So, I've searched the forums and while there seems to be alot of praise for this pickup, I've yet to encounter the type of problem I seem to be having, so here goes. . .
I went the the FC back around April of 2007. It always sounded awesome, right from the get go, and there was never much 'work' involved in playing it. I never needed to use a preamp with it, and barely used any EQ to get it to sound right. Contrary to most players' experience, my threads were going UP, so the 'hot' side of the pickup was going into the body of the instrument. I still never had an issue with cutting through or boominess, though. Compared to the Realist that my bass wore before the FC, it had much more presence, and even more bottom. It worked for me, and worked well.
Fast forward to June of this year. I had been putting it off, but it was time for a new fingerboard. I went to a good luthier, who also suggested to me some ideas for cheating my nut down and bridge up (for my extremely large instrument). I was total game, as long as the instrument could retain that wonderful sound I was used to. He had to cut me a new bridge in the process, and the work turned out wonderful. A great-sounding, now much more easily-played bass. What was new were the threads on the bridge now! They went DOWN, with the 'hot' side of the pickup facing the strings. I was actually excited to hear this sound that many posters seemed to love more than what I had been playing for 1 year+. My bass was going to sound even better!
I got on the first gig and it was a NIGHTMARE. I plugged in, and my gain was immediately about half of where it was before. I had to turn my amp WAY up just to get a manageable level, but that wasn't all. My midrange seemed to just disappear. There was much, much bottom and very little presence. All of a sudden, I have to work my ass off just to get the string to speak. I keep turning up, and I swear that I'm losing sound. I move the adjuster a 1/4 turn to try SOMETHING, but the sound is just awful. Way too much work now. I'm guessing that this luthier maybe 'mishandled' what seemed to be a fragile pickup. It's broke, I guess. The warranty has also run out at this point, so I'm back to using my Realist, Underwood, Bass Max, etc. . .
Fast forward to about a month ago. I'm really wanting that sound I used to get. I've gotten by on the other pickups, really, with some memorable moments using them, but I'm yearning for the Full Circle sound and playability again. I go to 'my guy' to see if he can fix it. Long story short, he gets someone from Fishman on the phone that tells me that I have a 2nd Gen pickup (which has about a 7-8% failure rate) and the 3rd Gen has virtually zero failure rate. He understands that my warranty has run out, but in the spirit of wanting a 'happy customer', he agrees to send me a new pickup in exchange for the old one. Thank you, Fishman! I'm in business, once I get the new one put on. I get the new pickup installed and I'm anxious to get to my first gig with it, knowing that the sound on the gig (rather than the sound at home) is what I'm dying to hear. It's a piano trio. I plug in, and notice the abundance of low end immediately. Okay. We start playing and I'm immediately taken back to the gig earlier this year. Gobs of bottom. Practically NO mids. Presence is gone. I'm working my ass off to get a sound out. The nightmare has returned and the worst is confirmed: it wasn't the pickup!
So I get home and put the bass, literally, under a microscope. My bridge seems to be in the same place, soundpost is fine, and everything looks good except one thing: bridge contact with the pickup. It appears that there's a TINY bit of uneveness between the top of the pickup and the top of the bridge and the element is not COMPLETELY flush against the top of the bridge--looking closely you can see the smallest of gaps. This pickup IS a piezo, correct? I'm thinking that (much like an Underwood or Realist) there is an optimum amount of contact/pressure to maximizing the sound of this pickup and I might be going through what one might go through if you don't, say, wedge an Underwood tight enough: loss of focus, too much bottom, a drop in mids, less gain. I'm thinking that the bridge has to come off and be sanded at the leg (where it touches the element) and maybe that will make a difference. I'm not big on taking off my bridge by myself, so I've made an appointment with my local luthier for Tuesday, but on the phone he concurred with me and said that when you install adjusters on a bridge, this can be something that's taken for granted. Apparently, it's not so easy to get that adjuster perfectly parallel with the wood on the bridge (and he's not the guy that cut the bridge, either).
Anyway, is anybody having this problem? Anybody ever have this problem?
I went the the FC back around April of 2007. It always sounded awesome, right from the get go, and there was never much 'work' involved in playing it. I never needed to use a preamp with it, and barely used any EQ to get it to sound right. Contrary to most players' experience, my threads were going UP, so the 'hot' side of the pickup was going into the body of the instrument. I still never had an issue with cutting through or boominess, though. Compared to the Realist that my bass wore before the FC, it had much more presence, and even more bottom. It worked for me, and worked well.
Fast forward to June of this year. I had been putting it off, but it was time for a new fingerboard. I went to a good luthier, who also suggested to me some ideas for cheating my nut down and bridge up (for my extremely large instrument). I was total game, as long as the instrument could retain that wonderful sound I was used to. He had to cut me a new bridge in the process, and the work turned out wonderful. A great-sounding, now much more easily-played bass. What was new were the threads on the bridge now! They went DOWN, with the 'hot' side of the pickup facing the strings. I was actually excited to hear this sound that many posters seemed to love more than what I had been playing for 1 year+. My bass was going to sound even better!
I got on the first gig and it was a NIGHTMARE. I plugged in, and my gain was immediately about half of where it was before. I had to turn my amp WAY up just to get a manageable level, but that wasn't all. My midrange seemed to just disappear. There was much, much bottom and very little presence. All of a sudden, I have to work my ass off just to get the string to speak. I keep turning up, and I swear that I'm losing sound. I move the adjuster a 1/4 turn to try SOMETHING, but the sound is just awful. Way too much work now. I'm guessing that this luthier maybe 'mishandled' what seemed to be a fragile pickup. It's broke, I guess. The warranty has also run out at this point, so I'm back to using my Realist, Underwood, Bass Max, etc. . .
Fast forward to about a month ago. I'm really wanting that sound I used to get. I've gotten by on the other pickups, really, with some memorable moments using them, but I'm yearning for the Full Circle sound and playability again. I go to 'my guy' to see if he can fix it. Long story short, he gets someone from Fishman on the phone that tells me that I have a 2nd Gen pickup (which has about a 7-8% failure rate) and the 3rd Gen has virtually zero failure rate. He understands that my warranty has run out, but in the spirit of wanting a 'happy customer', he agrees to send me a new pickup in exchange for the old one. Thank you, Fishman! I'm in business, once I get the new one put on. I get the new pickup installed and I'm anxious to get to my first gig with it, knowing that the sound on the gig (rather than the sound at home) is what I'm dying to hear. It's a piano trio. I plug in, and notice the abundance of low end immediately. Okay. We start playing and I'm immediately taken back to the gig earlier this year. Gobs of bottom. Practically NO mids. Presence is gone. I'm working my ass off to get a sound out. The nightmare has returned and the worst is confirmed: it wasn't the pickup!
So I get home and put the bass, literally, under a microscope. My bridge seems to be in the same place, soundpost is fine, and everything looks good except one thing: bridge contact with the pickup. It appears that there's a TINY bit of uneveness between the top of the pickup and the top of the bridge and the element is not COMPLETELY flush against the top of the bridge--looking closely you can see the smallest of gaps. This pickup IS a piezo, correct? I'm thinking that (much like an Underwood or Realist) there is an optimum amount of contact/pressure to maximizing the sound of this pickup and I might be going through what one might go through if you don't, say, wedge an Underwood tight enough: loss of focus, too much bottom, a drop in mids, less gain. I'm thinking that the bridge has to come off and be sanded at the leg (where it touches the element) and maybe that will make a difference. I'm not big on taking off my bridge by myself, so I've made an appointment with my local luthier for Tuesday, but on the phone he concurred with me and said that when you install adjusters on a bridge, this can be something that's taken for granted. Apparently, it's not so easy to get that adjuster perfectly parallel with the wood on the bridge (and he's not the guy that cut the bridge, either).
Anyway, is anybody having this problem? Anybody ever have this problem?
