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Post by skyetripper on Jun 19, 2021 10:13:34 GMT
Morning all. I finally extracted my little Fishman loudbox mini from out of it's slumber the other day and spent a little time comparing and contrasting the pickups in the two Sobells. The Steinbeck has a Highlander active unit and the Model 1 has a much older LR Baggs passive unit. I had expected there to be a big volume difference, but surprisingly, it's not as noticeable as I thought it might be. Both are really clear and do a good job of making the guitar sound like an amplified version of it's acoustic self (something helped by the little loudbox).
However, despite fiddling around with the limited eq settings on the amp, I can't quite get rid of some of the 'boominess', which in part I suspect is down to the natural resonance of the guitars in certain places. I don't play plugged in often and certainly don't do any 'real' gigs, but I'd like to have a little more adaptability to the plugged in sound. I'm drawn to buying a Fishman Aura Spectrum, largely because of good reviews and the fact the Fishman amp I have is a really decent bit of kit for the money.
Does anyone use the Fishman, and how do you find it? I'm open to opinions and alternatives if any of you good gentlemen and ladies would like to point me in the right direction.
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Post by ocarolan on Jun 19, 2021 13:36:51 GMT
As you say that this is primarily a non-gigging and occasional home plugged in playing situation, I reckon the Fishman Aura Spectrum could be overkill, especially in expense. The simplest and possibly cheapest quick fix to your existing kit would be to add in a graphic eq pedal such as the Boss GE-7 (around £80) or the Behringer EQ700 (around £20) - then you can fiddle around with particular frequencies to find what sounds best. And, if you aren't already doing so, lift your amp off the floor onto a stool or similar. You should notice a reasonable improvement, though extreme eq settings will increase noise.
Anything beyond this is going to be a fair bit more expensive and quite possibly not necessary - try the Behringer and see how it goes before laying out serious money.
And do let us know how you get on, whatever you go for.
Keith
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Post by skyetripper on Jun 20, 2021 7:50:45 GMT
Thanks Keith
I do have an eq pedal, but I tend not to use it because it is quite noisy. But then it's very old (I know how it feels...). You have however, just reminded me that I also have a Zoom multi effects pedal (primarily used for electric) and I had some success using that on my Larrivee as an eq. Might try that first then look at another dedicated eq pedal. Cheers!
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Post by jonnymosco on Jun 20, 2021 8:20:46 GMT
I use a Headway with my Steinbeck. The Highlander was replaced by a K & K mini though. No boominess.
Cheers
Jonny
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Post by jackorion on Jun 20, 2021 10:07:07 GMT
is the 'boominess' just a general large amount of bass response or is it a a specific frequency?
If it's just too much general bass one thing you can try is lifting the amp off of the floor (on a chair/stool) as a lot of amps are bassier when they're on the ground (I actually use advantage of this with my electric rig to make my little Princeton sound a bit 'bigger'). Also don't be afraid to go to 'extremes' with the EQ - I've set up in places before where I've had to basically turn the bass control right down to control boominess and it still sounded fine in that situation.
If it's a specific frequency (say the F#/G which is quite commonly an issue for amplified acoustic guitar as it's often close to the natural resonance of the body cavity) then you need a smaller 'notch' filter to 'snip' that frequency out - the LR Baggs Para DI has one, as does their Alighn Series EQ, so do the Headway EDB series of preamps (1 & 2), as do more expensive units like the LR Baggs Venue and the Fishman Platinum Pro EQ.
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Post by nkforster on Jun 20, 2021 11:27:11 GMT
Morning all. I finally extracted my little Fishman loudbox mini from out of it's slumber the other day and spent a little time comparing and contrasting the pickups in the two Sobells. The Steinbeck has a Highlander active unit and the Model 1 has a much older LR Baggs passive unit. I had expected there to be a big volume difference, but surprisingly, it's not as noticeable as I thought it might be. Both are really clear and do a good job of making the guitar sound like an amplified version of it's acoustic self (something helped by the little loudbox). However, despite fiddling around with the limited eq settings on the amp, I can't quite get rid of some of the 'boominess', which in part I suspect is down to the natural resonance of the guitars in certain places. I don't play plugged in often and certainly don't do any 'real' gigs, but I'd like to have a little more adaptability to the plugged in sound. I'm drawn to buying a Fishman Aura Spectrum, largely because of good reviews and the fact the Fishman amp I have is a really decent bit of kit for the money. Does anyone use the Fishman, and how do you find it? I'm open to opinions and alternatives if any of you good gentlemen and ladies would like to point me in the right direction. It all depends on what you want. If you want "the natural sound of your guitar but louder" you won't get that with any pickup or preamp combination. So the next best option is to go for an amplified sound you like and a pickup that doesn't damage the acoustic sound of your guitar. Both the old LRBaggs and the newer Fishman both have a very piezo undersaddle sound. Some people really like that. If you do, great. The old LR Baggs preamps were excellent with the parametric eq/notch filter. But if you don't like the quack, you need to change the pickup. Peoples tolerance to "quack" varies considerably. I have none. The Aura is a nice idea that didn't work all that well. I did send them one of my guitars to record about 13 years ago, but the results weren't all that convincing. I've a video here: Less quacky, but only a bit. I've no idea what I did with the Aura files, which is a shame as they were not cheap to get made. If I had them, you could have a copy as that's probably the nearest thing to your Sobells that isn't a Sobell. Unless FIshman have recorded a sample by now? If you're after a decent undersaddle sound, get one with an 18V preamp like the Seymour Duncan/Dtar combo. Its less quacky than the two pickups you have. But if you're after a boom free sound, quack free sound , I'd go for a K&K and a decent DI box instead. Nigel www.nkforsterguitars.com
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Post by skyetripper on Jun 21, 2021 6:59:34 GMT
I use a Headway with my Steinbeck. The Highlander was replaced by a K & K mini though. No boominess. Cheers Jonny Thanks for all the advice chaps. I've had a bit more play about with the amp and it does indeed make a big difference moving the amp off the floor, although what I actually found was that one of the leads I was using seemed to be the main culprit! With hindsight, I think there may have been a problem with one of my leads for quite some time as I often had volume problems when using the Larrivee that I always put down to bad battery and / or dirty jack plug. Can't quite get my head around how a lead could make such a difference (the one I've swapped it for is identical make and type). Anyway, I've discarded the offending lead and I'm happy enough with the basic sound I have for now. Jonny - which Headway do you use? I presume it will be the HE5 Twin Saddle? Not sure I need to change what I have, but I was talking to Haydn Williams last week and he also recommended Headway.
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Post by jonnymosco on Jun 21, 2021 19:59:56 GMT
Jonny - which Headway do you use? I presume it will be the HE5 Twin Saddle? Not sure I need to change what I have, but I was talking to Haydn Williams last week and he also recommended Headway. It's the Headway pre-amp, EDB-2 with a K and K mini. I had back luck with both Highlanders I had in both Sobells, both died prematurely. Jonny
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Post by PistolPete on Jun 23, 2021 6:27:59 GMT
For open mic host purposes, I've got the Fishman Platinum Stage (which I think is pretty much the Aura without all the modelling stuff) and it does a very decent job - but it's particularly strong when you meet a passive UST. Night and day results. I used to use a donated Epiphone with a passive UST as the house guitar at one open mic, and it made such a difference, louder, warmer much more 'real'. People, particularly people who'd tried to EQ that guitar in the past, used to ask me what my secret was to get such a good sound from it. I also have the Behringer graphic EQ that ocarolan mentioned, and that's a perfectly serviceable solution for very little money. Day to day I use a RedEye Twin, but I think that's fundamentally designed around the assumption it will be plugged into a K&K, so although it's very good I'd hesitate to recommend it as a general-purpose preamp.
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Post by andyhowell on Jun 23, 2021 9:56:36 GMT
My main guitar has a Headway USP in it. Apparently this is made out of the same material/cable as the Highlander. It is a rpetty good sound even without a preamp and seems very reliable — I've not had any problems with it.
I'd echo what Pete says about Fishman preamps. I used one for years before I bought my Headway and only changed it when it fell to bits! They are pretty good for a standard pickup.
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Post by dreadnought28 on Jun 24, 2021 0:37:59 GMT
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Post by skyetripper on Jun 24, 2021 8:00:57 GMT
I may well look at an AER - a friend has a compact 60 paired up to his Maton guitars and he generally has it set up for a very 'percussive' sound. I've tried it with my previous guitars and it certainly covered any inadequacies in the pickups, but I've never really had chance to have a play with the settings. I might have to convince him to 'give me a borrow' so I can have a play around with it. I'd seen a couple of street musicians using the S1, but assumed it was a £1k+ bit of kit. Obviously not! Very tempted to have a look at that too, although as I mentioned in my original post, I don't really do much live other than the occasional pub bash with friends, and the little Fishman has generally served me well. There are more options than my poor brain can compute..... Cheers
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Post by dreadnought28 on Jun 24, 2021 22:16:55 GMT
I may well look at an AER - a friend has a compact 60 paired up to his Maton guitars and he generally has it set up for a very 'percussive' sound. I've tried it with my previous guitars and it certainly covered any inadequacies in the pickups, but I've never really had chance to have a play with the settings. I might have to convince him to 'give me a borrow' so I can have a play around with it. I'd seen a couple of street musicians using the S1, but assumed it was a £1k+ bit of kit. Obviously not! Very tempted to have a look at that too, although as I mentioned in my original post, I don't really do much live other than the occasional pub bash with friends, and the little Fishman has generally served me well. There are more options than my poor brain can compute..... Cheers I paid under £500 for both my S1 amps. I have a Compact 60/3 I’m going to sell as I’ve got a 60/4 Tommy Emmanuel and a Pro Classical and Domino 3,
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Post by papadon on Jun 30, 2021 0:56:33 GMT
I'm amplifying through a Marshall acoustic amp which gets a lot of love on the net yet sounds far to boomy in my home office environment. Then I came across a piece of advice on the net that reminded me of the Weber beam blockers that I use with my electric guitar amps to tame that sort of stuff. Simple yet effective. Just drape a T-shirt over the speaker grill. It really does help a lot.
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