Had a set put in my precision 59 Les Paul … glorious!! all I can say transformed my Lester to tone heaven .. thanks sweetwater….thanks to repair shop …sweet!!!

Versatile from metal to rock and clean genres. Work great with switches and push pull pots. Hot rodded voice 2 is great for hard stuff and the PAF / Single Coil tones cover everything. I like them better than moderns, but for modern metal / DJENT, the moderns work better. I have and am keeping both sets.

I got a set of Fluence Classic hum buckets to replace the 490R/498T I had in my 2013 LP Studio. The stock pickups weren't doing it for me. I replaced those with another brand of "classic" passive pickups with Jimmy Page wiring. Still wasn't doing anything for me. The Fluence pickups did it. The three voice option (classic, classic hot rod, and single coil) makes the guitar far more flexible for session work.

Installation was easy once I had all the parts in hand. That's where the problem started. The standard installation kit comes with short shaft pots. All the needed wiring for the pickups but no extra wiring for any connections you might need to make (i.e., to switches, between pots, etc.). This perfectly fine and expected. The problem is that you will need a completely different set of pots for a Les Paul. You need long shaft pots for a Gibson Les Paul. Those are special order from Fishman. So expect to drop another $ on just those parts.

I also got the Les Paul battery pack for the installation. Which works great… except… there has to be a something that has a small current draw even though the guitar isn't plugged in. I had my Les Paul sitting in its case for about a month. I pulled it out the night before a gig to make sure all was good. The battery was completely drained. Never had a problem like that with other brands of actives ever.

Read More Show Less

Like many guitarists, I had a dream guitar since I was a kid and started playing. This guitar has always been out of reach. But one came up locally for a great deal, and my wife told me I'd be foolish to pass it up. A real dream come true! Unfortunately, the 57 classics that came in the guitar do not suit my play style. Great sounding pickups, just not for me. The Fluence Classics are incredibly articulate! They can get bright and thin like a strat but coming out of the neck position on my Les Paul. Crazy! These pickups handle more gain than I would ever need, and still sound fantastic! Bridge pickup is full and clear and bright, neck pickup is articulate and detailed and not muddy.

It's easy to go too bright one way or the other on these but that's where the tone pots come in. Unfortunately they came in all short shafts. I was bummed, but emailed Fishman and told them my predicament. They happily shipped me 4 new pots, all long shafted, at no charge and without problem. I asked them how to buy new ones but they instead just mailed them to me for free. Pretty cool! I love the taper on them, and I love how dynamic and usable they are! You can actually hear the differences in tone and volume throughout the sweep unlike other pots that feel more like "on/off" switches. This is huge! And such a welcome surprise.

I'm not great with soldering so I can't speak to how easily these install. I was able to do about 90% before I got confused. It was quickly and easily remedied though and haven't run into any problems since then. I also installed the battery pack for the LP and it works great! I play a lot and can go a significant amount of play time between charges. I think it's been 2+ months since my last charge? I suspect that the tone changes slightly when the battery is on low, but I may be imagining things. Hard to say for sure. But it's nice to not have to throw away batteries. A quick USB charge while it's on the stand over night and everything is good to go. I used to charge it once a month but lately decided that I wanted to see how long I could go between charges and have been quite pleasantly surprised. The charge is fast so I just keep it in the guitar's case and I figure if push came to shove I could charge after sound check if I had to. But I've never had to.

I don't love the single coil tones, but I don't love playing single coils. Love listening to them, but can't seem to get them to sound right when I play. Having said that, I won't speak to the coil split feature. It functions, but I don't find much use for it. The other voice, which makes the pickups a little hotter, are very usable! I use that in the middle position and the bridge position regularly. It's a bit dark for my taste of neck humbuckers. But that's because I love bright humbuckers.

These are great pickups! I love them. They have great resale value too. So if you don't like them you can recoup most of your cost. They saved my dream guitar. I loved the guitar before the pickup change, but now it's usable! There is something special about owning a guitar you've wanted for so long, but it's even better when you get to use it and play it regularly instead of wishing it were different or feeling disillusioned about the purchase. It goes back and forth between #1 and #2 (I do love my Newark Street Starfire V, it has a totally different flavor and feel) and a HUGE part of that are these pickups. If I could put these pickups in all my guitars I might.

Read More Show Less

I've had EMG 89s for more years than I care to admit and these things absolutely blow them out of the water in every conceivable way. Not being the sort of person who sits around thinking about Eric Clapton or bumblebee capacitors, I was having some trouble deciding whether I would like the "classic" models but I've got no regrets and no plans to revisit this choice any time in the near future.

They're much brighter and clearer than your average humbucker and that's a good thing. Depending on how your amp is EQed, the "high frequency tilt" option may be incredibly subtle, but it's also incredibly valuable and I'm a bit confused as to why they don't add a lead to the wiring harness for this option instead of making you solder directly to a pad.

What's less spectacular about the product is the overall installation process. You get four pots in the box--two push-pull and two regular. Both are quite short and will not be usable in a Les Paul style body at all without modification. I'm not sure that Fishman even sells taller pots themselves. This is pretty annoying.

Equally annoying is the width of the connector on the secondary wiring harness. It's too wide to pass through most of the wire routing holes that are typically drilled at the factory so you've got to fish the wires through backwards, by their tails. There are ways of making that process slightly less painful, but considering the fact that there's no reason that you need four leads on that connector, it just doesn't make a lot of sense, either. Soldering pads together should be something that the person who wants to hardwire their selections does. Put the HFT lead on the secondary connector, get rid of the two superfluous grounds and now you can throw a JST connector on there that will fit through more holes.

Getting a solid connection to the pot housings is also somewhat problematic no matter how much flux you use. Make sure you rough them up with some sandpaper before attempting to solder and crank the heat up a bit. You can easily wind up with a joint that looks perfect but doesn't really make good contact.

Lastly, the tone caps they give you are probably not the value you want or expect so you'll likely want to supply your own. They are good quality caps, just strangely inappropriate for the 25K pots.

Of course, you only have to install them once, but it would be nice if they'd take a few notes from EMG on making this a less arduous task. I believe more people would try them out if they were easier to swap in. I certainly would have tried them a lot sooner than I did.

Read More Show Less

I've never been an active pickup kinda guy. If fact, I have a history of what was probably perceived as talking down to people that liked them (sorry about that). However, it I somehow swerved into some fishman fluence classic demos online and was intrigued. Not only did they sound REALLY good, but the tones being produced were right up my alley. I popped these in an Epiphone G400 pro; the stock pickups weren't bad, but I wanted something more, ya know? Sure enough, they deliver exactly what was promised. Tone for days. Days, man. If you are reading this, you are looking for a non paid endorsement from people with no incentive to mislead you. I'm that guy, and these pickups are awesome.

I installed these myself in an Eastman T184 hollow body that had Seymour Duncan '59s in the neck and bridge. I was never satisfied with the SD pickups - they didn't respond consistently, especially in the higher register. It took a bit of thought and planning to get the Fluence pickups installed but they have been great. The touch sensitivity and consistency of these is a revelation and the options available with the push/pull tone knobs is really nice - single coils on one and modified voicing on the other. I find the modified voicing to be warmer and well suited for jazz. The pots are very high quality and have a great feel.
Regarding the battery - I wanted to stay away from disposable batteries and considered the Fishman rechargeable battery pack but instead I went with a rechargeable lithium Ion 9 volt battery with a micro USB charging connection. This was mounted under the bridge pickup and has a short micro USB extension cable connected that I access through the guitar's f hole for charging. The battery should last 150 - 200 hours if the instrument cable is removed when not in use. This was my only concern about having active pickups - charging maintenance! These pickups are great if you can deal with the battery/power source - it would be nice if they could be powered through the instrument cable.

Read More Show Less

Going to keep this short.
Put these is a prs custom 24.
Description I"d give is CLEAR and beautiful breakup
Can"t decide if my tele custom shop or prs sounds better. I love them and considering putting some in my Sg or les Paul

Let me put everything in points here:

Pros:-
- Sound is way too real VS my old Gibson Classic 57 and 57+, and brighter too though I had uncovered
- Fluence Pickups they sound so "Alive", the harmonics and dynamics are amazing
- They came with "almost" everything I needed for installation
- Voice 2 on Neck pickup combined with HF Tilt gives a smooth JAZZ like sound
- The built quality is impressive although the metal covers only the TOP of it
- They are filled with black epoxy, so no feed back at all even with very hi gain
- My Gibson has a battery compartment in the back so it was easy to power these ones!
- Pickups drop in easily in the original Gibson pickup rings

Cons:-
- Fishman did not include a ground wire (like in single coils set), and I needed some extra wiring.
- The volume pots are SHORT SHAFT and designed for an SG not a Les Paul!! (I had to use DREMEL to thin the wood from inside the cavity!!) I wish this option was available
- Only 2 Push-Pull pots, 3 could been a better option
- The TONE pot and its capacitor are not very gradual, the real TONE is more quick in 4-0 position (but this could be solved with a better Capacitor to match the 25K OHM pots


Finally, if you have an SG and looking for an UPGRADE in Pickups, your search is done. Buy these and you will not remember your old guitar sound!. For Les Paul specially Gibson's if Fishman offers lower shafts or you can modify the cavity Go for this set.

one more thing, The pole spacing on these pickups is different (E-e 49mm on Neck, 53mm on Bridge) larger spacing than Original USA Gibson Pickups

Read More Show Less

As an electrical engineer, the technology behind these pickups was what first piqued my interest. It's such a simple modern solution to an old problem, and I have to say it works beautifully. I installed these on my Epiphone Les Paul, which I have also modded with a Bigsby vibrato. The improvement in the tone of my guitar was phenomenal. Each voice has its own unique sound, but at the same time the improvement in the clarity of the sound is obvious compared to the stock pickups. Across the whole tonal spectrum these pickups really deliver. There are no gaps. The overall sound of each voice does stay very true to the original sound it was based off of too. I like them so much that I would like to get a strat style guitar and put the single coil fluences in it.

When it comes to the installation, it was rather simple (granted I am an electrical engineer). Most people who have some electrical know how and experience with soldering should be able to do this on their own. One thing that I never found mentioned anywhere on Sweetwater's website or Fishman's website was that the pickups come with all the hardware necessary to do the replacement. I ordered new pots and wires elsewhere only to find I didn't need them all (not a huge deal because they aren't that expensive). I also did not wire my pickups up with the push/pull pots as suggested but instead used a mini switch for the HF tilt and replaced my three way pickup toggle with a 6-way rotary switch. It works wonderfully and looks pretty sweet with a chrome chicken head knob, but I wouldn't suggest doing this unless you're very knowledgeable on circuits.

Overall a great upgrade to any guitar. You'll be hard pressed to find anything better.

Read More Show Less