Tried the Fishman Nashville Biscuit Pickup ? Updated
Nov 2, 2021 19:20:40 GMT
pete1951, bluesdude, and 3 more like this
Post by snakehips on Nov 2, 2021 19:20:40 GMT
Hi again !
Well, I've temp-rigged the pickup to a jack socket, and I'm using my Orchid Electronics Acoustic Preamp to boost the signal.
Then it plugs into a Bose Tonematch digital mixer, then into a small, powered speaker (a Bose S1 Pro).
The speaker is pointing in the direction of the bottom edge of my iPhone SE (where the microphone is) - which is on a stand/holder for doing the video.
Although my iphone might pick up some of my guitar acoustically, I had the amp loud enough for my iphone to pick up plenty of the (electonically) amplified tone, relatively.
NB - Disclaimer - I was playing softly, and couldn't go too loud as both my kids were studying at the time - and my wife would go spare if I was too loud. Also, I had to try & do a quick demo before my wife put a stop to the noise !!
I'd like to do a better demo BUT I'll have to send the pickup back soon, IF I'm gonna send it back - so I may not find time soon to do a better demo.
Here is the link anyway. Towards the end of the video, I switch over to another National, which has a Highlander biscuit pickup (withOUT the internal Highlander preamp) - so both guitars are pre-amp'd with my Orchid electronics preamp.
I found that both pickups needed quite different EQ settings to get a half decent tone - so when I switch over to my Highlander equipped National, the EQ wasn't on an ideal setting for it.
I set the pickup up on a brand new NRP Hot Rod cone. You may hear some rattles/vibrations in the video - that I believe is down to the pickup cable rattling, perhaps against the cone. I noticed AFTER I had put the strings back on. I had a VERY short window of opportunity to get this video done - and thus didn't have time to take the strings off & sort the rattle.
In conclusion, I found this Fishman Nashville Biscuit Resonator Pickup fairly decent BUT not good enough for my taste.
Plus points :
Decent signal strength
Decent balance between treble and bass strings - each individual string was at roughly the same volume as the others)
The biscuit comes with the saddle not glued in - so, if you don't fancy an ebony capped maple saddle, you can use your own without hacking the original saddle out. I've never tried to do that before, so I don't know how difficult it is though.
The pickup cable length is quite decent - and will easily reach to the F-hole or the tailpiece end of the guitar side, with plenty of slack.
The "hot" core wire is of decent thickness to solder to, unlike the very fragile "hot" wire of the Highlander pickups (possibly the main reason I'm having problems with some of my Highlander pickups recently).
There is some resonator cone tone coming through BUT I really don't think THAT it's anywhere near as good as with the Highlander pickup system.
Minus points :
Very piezo scratchy sound, emphasizing string noise too much (like when you've just put brand-new strings on your guitar, but worse).
This piezo sound is not quite as bad as Fishman's older Polo-mint style biscuit pickup that the cone screw went through the middle of, or McIntyre Feather contact pickups I have heard before. No, not as bad as those, BUT I really don't think I could put up with the piezo quack sound.
Yes, you MIGHT be able to EQ the quack with a heck of a lot of EQ adjustments - but that will likely take out a lot of the actual guitar sound as well.
It would be great if it came with an all Maple or Boxwood saddle, instead of OR as well as the ebony-capped maple bridge - but hey ho !
I think the consensus on this MM forum is that the style of pickup (and where it is located) is not conducive to getting the best possible resonator guitar sound.
Not enough cone tone - it does sound much closer to a regular acoustic with a piezo pickup, than a resonator guitar (so, what would be the point in that !!).
It does sound a bit nasal (see the National Resophonic supplied videos I attached, in one of my previous comments on this thread) - which in my mind makes it sound more Dobro, than National. Maybe when Fishman heard that nasal tone, they thought they had "cracked it" - and didn't know what a National should sound like !! ????
Lastly, please excuse my less than perfect quiff, in the video.
After a day treating Dental patients with a respirator hood on multiple times, my quiff remained squashed on the left side of my head (I managed to reshape the rest !).
Again, a window of opportunity to do this video, couldn't be missed !!
Here is my YouTube video link.
Well, I've temp-rigged the pickup to a jack socket, and I'm using my Orchid Electronics Acoustic Preamp to boost the signal.
Then it plugs into a Bose Tonematch digital mixer, then into a small, powered speaker (a Bose S1 Pro).
The speaker is pointing in the direction of the bottom edge of my iPhone SE (where the microphone is) - which is on a stand/holder for doing the video.
Although my iphone might pick up some of my guitar acoustically, I had the amp loud enough for my iphone to pick up plenty of the (electonically) amplified tone, relatively.
NB - Disclaimer - I was playing softly, and couldn't go too loud as both my kids were studying at the time - and my wife would go spare if I was too loud. Also, I had to try & do a quick demo before my wife put a stop to the noise !!
I'd like to do a better demo BUT I'll have to send the pickup back soon, IF I'm gonna send it back - so I may not find time soon to do a better demo.
Here is the link anyway. Towards the end of the video, I switch over to another National, which has a Highlander biscuit pickup (withOUT the internal Highlander preamp) - so both guitars are pre-amp'd with my Orchid electronics preamp.
I found that both pickups needed quite different EQ settings to get a half decent tone - so when I switch over to my Highlander equipped National, the EQ wasn't on an ideal setting for it.
I set the pickup up on a brand new NRP Hot Rod cone. You may hear some rattles/vibrations in the video - that I believe is down to the pickup cable rattling, perhaps against the cone. I noticed AFTER I had put the strings back on. I had a VERY short window of opportunity to get this video done - and thus didn't have time to take the strings off & sort the rattle.
In conclusion, I found this Fishman Nashville Biscuit Resonator Pickup fairly decent BUT not good enough for my taste.
Plus points :
Decent signal strength
Decent balance between treble and bass strings - each individual string was at roughly the same volume as the others)
The biscuit comes with the saddle not glued in - so, if you don't fancy an ebony capped maple saddle, you can use your own without hacking the original saddle out. I've never tried to do that before, so I don't know how difficult it is though.
The pickup cable length is quite decent - and will easily reach to the F-hole or the tailpiece end of the guitar side, with plenty of slack.
The "hot" core wire is of decent thickness to solder to, unlike the very fragile "hot" wire of the Highlander pickups (possibly the main reason I'm having problems with some of my Highlander pickups recently).
There is some resonator cone tone coming through BUT I really don't think THAT it's anywhere near as good as with the Highlander pickup system.
Minus points :
Very piezo scratchy sound, emphasizing string noise too much (like when you've just put brand-new strings on your guitar, but worse).
This piezo sound is not quite as bad as Fishman's older Polo-mint style biscuit pickup that the cone screw went through the middle of, or McIntyre Feather contact pickups I have heard before. No, not as bad as those, BUT I really don't think I could put up with the piezo quack sound.
Yes, you MIGHT be able to EQ the quack with a heck of a lot of EQ adjustments - but that will likely take out a lot of the actual guitar sound as well.
It would be great if it came with an all Maple or Boxwood saddle, instead of OR as well as the ebony-capped maple bridge - but hey ho !
I think the consensus on this MM forum is that the style of pickup (and where it is located) is not conducive to getting the best possible resonator guitar sound.
Not enough cone tone - it does sound much closer to a regular acoustic with a piezo pickup, than a resonator guitar (so, what would be the point in that !!).
It does sound a bit nasal (see the National Resophonic supplied videos I attached, in one of my previous comments on this thread) - which in my mind makes it sound more Dobro, than National. Maybe when Fishman heard that nasal tone, they thought they had "cracked it" - and didn't know what a National should sound like !! ????
Lastly, please excuse my less than perfect quiff, in the video.
After a day treating Dental patients with a respirator hood on multiple times, my quiff remained squashed on the left side of my head (I managed to reshape the rest !).
Again, a window of opportunity to do this video, couldn't be missed !!
Here is my YouTube video link.