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Message 8924
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| Subject: | Re: [RESOGUIT-L] Fishman pickups? | | Date: | Wednesday, March 12, 2008 11:41:34 (-0700) | | From: | Arthur Kohnke <suoirafenrm @.....com>
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Hey, Charlie--here's a letter that I sent to a friend some months ago. Maybe
there's something you can use here:
It can be a tricky question, which one to use. Let's see how far you want to
go with this one. If you get tired of reading just go to the bottom of this note
for da stuff in a single (albeit a little long) sentence.
Active is a pickup with preamp circuitry and a power source typically onboard
the instrument. My Takamine has an active system with a gain slider and three
band EQ. My National is also an active pickup, but the circuitry/battery are in
an idoit box (no controls, input/output only) that sits on the floor, and
requires a stereo cable from the instrument to the box to send power. My Marc
Angus guitar is also an active system, the Fishman Pocket Blender system. It has
an under-saddle ribbon and a boom microphone onboard with a control box that can
rack mount or mount on an arm that you attach to your mic stand. It also takes a
stereo cable from the guitar to the control box, as it is sending pickup and mic
signals.
Passive is a pickup that requires no external power to operate and controls
are almost always on the instrument (if any.) My Telecaster has wound pickups
that are passive, and I have installed K & K passive pickups (peizo) in my bouzouki and Julie's banjo. I sometimes use an external preamp (another idoit box) with one or both of these.
Active disadvantages: the tone of your instrument can be altered by an active
pickup, and so if you decide to go active you must be very careful to select the
pickup with just the tone that you desire. That is probably the biggest drawback
to using an active pickup; you just may not be able to get something that is
transparent enough to preserve your tone. Probably why you see JD constantly
experimenting with his rig. One more disadvantage--takes a battery, and you will
inevitably find yourself without a spare, or sending white noise out while you
are playing as the battery is going dead. If you don't have a battery you're
playing acoustic. My Fishman has a plug-in battery eliminator and if I plug a
standard cable into the Angus the saddle pickup operates as a passive pickup and
the mic is bypassed.
Active advantages: in a word, consistency. Just using different cables with
your passive rig can significantly alter your tone with varying capacitance
values; it can be like giving the tone knob a twirl. My Takamine guitar sounds
unremarkable when played acoustic, but the electronics on the piece are unmatched
in my experience. I can plug the guitar into anything and it always sound great,
way better than acoustic. I like what the active pickup does to enhance the
sound of this guitar, and I have looked in a lot of places and played a lot of
classical guitars with active and passive pickups in them and never found one
that I like as much as the one I have.
Primary active advantage: what you want to do is have your signal as much
like you want it before it goes to the amplification system. A pedestrian
(inexpensive) mixer board will typically have pretty lousy preamps in it, and the
more boost you need at the mixer the greater the chance that your signal will be
altered there. An active pickup sends a much higher output signal to your
amp/mixer, and you can tailor the sound at the instrument instead of trusting the
sound tech and his equipment to deliver your tone. The less you have to tailor
the sound at the other end the more it will sound like you want it to. Repeat
after me: Control.
Passive disadvantages: can be rather sensitive to environmental factors. My
K & K's can give me feedback problems at relatively low stage volume levels. I could do something about this, like put an EQ in the stream, but I'm complicating things. As above, different cables will give different signals going to the amp. My Telecaster will sometimes pick up RFI and give me a nasty hum. Passive will lose the extreme high and low frequencies and give you less dynamic control (you'll have to dig in harder to sound like you are digging in.)
Passive advantages: simplicity and more reliable preservation of true
instrument tone. Practically indestructable (if internal, like no wires or other
parts outside the box.) No batteries unless you are using effects.
Some links:
Fishman reso pickups:
http://www.fishman.com/products/details.asp?id=50
Pocket Blender:
http://www.fishman.com/products/details.asp?id=29
What I saw at MerleFest--warning! This thing does not amplify your instrument;
it replicates the tone with a model (even though they say that it is made to
preserve the tone of your instrument.) Also, the reso version of the pedal style
box is still not out and if you got this system now you would have to get the
Aura Imaging Blender and download images from the web:
http://www.fishman.com/products/details.asp?id=92
http://www.fishman.com/products/details.asp?id=6
Here is what Todd Clinesmith is putting in my reso:
http://www.schertler.com/prodotti_ing/pickups/resonator_guitar_basik.htm
Summary: Active=higher output, greater consistency and control, more dynamic
control on the instrument, can alter tone, requires external power; passive=lower
output, more susceptible to environmental factors, less dynamically sensitive,
better preservation of true instrument tone, simplicity and durability, and no
batteries.
Whew! Wreck my morning, will you? Here's your payback!
Charlie Morris <cmorris@bluespages.com> wrote:
I want to get a Fishman pickup for my reso.
What are the pros and cons of the passive vs active version?
Charlie Morris
www.stpetemountainboys.com
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