Awesome player - wooooow.... great tone too. I'm installing a set in my custom strat as soon as it arrives in June. Can't wait... damn fine playing man. Great sounding amp too.
Would have really liked some attention paid to tone controls and how they sound. Also, the normal loss of treble at volume 8-9 or so is not necessarily a bad thing. At least to us oldtimers who don't use a lot of pedals.
As usual, Tim nails it !! To my ear, in the clean/vintage sound, apart from the bridge and neck position, the intermediate ones don't sound as different as with a traditional pickups... the big sound on "Texas" type with crunch is quite amazing ! (apart from 15:19 to 15:23 ;-D ) FretKing also did a nice job too, integrating this technology in their beautiful foam-green S-Type guitar ! \m/
I thank you Tom for a generous video of explanation. If I may a thought just came to mind as to further qualify the back usb charging plate. Due to the slight protrusion. I believe that it could also offer a longer life to the back of your painted guitar. Possibly thus eliminating the old culprit of belt buckle rash. or just possibly body friction over the years of play. Well like I said before just a thought. Anyway nothing but a positive I believe only to help better sell the product . Stay well and cheers!
I could see it put into the proper eq and taming the harsh beast in its purest representation of guitar tone yet, and I'm Not a guitar player, I play keyboards
RE: Turning volume down and having the same signal just quieter -- I see that as a downside. If you want this on passive pickups you can always use a high pass filter. But the thing about a HPF is that it can be turned off when you don't want to use it. This solution can't do that. I find all active pickups are this way, when you drop the volume it's the same sound just quieter, where as with passive pickups the tone actually changes, which IMHO again, is a GOOD thing.
That guitar is a perfect design for how those pickups sound - nailed the looks. How's it work into a fuzz? Does that light on the back blink red when its under 5 hours of use left like the one Greg K is doing?
I tried these after getting blown away by the Greg Koch videos. First of all the guy is a player and could make any knockoff strat sound good. But they are a great pickup and are especially good if you want to use a lot of pedals and add a lot of gain. They are incredibly quiet in terms of holding up under increased gain and volume without hum. They do lose something that is hard to define. I actually prefer Kinmans which although being expensive they sound less compressed and more alive and are almost as quiet as well as passive with no battery. Also love my Fender AM deluxe 04 with those SCN pickups which sound great but very different than the vintage strat tone a bit darker but incredibly smooth and take pedals well
What amp is this being played through? There's something about the tone that seems off to me, and I can't tell if it's the pickups or if I just don't like the amp.
@@AlienSexGod very tinny indeed!, Ive great results getting rid of 60hum with single coils with just one pedal: the EHX Hum Debugger!!! Its a pedal so you dont have to make permanent changes to your gtr, it colors the sound a bit but not like this!!! i kinda like its "colorin", a bit like chorus/flanger, a tiny bit!!!when heavy solos tou wont notice it...im still to this day wondering why its so underrated...These Fluences seem active/noiseless to my nose...ears...Cheers ,Kimmo
Been watching Fishman videos for the past couple of days and I'm sold. Going out to buy some this Friday. Not sure why I haven't done this sooner. Hopefully they're nothing like EMG or other actives which I can't stand.
No sir not yet. Literally the same week, my private road caved in(sink hole) and it's costing about $13,000 to get fixed. Maybe a month from now once I recoup the monetary loss.
So they're basically like an active pickup that behaves and sounds like a passive but retains that clarity and hum cancellation. They still need power but behave the way a passive pickup would, if that makes sense. If anything even more responsive depending which set you get, if you can get past the active side it's more or less an HD passive pickup with multiple voices
That sound is amazing.. i like it a lot.. for some reason it reminds me of YJM sound. I must say i don't like the not losing tone with volume pot feature..
Great review .. beautiful guitar and lovely tone ..sick of vintage this and that ..Like the break up and lovely tone .. abit like the lace censer .. Like one of those .. got a beautiful Jerry Donahue Fret king .. top guitars
You work for guitar company and you don't know that people have been tapping pickups for generations? Stacked single coils have been around since when? It is true that they put the coils on printed circuit boards, and that might reduce their cost, but I cannot see any other advantage over regular tapped single coils or active design.
@@valebliz Because they have taps and splits which can be easily implemented because any layer (or wind) can have it's own connectors. And perhaps can do so in a different manner with different shapes (instead of winding one and then tapping it and then winding the other around it you can maybe wind them together). Not sure how this effects the sound. A tap is a great idea, but it is often expensive as it is here. And, after all that, it is uncertain if the players can identify the tap he wants. The genius of Fishman marketing is they have a gimmick (putting coils around a pcb board) that allows people to justify spending the extra for something they really can get now. Not that anyone listens to me, but if you can make a continuously variable tap (each wind has it's own connector), that would be something.
@@valebliz I just checked with the DylanTalksTone, and he opened one up, and agreed with me that that is what they do. But then someone disagreed. What I don't understand if it is not a tap, or a split, then it is just a pickup with a preamp, which you can get a million different ways, so why do it? I was sort of giving FIshman the benefit of the doubt.
@@valueofnothing2487 yeah got it. The preamp sure is there because there are way less windings than on a regular cooper coils pickup. Tbh i think the Greg Koch tele set sounds pretty good, the strat ones way less.
Tom is NOT the guy to do reviews. I say this because he is such an amazing player that anything he plays sounds good. He could play a broken ukulele in a wind tunnel and it would sound great.
interesting pick-ups, and very good demonstration, but the surprise for me is the tuning you use. First time I see someone else doing that. I was first :-)
Sometimes it's possible to get an exhaustive product rewiew and this is the case. This guy knows quite well his business on the guitar, nice playing, nice tone and very well demonstrated sound options. I'm not a pro on argueing on someone's opinions, I just say I'm GRATEFUL for the job of guys like this who give me the chance to have an honest, overall view of a product that, otherwise, I should buy at 100 today and sell at 50 tomorrow if not fitting my taste/need. It's impossible to give to the people the "Reviews' Holy Grail", I just have the acceptable chance to walk out of the dark and considering a purchase with less apprehension. It's a useful service, I appreciate it and I thank anyone who gives it to me.
Nearly hair thin foil with copper traces stacked on top of each other. Like hundreds of super thin circuit boards with each multiple turns of copper-trace connected in a way to act like a regular coil, only with 100% consistency and the ability to tap the coil at any point.
The reverb is so overwhelming that it makes the tones less than true. What a shame... If you do one for the set of humbuckers, kill most of the reverb.
I didn't hear ONE sound that I would call "musical." Rather than fault the pickups though, I think the problem is with the rest of the signal chain. The "clean" sound is FAR from "clean." Too many players idea of "clean" is simply "less distorted" than their lead tone. Too much breakup in the clean (?) sounds. Very unpleasant. Even rolling the high end off might have helped. Then the "high gain" sounds - really didn't sound any different than the "clean" sounds - again too much high end shattered glass sound. Does Fluence make a set of Hum-Sing-Hum configuration that I can put in my Ibanez? Still I wouldn't do that unless I can first hear a better demo of a seriously "clean" tone, and a usable "lead" sound. (Kudos however for not inducing ANY hum! I'm digging THAT part at least.)
This suffers from the same problem as digital amps. It sounds more like a caricature of a strat rather than the real thing. For some people it's great, but I prefer the imperfections and variations in tone. It's the whole reason tube amps are still around and predominantly used amongst pros. Music is an art and art isn't perfect. Cool idea, not for me
Nobody was ever unhappy with the way tube gear sounded, in Hi-Fi or guitar/bass gear. First the germanium then the silicon solid states were promised to be more reliable and sound just as good. Neither turned out to be true. Class D solid state (digital) is another run at your wallet. In ten years all that will be in the dump along with the Acoustic, Kustom, Music Man, Crate, Line 6. Class D is such a rip-off! you can get a stereo 50W per channel with remote control for less than $30! www.ebay.com/itm/2-x-50-Watt-Class-D-HiFi-Amplifier-FM-Radio-Bluetooth-MP3-Player-USB-2860/263951222541?epid=13024042380&hash=item3d74b8070d:g:e0wAAOSwe2xbpaS-:rk:1:pf:1&frcectupt=true. Only issue is no one will ever be able to repair it, it's all surface mount technology, and running at computer speeds.
+Colonel Gayfur I can make ANY pickup sound good.. cause it's all about TONE,anyone who says dimarzio or Duncan's sound old should think of this word...ORGANIC......so with MODERN amps why need active pickups???
Colonel Gayfur Lol...have you ever heard of the dimarzio area pickups? they sound great with anything and a little pickup height adjustment goes a long way......by the way all you need to do( that i do routinely for pretentious corksniffers) is to say you have some expensive custom shop pickup set in there with some active circuit acting as a dummy coil to remove the noise...and they all think they sound great....until they find out they are dimarzios....then they dont like them as much.....hahaha....works EVERY time.
I heard the word "battery", and I said no. Never. I'm not opposed to active electronics in basses (Stingrays) , but there are so many great aftermarket, noiseless and stock pickups for Strat already, that adding a system that *requires* batteries is a step BACKWARDS for a Strat and IMO, adds unnecessary complication to an instrument that doesn't need it.
The battery life lasts 250 hours straight. So assuming you play 5 hours a day, that's still 50 days. Which is pretty good. And these are extremely versitile.
Here is another demo with no hint of what the amp is, too much reverb, and a demonstrator who cannot speak intelligently about the product. And terrible tone. Just add a flanger and bury the reneration control to knock it out of the park. Useless review. Oh and use some guy with an english accent (insert sound of me clearing my throat) to authoritativly sell it to us (more throat clearing) Americans. HA HEMMM
Greg Raynard While I do agree that there isn’t enough info about the amp they’re playing through, and also too much reverb, I disagree about the presenter. Tom Quayle is a notably knowledgeable guitarist, and gives more detail in this review than most reviews on this product (I’ve recently watched quite a few of them), probably as much as necessary without a PowerPoint presentation. The website for the product should have plenty of specs if you’re interested, but I feel these videos are for people who are just interested and want to know the basics of a product before looking deeper. I don’t need to see blueprints and diagrams for it to be a good review. Also, he’s English because he RUclips channel is English. I’ve heard rumors that there’s a whole country of English people, and that they enjoy guitars just as much as Americans. That’s just what I’ve heard though...
@@5urg3x If you say so. IMO he lacks the knowledge to speak intelligently about it. Or it could be that he lacks the intelligence but i doubt that wholly.
@@airgliderz :D I'd be embarassed highlighting a RUclips bitchslapping comment, but hey, I guess the author of the video is equally well described by my original comment. :D
The sound is amazing. I've never heard guitar sounding like this
If Tom is out to demo something, it's gonna sound great no matter what.
The first thorough demo of that system, that is not steamrollering me.
They cant possible sound that bad.
People I like and trust love these!
Like me
Awesome player - wooooow.... great tone too. I'm installing a set in my
custom strat as soon as it arrives in June. Can't wait... damn fine
playing man. Great sounding amp too.
That is amazing. I had heard about these but never believed that they would sound any good. Blown away! Peter Kouretsos
Great review. Very thorough and it was great to hear these played both clean and with some grit.
Would have really liked some attention paid to tone controls and how they sound. Also, the normal loss of treble at volume 8-9 or so is not necessarily a bad thing. At least to us oldtimers who don't use a lot of pedals.
As usual, Tim nails it !! To my ear, in the clean/vintage sound, apart from the bridge and neck position, the intermediate ones don't sound as different as with a traditional pickups... the big sound on "Texas" type with crunch is quite amazing ! (apart from 15:19 to 15:23 ;-D ) FretKing also did a nice job too, integrating this technology in their beautiful foam-green S-Type guitar ! \m/
*Tom
Dear Tom, anything you play sounds Amazing !!!
Interesting pickups, great playing... could you please tell us what amp or plug-in the pickups are being demoed through ?
I thank you Tom for a generous video of explanation. If I may a thought just came to mind as to
further qualify the back usb charging plate. Due to the slight protrusion. I believe that it
could also offer a longer life to the back of your painted guitar. Possibly thus eliminating the
old culprit of belt buckle rash. or just possibly body friction over the years of play. Well like I said
before just a thought. Anyway nothing but a positive I believe only to help better sell the product .
Stay well and cheers!
I could see it put into the proper eq and taming the harsh beast in its purest representation of guitar tone yet, and I'm Not a guitar player, I play keyboards
RE: Turning volume down and having the same signal just quieter -- I see that as a downside. If you want this on passive pickups you can always use a high pass filter. But the thing about a HPF is that it can be turned off when you don't want to use it. This solution can't do that. I find all active pickups are this way, when you drop the volume it's the same sound just quieter, where as with passive pickups the tone actually changes, which IMHO again, is a GOOD thing.
My emg s’s change when I roll the volume off
A treble bleed will do that too. They're awesome!
That guitar is a perfect design for how those pickups sound - nailed the looks. How's it work into a fuzz? Does that light on the back blink red when its under 5 hours of use left like the one Greg K is doing?
I tried these after getting blown away by the Greg Koch videos. First of all the guy is a player and could make any knockoff strat sound good. But they are a great pickup and are especially good if you want to use a lot of pedals and add a lot of gain. They are incredibly quiet in terms of holding up under increased gain and volume without hum. They do lose something that is hard to define. I actually prefer Kinmans which although being expensive they sound less compressed and more alive and are almost as quiet as well as passive with no battery. Also love my Fender AM deluxe 04 with those SCN pickups which sound great but very different than the vintage strat tone a bit darker but incredibly smooth and take pedals well
They lose soul to me.
The kinman noiseless Pick ups
I wish they put a tiny on / off switch on the battery back thing. Would be better when you know you're going to leave the cable in.
Nick K you can wire in an on off switch. I did that exact thing myself
Good idea for a battery/off switch. I tend to forget when my wireless bug is plugged in.
They sounded so weird to me. What amp did you use? I wish you would just use the pickups with no effects. Couldn’t really tell the difference 🥺
What amp is this being played through? There's something about the tone that seems off to me, and I can't tell if it's the pickups or if I just don't like the amp.
Yeah the OD is tinny. Also too much reverb when we want to hear mostly the pickup!
sounds just wow to my ears
WTF ... weirdass delay/chorus Stop
@@AlienSexGod very tinny indeed!, Ive great results getting rid of 60hum with single coils with just one pedal: the EHX Hum Debugger!!! Its a pedal so you dont have to make permanent changes to your gtr, it colors the sound a bit but not like this!!! i kinda like its "colorin", a bit like chorus/flanger, a tiny bit!!!when heavy solos tou wont notice it...im still to this day wondering why its so underrated...These Fluences seem active/noiseless to my nose...ears...Cheers ,Kimmo
I'd wager those frets are SS.
Is there a difference between the fishman fluence single coils and the fishman fluence single widths..? Or are they the same thing
What a beautiful tone
Been watching Fishman videos for the past couple of days and I'm sold. Going out to buy some this Friday. Not sure why I haven't done this sooner. Hopefully they're nothing like EMG or other actives which I can't stand.
Wise Guy did u buy those? How do you like it?
No sir not yet. Literally the same week, my private road caved in(sink hole) and it's costing about $13,000 to get fixed. Maybe a month from now once I recoup the monetary loss.
Great review.
Do these pickups load like passive do when using germanium / silicon fuzz pedals? Or do they act like active with a preamp/buffer?
It's the only downfall of these pups....they shit a brick if you smack a germanium fuzz up front.
How do these pickups compare to Texas specials?
Can you get a PASSIVE version of these pickups? I'm adverse to onboard preamps on guitars.
the word for that mentality is luddite
So they're basically like an active pickup that behaves and sounds like a passive but retains that clarity and hum cancellation. They still need power but behave the way a passive pickup would, if that makes sense. If anything even more responsive depending which set you get, if you can get past the active side it's more or less an HD passive pickup with multiple voices
That sound is amazing.. i like it a lot.. for some reason it reminds me of YJM sound. I must say i don't like the not losing tone with volume pot feature..
Great review .. beautiful guitar and lovely tone ..sick of vintage this and that ..Like the break up and lovely tone .. abit like the lace censer .. Like one of those .. got a beautiful Jerry Donahue Fret king .. top guitars
You work for guitar company and you don't know that people have been tapping pickups for generations?
Stacked single coils have been around since when?
It is true that they put the coils on printed circuit boards, and that might reduce their cost, but I cannot see any other advantage over regular tapped single coils or active design.
Wtf coil tapping have to do with fishman's tech?
@@valebliz Because they have taps and splits which can be easily implemented because any layer (or wind) can have it's own connectors. And perhaps can do so in a different manner with different shapes (instead of winding one and then tapping it and then winding the other around it you can maybe wind them together). Not sure how this effects the sound. A tap is a great idea, but it is often expensive as it is here. And, after all that, it is uncertain if the players can identify the tap he wants. The genius of Fishman marketing is they have a gimmick (putting coils around a pcb board) that allows people to justify spending the extra for something they really can get now.
Not that anyone listens to me, but if you can make a continuously variable tap (each wind has it's own connector), that would be something.
@@valueofnothing2487 are you sure they are taps and splits? I understood they were different voicings/eq curves in the preamp sections of the pickups.
@@valebliz I just checked with the DylanTalksTone, and he opened one up, and agreed with me that that is what they do. But then someone disagreed.
What I don't understand if it is not a tap, or a split, then it is just a pickup with a preamp, which you can get a million different ways, so why do it? I was sort of giving FIshman the benefit of the doubt.
@@valueofnothing2487 yeah got it. The preamp sure is there because there are way less windings than on a regular cooper coils pickup. Tbh i think the Greg Koch tele set sounds pretty good, the strat ones way less.
Tom is NOT the guy to do reviews.
I say this because he is such an amazing player that anything he plays sounds good. He could play a broken ukulele in a wind tunnel and it would sound great.
interesting pick-ups, and very good demonstration, but the surprise for me is the tuning you use. First time I see someone else doing that. I was first :-)
What amp is that? Sounds so freakin good
Sometimes it's possible to get an exhaustive product rewiew and this is the case. This guy knows quite well his business on the guitar, nice playing, nice tone and very well demonstrated sound options. I'm not a pro on argueing on someone's opinions, I just say I'm GRATEFUL for the job of guys like this who give me the chance to have an honest, overall view of a product that, otherwise, I should buy at 100 today and sell at 50 tomorrow if not fitting my taste/need. It's impossible to give to the people the "Reviews' Holy Grail", I just have the acceptable chance to walk out of the dark and considering a purchase with less apprehension. It's a useful service, I appreciate it and I thank anyone who gives it to me.
"circuit boards instead of pickup winds?"
Clarify?
Nearly hair thin foil with copper traces stacked on top of each other. Like hundreds of super thin circuit boards with each multiple turns of copper-trace connected in a way to act like a regular coil, only with 100% consistency and the ability to tap the coil at any point.
All strat single coils pretty much sounds the same with a clean sound.Its when use gain or overdrive thats really when you can hear the difference.
Sorta sounds like he’s playing with metal pick??
Funny tuning on the high strings :)
that dude can play wow
Great info 🇨🇦🙏
sorry but i nevear heard a vintage sound like that...maybe Fender texmex pickups having thei last breath, sorry had to write it....
Position 2 sounds cool.
SUCH a good fucking player gaaaah
Killer tone
Very nice!
I'll stick with Lace Alumitone series. Very good demo, but these pickups are not for me.
Who...?
Very interesting.
Playing starts halfway through the video
I meant TOM ! :-))
Rob Chapman, you have to add these to a prototype!!
The reverb is so overwhelming that it makes the tones less than true. What a shame... If you do one for the set of humbuckers, kill most of the reverb.
Audio is out of sync
I didn't hear ONE sound that I would call "musical." Rather than fault the pickups though, I think the problem is with the rest of the signal chain. The "clean" sound is FAR from "clean." Too many players idea of "clean" is simply "less distorted" than their lead tone. Too much breakup in the clean (?) sounds. Very unpleasant. Even rolling the high end off might have helped. Then the "high gain" sounds - really didn't sound any different than the "clean" sounds - again too much high end shattered glass sound. Does Fluence make a set of Hum-Sing-Hum configuration that I can put in my Ibanez? Still I wouldn't do that unless I can first hear a better demo of a seriously "clean" tone, and a usable "lead" sound. (Kudos however for not inducing ANY hum! I'm digging THAT part at least.)
This suffers from the same problem as digital amps. It sounds more like a caricature of a strat rather than the real thing. For some people it's great, but I prefer the imperfections and variations in tone. It's the whole reason tube amps are still around and predominantly used amongst pros. Music is an art and art isn't perfect. Cool idea, not for me
+MrBingping Gotta agree with, I'm kinda same in this...
Digital amps? like what?
@@gregraynard781guitar rig by native instruments is one
@@philb1283 Barf barf
Nobody was ever unhappy with the way tube gear sounded, in Hi-Fi or guitar/bass gear. First the germanium then the silicon solid states were promised to be more reliable and sound just as good. Neither turned out to be true. Class D solid state (digital) is another run at your wallet. In ten years all that will be in the dump along with the Acoustic, Kustom, Music Man, Crate, Line 6. Class D is such a rip-off! you can get a stereo 50W per channel with remote control for less than $30! www.ebay.com/itm/2-x-50-Watt-Class-D-HiFi-Amplifier-FM-Radio-Bluetooth-MP3-Player-USB-2860/263951222541?epid=13024042380&hash=item3d74b8070d:g:e0wAAOSwe2xbpaS-:rk:1:pf:1&frcectupt=true.
Only issue is no one will ever be able to repair it, it's all surface mount technology, and running at computer speeds.
lool!,..
delay & reveb :D :D :D ,..shame it didn't do justice to the raw pup sound
Hmmmmm not for me .
Tom is an amazing player but here he just talks way too much.
they don't sound very good - listen to a strat and see
activities!!!, USB!!!...no thanks I'll stick DIMARZIOS
So... To cheap ol pickups that only sound good with high ass distortion (in which condition any pickups sound pretty similar....)
+Colonel Gayfur I can make ANY pickup sound good.. cause it's all about TONE,anyone who says dimarzio or Duncan's sound old should think of this word...ORGANIC......so with MODERN amps why need active pickups???
+Colonel Gayfur clearly showing you haven't tried many pickups...
Colonel Gayfur Lol...have you ever heard of the dimarzio area pickups? they sound great with anything and a little pickup height adjustment goes a long way......by the way all you need to do( that i do routinely for pretentious corksniffers) is to say you have some expensive custom shop pickup set in there with some active circuit acting as a dummy coil to remove the noise...and they all think they sound great....until they find out they are dimarzios....then they dont like them as much.....hahaha....works EVERY time.
HAHAHAHAHAH GOOD LUCK
I heard the word "battery", and I said no. Never. I'm not opposed to active electronics in basses (Stingrays) , but there are so many great aftermarket, noiseless and stock pickups for Strat already, that adding a system that *requires* batteries is a step BACKWARDS for a Strat and IMO, adds unnecessary complication to an instrument that doesn't need it.
The battery life lasts 250 hours straight. So assuming you play 5 hours a day, that's still 50 days. Which is pretty good. And these are extremely versitile.
Here is another demo with no hint of what the amp is, too much reverb, and a demonstrator who cannot speak intelligently about the product. And terrible tone. Just add a flanger and bury the reneration control to knock it out of the park. Useless review. Oh and use some guy with an english accent (insert sound of me clearing my throat) to authoritativly sell it to us (more throat clearing) Americans. HA HEMMM
Greg Raynard While I do agree that there isn’t enough info about the amp they’re playing through, and also too much reverb, I disagree about the presenter. Tom Quayle is a notably knowledgeable guitarist, and gives more detail in this review than most reviews on this product (I’ve recently watched quite a few of them), probably as much as necessary without a PowerPoint presentation. The website for the product should have plenty of specs if you’re interested, but I feel these videos are for people who are just interested and want to know the basics of a product before looking deeper. I don’t need to see blueprints and diagrams for it to be a good review.
Also, he’s English because he RUclips channel is English. I’ve heard rumors that there’s a whole country of English people, and that they enjoy guitars just as much as Americans. That’s just what I’ve heard though...
Tom Quayle is the demonstrator and he can speak and play better than all of us here in the comments, combined...
@@5urg3x If you say so. IMO he lacks the knowledge to speak intelligently about it. Or it could be that he lacks the intelligence but i doubt that wholly.
Damn you are one full of complexes guy.
Sounds too digital... Oh wait, that's because they are.
horrible. sterile, no charachter, just like every stacked "perfect" caricature of a single coil
Have you actually played them? BTW, the character is in the HANDS.
Wrong, depth, color, clear with more character and no noise/hum. You need to get your hearing checked.
@@airgliderz go away. play with toys. go away.
@@SarcastSempervirens I see, clearly all you do is play with infant level toys
@@airgliderz :D I'd be embarassed highlighting a RUclips bitchslapping comment, but hey, I guess the author of the video is equally well described by my original comment. :D
HATE funk