Fishman Aura Sixteen - interesting piece of gear

[big jilm]

Hi, all.

First, thanks to those that chimed in about this pedal, and other options for getting a better tone from my UST pickup.

Here's the gear:
My guitar is a Gibson J29, with an LR Baggs Element. I run it into a Fishman Loudbox Performer amp, or a Mackie board with a pair of QSC K12's.



Playing for about an hour through the Fishman Loudbox at low (coffee house) volumes, this pedal does bring a miked "airyness" to the tone of the guitar. At full Aura, the quack is gone, and the tone is much fuller, bigger, and warmer. Much more '3d' if that makes sense. Dialed back to about 60% Aura, the tone is still quite good and feels like it would feed back less at bigger gig volumes. Switching the Aura off and on leads to a jarring tonal difference, for sure. The Element sounds a lot smaller and lifeless compared to the 'Aura-ed' tone.

Bottom line: my guitar sounds much better through the Aura pedal than it does without.

After playing for a bit, I scrapped Fishman's default images and downloaded a few to try. Here's the list:



My Gibson is a short-scale spruce topped guitar with rosewood back and sides and Gibson 1930's bracing with a mahogany neck, and rosewwod fretboard and saddle. Tusq nut and bridge. J45 Auras do not sound right - I'm guessing because of their mahogany back and sides - my guitar looks like a J45, but doesn't sound like one. The closest Aura image I found was using a Martin HD28 miked with a Neumann U47 (so far). J50 images were better than J45's for some reason, but the Martin still sounds more like my guitar. Threw a Guild in there for fun, but it sounds tinny with my setup - not like my J29 at all, so it's just gonna sit there for now. The only Gibson Auras that had rosewood back and sides were the Auras for the Songwriter Deluxe, but those didn't sound close either. So, Martin it is.

This is some really neat technology. There are a lot of ways people use to get rid of that UST sound, and I'm sure there are better ways than this - but so far, I think that the Fishman Aura Sixteen is going to work pretty well (but ask me in a month or so!). I can see why the Fishman Aura Spectrum DI is a better buy, for sure - but this one was on sale, and I have a compressor and an EQ pedal if I need it.

I will work on some sound samples pretty soon, but for now I can recommend this thing. For the sale price Musician's Friend had on this, I think it's a hit, for sure.

Play on!

big jilm

[SpruceTop]

Generally, when playing live, you'd want to run your Aura in the mix at around 30% to 50%. When recording, you can add a bit more Aura. Of course, run your mix at whatever you hear as sounding good. Have Fun!

[big jilm]

Originally Posted by SpruceTop

Generally, when playing live, you'd want to run your Aura in the mix at around 30% to 50%. When recording, you can add a bit more Aura. Of course, run your mix at whatever you hear as sounding good. Have Fun!

Thanks for the reply! Is the idea that running the Aura live between 30-50% that you will reduce feedback, or for some other reason?

[SteveA]

I bought one of these 6 months ago on the Stupid Deal of the Day...

Still haven't used it.....


Gonna have to break er' out

[big jilm]

Originally Posted by SteveA

I bought one of these 6 months ago on the Stupid Deal of the Day...

Still haven't used it.....


Gonna have to break er' out

Give it a try and let us know what you think. It's not perfect, but it certainly seems to improve my plugged in sound.

[ghostnote]

I've had one of these for quite some time. I use it live with my band, for about a dozen songs only - for the rest of our tunes I use electric guitars. I'm using an inexpensive Yamaha FG730S for these songs; no sense bringing a "nice" guitar to a bar gig. But it plays great. The chain is Yamaha > Aura >Marshall AS50D amp > XLR out to PA. (I use the amp strictly as a monitor) The Fishman really improves the sound of the guitar through the PA. Oddly enough, I don't usually look at what models I'm using on the pedal, so don't ask! I just turn the knobs until I like the sound, and that's where it stays.

[big jilm]

Originally Posted by ghostnote

I've had one of these for quite some time. I use it live with my band, for about a dozen songs only - for the rest of our tunes I use electric guitars. I'm using an inexpensive Yamaha FG730S for these songs; no sense bringing a "nice" guitar to a bar gig. But it plays great. The chain is Yamaha > Aura >Marshall AS50D amp > XLR out to PA. (I use the amp strictly as a monitor) The Fishman really improves the sound of the guitar through the PA. Oddly enough, I don't usually look at what models I'm using on the pedal, so don't ask! I just turn the knobs until I like the sound, and that's where it stays.

If you are getting a cool tone you dig, no sense in messing about with it any further! Glad to hear that it is working in some higher volume applications. I have only played through mine at coffee-house volume, and I really like what it is doing to the tone of the guitar. A lot more depth to the tone - it sounds a lot like my guitar does unplugged acoustically, so there's that.

[SpruceTop]

Originally Posted by big jilm

Thanks for the reply! Is the idea that running the Aura live between 30-50% that you will reduce feedback, or for some other reason?

Yes, the Aura Imaging can still act similar to a mic in that the more it's dialed-in, the more chance there is of reinforcing room resonances that can cause boominess or feedback. Of course, you can then try using a phase switch and EQing to tame those troublesome frequencies but it's better to use just enough Aura Imaging in the mix to get rid of quack and make your guitar sound good.

[big jilm]

Originally Posted by SpruceTop

Yes, the Aura Imaging can still act similar to a mic in that the more it's dialed-in, the more chance there is of reinforcing room resonances that can cause boominess or feedback. Of course, you can then try using a phase switch and EQing to tame those troublesome frequencies but it's better to use just enough Aura Imaging in the mix to get rid of quack and make your guitar sound good.

Right on, man. I'm seeing that here too. Thanks for the tip!

[Mike_A]

The 2nd reason you may want a little less aura on stage is to cut through the mix better in a band situation. Hey big jilm I'm glad the aura is working out for you!

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