Fishman Bass Blender non functioning

Just checking, are you using the power supply Fishman included with the unit or batteries ? Also, the Crown GLM condenser included, was designed specifically to run at half of the Bass Blender’s voltage. A new Headway EDB-2 blender costs around half what the Blender did new and is 1/3 the size. They will be selling them off, once the New Headway EDB design is released. Just my take.

 

Having no sound out of either channel suggests starting at the power supply, especially if the output is dead quiet...no hiss or buzz. If you do get some noise out, then it's somewhere in the signal chain, likely after the two channels are mixed.

 

What you could do is order an new Fishman power supply. They still sell them, that way for a minimal investment you can rule out if that's the issue. I also remember that the battery holder connections

tended to pop out and disconnect the battery.

 

I might not be looking at the right unit, but isn’t there an XLR mic input on the back side? That’s where the phantom power would be provided, not through a 1/4” phone jack.

 

I had many friends in the 90’s who got great results out of the Fishman Bass Blender unit, but I could never deal with all of the “fiddling” that was required to get that sound. Back then I just plugged an Underwood into an SVT with a Shure 57 mic on a small stand near the treble side F hole, straight into the PA or soundboard and I was able to get great sounds back then. I get it though, because it is nice to have that blended sound coming straight out of the amplifier instead of having the mic nuances out front. Now I just use the two channels on my AI Clarus to blend a mic and my piezo pickup.

 

It's been alluded to here, if it were me I'd test this with a dynamic mic first, to rule out a problem with the phantom power source.

 

Here’s what I think is your issue. The Crown GLM condenser mic that was supplied with the Fishman Bass Blender’s Phantom ran at 4.5 volts not 9 Volts, so if The Audio Technica 350 needs more than 4.5 it’s not going to work. Since it’s been quite some time since I owned mine I can’t be sure but, I did purchase a ATM35 to use with the Bass Blender and I don’t think it worked. As to the 1/4” plug. Mine was wired to a Stereo 1/4” jack in combination with the pickup. My recollection is that the phantom power is supplied by the ring connector on a 1/4” Stereo phone plug.,

 

Very welcomed, glad The test worked... As mentioned, other responsers were alluding to the same conclusion.

The reason I guessed at this is I have an old, small, battery or AC operated Behringer mixer that provides 1/2 phantom power under battery and as such, under battery it severely limits what condenser mics can be used. This mixer works fine for any condenser under AC, and of course it's great for any dynamic mic using either battery or AC.

Sounds like the Bass Blender has similar limitations.

Good luck as you search for the right combination!

 

Phantom vs bias power:
https://service.shure.com/s/article...lug-in-power-and-phantom-power?language=en_US
maybe the bass blender only supplies bias power - that seems quite likely (but not impossible) given the lack of an XLR input

 

You should distinguish between electret-condensers and non-electret-condensers.

Non-electrets are the typical studio mics. They need phantom power for two things, the polarization of the membrane and the built-in preamp. The high voltage is used for the membrane (mainly). A lower voltage results in a lower output and that leads to a higher noise floor relative to the signal. Often useable, but a bit more noisy. It depends on the construction of the preamp how low the phantom power can be to get a undistorted signal.

Electrets are often a lot cheaper, can be very small because in most cases there is just a small FET mounted directly at the capsule, no need for a high phantom power because the FET can work with voltages between 1.5 and 15 Volts. If there is a separate preamp or battery/power adapter, the resistor and capacitor (to separate bias power from the signal) is built-in there. With battery-only adapters it‘s usually not more than this. The bias voltage can be delivered via the signal line to the mic capsule (often the case) or by a third connection to separate power from signal.
So a two line connection always is bias power on the signal line. With a three line connection to a very small capsule it is in almost all cases bias power on a separate line.
The signal is always unbalanced in these cases.

Phantom power always needs a balanced output from the mic. I haven‘t seen a TRS with phantom power myself, but they may exist in rare cases (i.e. where there is not enough room for an XLR-connector). The TRS balanced inputs I have seen were always line level. (The ones that were mic level were not balanced but bias power unbalanced.)
Mini-XLR are often (always?) unbalanced with bias power going into a preamp/battery adapter/radio transmitter with preamp.

You might be able to get a better electret capsule with built-in FET (that’s for most of them) and wire it correctly to your Bass Blender. But don’t think you can do that with a phantom powered non-electret.

 

The Crown GLM 20 microphone that was designed specifically for the Fishman Bass Blender, was one of those tiny miniature lavalier microphones. It ran on 4.5 volts because the Blender could be powered by a single 9 volt battery

with half of that power sent to the phantom while the other half ran the preamp. It was very expensive little box at the time $499.00 plus the Crown GLM 20 and stereo jack. The Headway EDB-2 and the EDB-2 H.E. uses two 9 volt's

and a other circuitry to give you the full 48 volts to the phantom and two full channels of EQ. It costs about half what the Blender did at the time it was available. Since I've owned both, I'd never even consider trying to get the Fishman

to do what one of todays boxes can. Just my take of course. There is a Countryman Lavalier that will supposedly work in conjunction with the blender.