises. I just signed on to post a thread about it. It's in a Fender Nashville Deluxe Power Tele, with onboard preamp. Stock wiring. Biggest problem besides the crackling is it really thumps the speaker if you smack the bridge with the heel of your hand... I'm afraid I'll pop my speakers with it. We've installed a high pass filter, which has helped alot, but there are transient bursts when I hit the bridge (I do it all the time, as part of my playing style- very hard habit to break after 40+ years) so be careful and watch your speakers if you decide to use one. If they are bottoming out, you can cause lots of damage really quickly.

[Jean-Baptiste]

Oh yeah! You'll have a lot of fun w/the Powerchip- I know I am. I use 2 amps for a massive stereo spread- piezo goes to a clean amp w/a dash of chorus & delay, while the mag. p-ups are routed thru' my pedalboard to a lightly overdriven amp.

Standard tele controls w/a third knob to control the Fishman's volume and an extra 3 way switch to select either or both pickup systems.

At some point I intend to build a splitter box, but for now I'm just using a cheap 'Y' cord adaptor from the stereo out jack.

Especially cool for rhythm, it can sound almost like there's two of you.

Rich, I'm sorry I can't help you w/the noise issue- Strangely enough, I did have a crackling problem w/this particular guitar that I traced back to static on the pickguard. The individual saddles do go bad & can be seperately replaced- Have you been able to isolate the crackling to a particular string?

[Rich Rice]

Hi Jean
The crackling is intermittent, but occurs on different strings at different times. I have ordered a new Powerchip directly from Fishman, hopefully that will solve the problem. I don't think it is the saddles, as they all seem to work well and don't get intermittent. I have noticed that it gets worse if I dig in harder with the pick, and it mostly happens when I first start using the Piezos. If I can stand playing for 30 seconds or so, it seems to get better. When the unit is working properly, it provides a unique tone I find particularly useful when fingerpicking parts of a song, then switching to heavier rhythm, and finally overdriven leads. Having that much variety at my fingertips gives lots of room to rethink songs I've played for many years, and revitalizes my interpretation of them. It is also a plus to dial in some piezo to magnify the dynamics on clean passages. I have only had it for a few days, and only gigged it once so far. It was nice to have the extra tones onboard, and helped me stand out from the crowd. Despite the problems with crackle, (I was able to play through it until it settled down) I received many compliments on my tone. I played it mono through an early 70's Vibrosonic with an EVM15L, a Keeley modded TS-9, and a Boss DD-5 delay. Absolutely huge sound! It was the most fun I've had in a while.
It's interesting that you had static crackle on your Tele... I run into that on most of my Teles. My son makes fun of me... I now shield the back of all my pickguards, which helps some- but the quickest fix for that is to rub a dryer sheet (like "Bounce" or "Cling Free") on your pickguard. I didn't believe it, but my son suggested I try it, and the static disappeared immediately. I now keep one in my case when I go to play live, or especially when recording. You'll be amazed. And your guitar will smell nice:)