Fishman SA220 audition

[krisls]

Well, I had a chance yesterday to play with a Fishman SA220. I'd had a brief fiddle with one before and thought it pretty good. This time a couple of friends were doing a school fete thing and wondered if I'd like to play a bit before the 'proper gig' just to see what I thought.

So I did. A semi amphitheatre set up on a school oval with stalls and things set up and a few hundred people wandering about or sitting in the Winter sun. Open area of 60 metres or so and sloping up to seats and buildings on one side.

I watched the setup, two minutes and a brief souncheck. Sounded good and a friend that came with me nodded appreciatively too.

So I unplugged their little mixer, swapped out the mic to my Senn 835 and plugged in my Tak. Then did a bit of fiddling about after checking they had their own settings memorised. I ended up pretty close to what they had set. Then for the next hour I played a whole bunch of things from ballads to more punchy rocky things.

Quite frankly I was impressed. The sound was sparkling and clear and my friend wandered all over giving thumbs up or waving to tweak slightly up or down on levels here and there. Semiphore soundcheck, hah.

In short I think this thing would do me for 95% of my gigs beautifully. I have slight reservations regarding volume levels in outdoor settings, but then given where I was this might be just my 'old fashioned' thinking as much as anything.

The only thing I didn't check was how it would sit with my few pedals and Radial pre/di in front, but I'm sure it would work just fine.

For the record my current gear is a Roland AC 60 for small shows and a Yam EMX 512sc w passive speakers for bigger things. This little stick might just replace both. I am seriously thinking on it.

Seriously impressed, as was my friend. Oh my other two friends that invited me had seriously smug smiles as they watched me. I had to shrug and bow to that. I paid for the steak sandwiches, only fair.

Kristina

 

[warddix]

This is my setup for coffee house and restaurant jobs, and I echo your praises- I've had mine about 2 years now.

 

[krisls]

Hi guys, despite my over use of 'seriously' there near the end I was 'seriously' impressed.

The main thing was how clean and clear the sound was even at a distance where I thought it would struggle a bit. I imagine that's to do with the speaker array, line up, whatever.

I sat and watched my friends, guy/girl duo two guitar, two vocal. They run them into a little blue Yamaha mixer on a mic stand then into the Fishman. The sound was lovely and I did wander about to see, err hear, from different places.

I doubt it would cope too well with any more inputs but for this duo or my solo setup it was yes... seriously good.

Kristina

 

[D_Schief]

I heard a guitarist/vocalist who also played with a click track of other instruments playing a large outdoor bar (probably sat 200 people under a permanent tent with many more folks spread out at the pool, beach and picnic area) in Key Largo, Florida on my last vacation. He was using some manner of the Bose version of these "array-speakers-on-a-stick."

I was extremely (as opposed to seriously ) impressed. The sound was very clear. The separation was great and the volume was plenty loud for the margarita, Happy Hour crowd. But what I really noticed was the dispersion. I first started noticing the guitar player as we walked up towards the bar/tent from the parking lot about 50-80 yards away. At that distance, I could hear everything, just not as loud. Usually, at that distance, you'd only hear muffled bass tones. It was a puzzling experience, given what I'm used to hearing from standard PA's. Inside the very large tent/bar, I was again struck by how even the sound was dispersed, with it appearing to be twice as loud (at most) right in front of the stage as in the far corners, but still sounded the same. In my usual experience, there's a much bigger drop off and certain frequencies tend to spread about the room (if at all) much more sporadically.

I'd definately look at the Bose or the Fishman for acoustic acts, or maybe for a larger band if everything is going to go thru the P.A.

 

[tfsails]

This is good info, guys! I'm semi in the market for a PA and I've had my eye on a SA220 for a while. Glad to hear it's so well-respected. Seems to me it's just as good as the $3k Bose stick for a third the price.