Fishman Powertap Earth just blew (us) away at soundcheck

[RJVB]

Originally Posted by Petty1818

Sounds nice!

Sounds almost unplugged - and that's a compliment coming from me

I don't know how large that venue is but I get the impression we'd be hearing you just as well without any amplification at all

[Rick Jones]

Originally Posted by RJVB

Sounds almost unplugged - and that's a compliment coming from me

I don't know how large that venue is but I get the impression we'd be hearing you just as well without any amplification at all

Thank you, and yes, it has that quality to it.... better represented when played gently though.

The thing with that venue is that it's made up of a few different rooms, and that particular one opens up onto the pedestrianised street outside which has seating and a large smoking area. We play in there on sunny evenings and it's kind of a goof-off gig where the 'crowd' react more to energy than musicianship.

For comparison, here's me clowning around with my drummer friend a week or so earlier... using a Sunrise (in my larger Avalon L model) and no preamp straight into the Bose L1.

[Petty1818]

That Sunrise sounds awesome and I don't usually like magnetic pickups. However, like you said, the Powertap sounds just as good, if not better and the soundhole portion is much smaller. I feel like the Powertap systems are not getting enough love, not just around here but in general.

[Rick Jones]

Originally Posted by Petty1818

That Sunrise sounds awesome and I don't usually like magnetic pickups. However, like you said, the Powertap sounds just as good, if not better and the soundhole portion is much smaller. I feel like the Powertap systems are not getting enough love, not just around here but in general.

That's exactly my thoughts. The rare earth part of the Powertap system is less than half the size and weight of the Sunrise, plus you don't need to add a K&K or similar and as a plus the sensor part of the powertap is far less fiddly to install than other SBT type pickups.

Honestly, I'm really digging it and am seriously considering a second one for the big guitar.

[JackB1]

What is the power taps appeal to someone who doesn’t do a lot or percussion on their guitar? Isn’t that who it was designed for?

[SpruceTop]

Originally Posted by Snorse

Thank you, and yes, it has that quality to it.... better represented when played gently though.

The thing with that venue is that it's made up of a few different rooms, and that particular one opens up onto the pedestrianised street outside which has seating and a large smoking area. We play in there on sunny evenings and it's kind of a goof-off gig where the 'crowd' react more to energy than musicianship.

For comparison, here's me clowning around with my drummer friend a week or so earlier... using a Sunrise (in my larger Avalon L model) and no preamp straight into the Bose L1.

Rick,

Glad to see you're back on AGF! I didn't make the connection until I was looking back on my PMs from several years ago. Thanks for the info several years back on how you play "Gotta Serve Somebody."

Regards,

Ken

[Rick Jones]

Originally Posted by JackB1

What is the power taps appeal to someone who doesn’t do a lot or percussion on their guitar? Isn’t that who it was designed for?

Honestly it’s much more natural sounding than just a magnetic pickup alone, even if you don’t play percussively. It pulls in high-end, overtones and a sort of acoustic-sounding chorusing that isn’t there without the TAP sensor signal. Tap is an acronym for Touch, Ambience and Percussion in Fishman’s catalogue etc.

At my regular hotel gig, and into a Bose L1 it sounded pretty my like the guitar it’s in, only louder. The Sunrise and K&K combo I use in the other guitar is more of a solid, semi-electric broad-spectrum sound, and very musical in its own right, but not as ‘acoustic but loud’ as the Powertap Earth.

Justin Johnson does a good review here:

[Rick Jones]

Originally Posted by SpruceTop

Rick,

Glad to see you're back on AGF! I didn't make the connection until I was looking back on my PMs from several years ago. Thanks for the info several years back on how you play "Gotta Serve Somebody."

Regards,

Ken

Hi Ken, and thank you for the welcome back! I’ve had to relearn to play somewhat since damaging my radial nerve and losing the use of my hand for a while, but I think I may have overcompensated and my wife says I play better nowadays

I haven’t played my version of that song for years, thank you for the reminder!

Happy playing and thanks again for the kind greeting

[Marshall]

I like the Rare Earth as a mag. It's the best mag IMHO. But I don't like the idea of 2 cables coming out of the guitar. I've been using the Skysonic Pro1 for 6 months now and love it. It has a Mag, a built in Mic, and a SBT that gets stickied to the underside of the soundboard. There's a cable to connect the SBT to the mag. And the mag has 3 volume wheels to mix in the amount of each pickup you want. One single mono (mixed) output. There's an internal 9V battery pack to power it all.

Me, I turn the mic off and blend 50% SBT and 50% Mag. Simple. I love it.

[Rick Jones]

Originally Posted by Marshall

I like the Rare Earth as a mag. It's the best mag IMHO. But I don't like the idea of 2 cables coming out of the guitar. I've been using the Skysonic Pro1 for 6 months now and love it. It has a Mag, a built in Mic, and a SBT that gets stickied to the underside of the soundboard. There's a cable to connect the SBT to the mag. And the mag has 3 volume wheels to mix in the amount of each pickup you want. One single mono (mixed) output. There's an internal 9V battery pack to power it all.

Me, I turn the mic off and blend 50% SBT and 50% Mag. Simple. I love it.

You can send a mono signal out of a Powertap Earth. When you plug a standard mono jack into it, it sums the sbt and mag to mono, and the blend wheel rolls the sbt in to the 'always on' mag signal. I much. much prefer the sound from running into separate channels though, and being able to eq both individually as well as using a brighter delay on the SBT channel and a darker reverb on the mag.

The Skysonic pickup you have was previously available as the Dean Markley Trilogy. I had one in my J185, and it wasn't bad at all.

[Petty1818]

If you want stereo, couldn’t you also just use a stereo cable vs. the two cable approach?

[Rick Jones]

Originally Posted by Petty1818

If you want stereo, couldn’t you also just use a stereo cable vs. the two cable approach?

That’s exactly what I do. The two jacks in my larger Avalon are left over from when I had a k&k trinity installed (which was TRS on one jack so you could split the mic and sbt) and then I ran a misi duo or a sunrise out of the other. I needed three channels, but I began to realise after a few years that more often than not during pub and hotel gigs, I was tweaking mid-set and by the end I wouldn’t have any mic in the signal anyway.

Two leads has other benefits though, like being able to send the mag to an amp (a Fender twin in my case) and sbt to the board or snake. Y-cable in that case is another set of things to forget/lose/break etc. I am less likely to lose a 20m cable than the tiny Y-lead.

You can also come out of the Powertap Earth with TRS to TRS cable into a suitably equipped stereo input. There’s such an input in my friend’s Yamaha portable PA head. That’s the only place I’ve ever encountered one though (except maybe the K&k preamp I used to have). They are uncommon and you can’t rely on there being one on what you’ll plug into. Separate mono leads, almost never an issue.

Honestly, after 20+ years of playing out and nine of those more or less full time, I’ve tried so many things and settled on the best ways for me.

[stringbound]

Originally Posted by Snorse

Hmmm, honestly, that JGM system (I've tried the lower end version of his sig guitar at an Ibanez dealers that I teach out of a few hours a week) isn't really much cop summed to mono, sent down one lead. You have to break it out into three sources so you can run it into something with a phase switch DI or pre-amp) for one of the sources... otherwise you're stuck moving the mic around so it's not out of phase with the transducer and you don't lose all the bottom end.



I love Jon to bits, so it's not a slight on him or his signature model (I'm super happy for him)... but he uses those pickups into a load of outboard gear so it's less of an issue for him than it might be for someone picking up his sig model and not realising what's happening when they plug in.



If you're struggling with that super-shimmer plugged in in future, I might suggest Headway's SAM-1 pickup... that's got another level of treble response than any other pickup I've tried, and actually too much for me in the same guitar I regularly run a Sunrise in.

I've got the Ibanez JGM10 and run the Fishman system mono into one input. No need to split the pickup signals when you play without separate effect chains for each PU. Hands down, the Fishman PUs in the Ibanez JGM10 give the most natural sound I've ever had from an acoustic guitar out of the box without any extra equipment. No hazzle, no feedback issues. Best stage guitar I've ever had.

[Rick Jones]

Originally Posted by stringbound

I've got the Ibanez JGM10 and run the Fishman system mono into one input. No need to split the pickup signals when you play without separate effect chains for each PU. Hands down, the Fishman PUs in the Ibanez JGM10 give the most natural sound I've ever had from an acoustic guitar out of the box without any extra equipment. No hazzle, no feedback issues. Best stage guitar I've ever had.

That's good to hear! I tried it in a music shop so I'd say your live use experiences with it are more informed and useful information than mine.

It's a killer guitar for sure... even the JM5 blew me away. Many happy miles!

[Mr Blues]

First time I heard of the Fishman Powertrap pick ups .
Sounds really interesting.
I’ll have to check these out

Dave