Fishman Platinum Stage EQ/DI Analog Preamp Reviews

Got this yesterday, used at outdoor jazz gig w plywood upright last night.
Soundman was MIA due a child's illness. Stand in helpful, but didn't know what phantom
Power was, nor how aux sends worked, nor gain structure - hey, he was a nice guy, and a quick learner… but this was a big paying gig and yipes! So after getting PA running, I plugged my piezo into this little Fishman pre, then into my Hartke hd508 (beefy, but not designed for upright!)

This little pre is perfect. Cranked the gain till overload, trimmed it a bit. Ugly piezo quack all gone. I mean, way better w zero additional work. Guess impedance really does matter! Bass roll off at 40 worked (outdoors) but unit has 3 frequencies and sometime need those higher frequency rolloffs… good. Then made sure EQ was in "bass" mode and: treble right where it should be (I'm 100% pizz). Bass EQ spot on, too. Sweepable mid if you monkey w scooping, but really left it flat. Would have run off phantom but (soundman predicament) fantastic to run off 9v battery.
Dunno why anyone would need more than this. Solid build, too. Sounds fabulous. This little Fishman pre is going to every gig from now on.

I installed a Journey instruments journey tec pickup in my guitar this was what tamed the pickup and made my guitar sound amazing! Excellent Adjustability, and no feedback. Average Fishman product. Quality you can depend on!

I own a 6 string banjo, basically a guitar neck on a banjo body. I needed to increase the bass volume on the A and E strings of the banjo and decrease the brightness on the higher strings. This preamp gave me all the control I needed. I also use this on my 12 string guitar to improve its performance when performing live.

Picked up one of these used specifically to handle my Baggs Anthem SL Classical pickups on a Cordoba C10. The Baggs sends the entire signal without cutting the lows. Expected and preferred but you can forget just plugging in directly into a PA. The lows including subsonic are overwhelming. This little box has a low cut. Pickups immediately became more than workable. The audible bass was much more balanced as soon as the Fishman removed the excess lows (effective with 40, 80 and 160 cuts, 40 was still a bit too bassy however).

This isn't as precise as the Para DI I used in the past but it is a joy to work with. Lack of a notch is an odd omission but after just plugging this thing in at 12 noon settings I was so impressed that I don't question their decision. Minimal and built like a tank. Adjustments are monkey simple from there. Just what I need.

Ran it through all my acoustic electric instruments. Everything from piezo to humbuckers. They all sound great through this. Improvements over my other input devices across the board. Thing has some voodoo.

Too skinny to use belt hook. No butt to hold it all up. Cool feature though. A little too bulky for guitar strap but I am seeing a mic stand mount in my future.

Standard kit for now. Favorite acoustic DI of all time. Easy and beautiful sound.

This arrived way sooner than expected. It is easy to use and my upright bass with a piezo pickup sounds great with it. I can get a full range of sounds that the weak piezo just can't manage plugged into an amp

I have used my Fishman Platinum preamp for at least five years now. Durable, great control over sound, have used it with Fishman Neo-D Humbucker on my Martin 6 and my Guild 12 with great results. Also use it with my new Traveler Ultra-Light nylon. Durable. I have always left it on the floor when playing, have not tried using it clipped to my belt. I can run XLR into one side, and guitar cable into the other side, of my Marshall stereo acoustic and get some great blends. I recommend this highly!

I was looking for a versatile preamp I could use for recording acoustic bass guitar with piezo pickup, electric bass guitar, and piccolo bass guitar. The ability to switch the eq'ing between bass setting and guitar setting is great, as is the sweepable midrange. The electronics of the signal path are fantastic: the preamp is clear and open yet warm and without coloration. For bass guitar, I'm getting a really good punch from this unit, better than I had hoped for. The Fishman "tames" the acoustic bass's piezo pickup that otherwise tends to be a little gritty. I can't believe that a preamp at this price point could produce such high quality sound.

Using this with K&K piezo pickups results in a faithful tone. Also gives enough of a signal boost so my amp doesn't have to work so hard. Now, all I need to do is remember all those chords from years back. Well-satisfied with this Fishman and most appreciative to Sweetwater sales engineer Adam for telling me about it.

What a great new preamp from Fishman the "Platinum Stage". It so small fits in a guitar case. It gets rid of the low mud tone. In guitar mode the bass is at 150Hz, there"s a low cut switch for 30hz, 80Hz, and 160Hz. The middle is from 200Hz-3.1kHz Q1.3 and treble is at 6kHz. I like that this is battery powered so I can use it with the Bose S1 Pro and my guitars with LR Baggs or Fishman pickups. On the Cordoba F7 Paco w Fishman Ellipse it sounds great. Thanks Fishman

Within 2 hours of placing my order a representative from Sweetwater emailed and called me to review my order, shipping status, planned delivery date and let me know if I have any questions or problems that I can contact him directly.

Service like this from an online vendor was totally unexpected and did create a WOW factor!

Even if the product fails, the level of customer service I've received so far is second to none and gives me a sense of confidence knowing that any concerns I have will be taken care of promptly.

This is in my chain for conditioning my electric cello. I chose it for Fishman's great sound for acoustic / classical instruments. And because it has a bass / normal range switch with shifts all the filters down an octave. Totally necessary for a cello or lower pitched instrument. It sound great, especially once I got the settings good on the center range suppression. It's simple to use, once set up I don't really touch it. Made a huge difference in making my NSX cello sound as genuine cello as possible.
I took a half a star off as there is no indication that the unit is on - no pilot light. The only way to know it's working is to unplug it and see if things change.
I don't change the settings so it is mounted to my pedalboard. I actually pried off the belt clip so it would mount flush onto the pedal board.

I've been using this for about 6 years on my Upright Bass. I wouldn't go to a gig without it.

Playing an EUB (Electric Upright Bass) with Piezo pickups; lots of my favorite electric DI boxes (Tech21, Groovetubes brick, REDDI, Avalon, etc.) really color the sound of an EUB. This Fishman does the trick - pretty clean and uncolored tone that the instrument intends.

Dock a half point for ease of use. Takes a while to get it dialed in for your instrument. Almost too many options to go through.

The Fishman Platinum Stage is a great little problem solver for my Martin with a K&K mini pickup.
The high pass filter is great for cutting the low end mud. The sweepable mid does a nice job of
finishing up the clean up. When swung end-to-end the EQ controls in have a lot of impact on the
tone, which is a good thing. So I can be sure I'm sending a good tone to the PA and/or a stage
amp. It's small enough to ride along in the accessory pocket inside the guitar case. I haven't listed
all it's features. I haven't seen another preamp/DI that does as much as this does while still able to
run on battery when needed.