Fishman Rare Earth Mic Blend Magnetic Soundhole with Mic Acoustic Pickup

As with all products, some reviews are critical and some are full of praise. Based on the high ratings and several reviews from pros mentioning how good the sound was, I went the extra from around $79 to get this one, and I love it so much that I shortly bought a second, so I could put one in each of my two beautiful sounding Martin acoustics. I play them through a Roland Mobile Cube (the little short and wide one you can find here), and am extremely pleased with the sound as well as what I can get out of the Roland. It has several choices of effects, including plain acoustic, electric, over drive, distortion, chorus, delay, and reverb, and PLENTY loud enough for the small place I live in; even better with phones on!Mounting tip: You can probably mount it without pulling the strings, unless you want to change them. I had just put on new sets and wanted to keep them on. Just loosen the tension up as much as you can without the string popping out of the tuning pegs. You may be able to reach your arm through the sound hole to mount the output jack; I did on the six string. But the 12 string was more difficult, so after loosening the strings, I carefully pulled out the pin and removed the string, put it aside, then re-inserted in when the job was done.For drilling, use the stepped type drill bit which will drill multiple hole sizes, chucking it (for the Martins) so the drill just catches about 3/8" to 1/2" of the shank; otherwise, the drill chuck will hit the guitar before the drill goes all the way through. You will need to go all the way up to 1/2" hole size. DO NOT TRY TO USE A REGULAR or any other type bit, as you will almost certainly split the wood. Not nice!BE SURE TO PUT TAPE ON THE BOTTOM OF YOUR GUITAR around the hole, so if you do slip, the damage will be limited; and go nice-and-slow, with constant speed, on a the LOW speed setting for a cordless. Put a small bit of Beeswax on the outside of the bit and the cutting edge to reduce friction, "grabbing," and make for a MUCH better cut.Here's the tricky part: find an old wooden knitting needle, wooden dowel, a very long bamboo chopstick, about 14" long. At the business end, you want 1/4" diameter and of course, smaller than 1/2" at the large end. With everything ready, unwind the pickup wire fully, letting the pickup dangle on the table top (hope you put a towel under there), and with one hand put the output jack through the sound hole. Now with the other hand, insert the 1/4" knitting needle, dowel, whatever, through the hole you drilled and up towards the Sound hole, where you will insert it, while twisting slightly, into the pickup jack - the part that will go through the hole. Smoothly pull the knitting needle or dowel, etc, back through the hole (you did remember to remove the nuts which hold it in the hole before starting, right?), and twist slightly to remove the jack from the dowel.This turned out to be so easy that I did it several times until I had the exact length of the mounting nuts perfect. So, tighten down the assembly with your fingers (no locktite, please), mount the pickup in the hole, then shorten up the cord and wrap it up with a Velcro type, multi-use fastener for easy removal and battery replacement. Put the strings back in, tighten the tuners, tune - be sure to adjust the sound level to "high" as the manual suggests - then plug and PLAY!

I AM TOTALY PLEASED WITH THIS PRODUCT THE GUITAR SOUNDS GREAT

This is my first bad review on Amazon since I joined Prime. The bad review is for Amazon handling, not the product features or quality.I ended up replacing this product three times. The first time I got an ope3n box with a damaged product. I happens. Not a big deal. I returned the product and ordered it again. The second delivery included again an open box with a used product. This time there was a thank you sticker on the box thanking me for agreeing to "give the product a second life". The problem was that I purchased a NEW product at the price of a new product! I don't think this is legal. So I called Amazon support and asked to return the product and get a NEW product in a sealed box as it should be. The support rep promised to add a note to the order for the Amazon warehouse. The third delivery came in an open box with no instructions and the pouch was missing. I surrendered but I am not happy. I am all for selling items in open boxes but they should sell at a lower price and the buyer should have to choice to buy them or buy a new product. What Amazon is doing here is not OK and that is why I gave 3 stars for the "Value For Money".Now to the product itself that is great! It produces a beautiful 3D sound that I absolutely love. Before the Fishman I used the build in pick-up. This Fishman is a complete different world. The blended microphone Adds the wooden echoing sound to the typical flat sound coming from the magnets. The range captured and amplified is also impressive with deep bases and clear highs.The installation is simple but tricky. I bought this product and not the competition because I did not want to spend hundred of Dollars on a professional installation. For a non-professional installer like me the instructions were not sufficient. There is one sentence about fine-tuning the high and low sounds. I tried to follow this one sentence to my best understanding but did not hear any difference in the sound. The pickup plug is designed for in guitar placement and thus, does not have a none intrusive option. I had to improvise. All in all, I would recommend this product to anyone who loves the acoustic sound.

Worked very well. REally pleased

I was sent a product that does not work. They’ve only responded through email and tried to have me fix it on my end without actually checking the problem themselves. They gave me a solution that doesn’t work and now aren’t responding.

This pickup allows you to blend the tone from the mini-humbucker pickup with the directional condenser mic to achieve the most natural tone possible. I cannot imagine getting a more natural amplified sound of an acoustic guitar without investing significantly more time and money in pickups that require permanent modification (i.e. under-saddle pickups) to my instrument.Beyond outstanding acoustic performance, the Fishman offers TWO distinct advantages to other pickups:1. Non-permanent installation enables you to switch it between multiple instruments. I actually purchased additional end-pin jacks and wired a permanent pigtail with mini-xlr connectors into each of my guitars.2. The pickup will output blended sound when a mono plug is inserted into the endpin jack, but when a TRS (stereo) plug is inserted, it outputs discrete signals from each pickup to separate channels!

La mejor pastilla sin duda, yo se la puse a un bajoquinto y le da un brillo metálico que ninguna otra pastilla se lo da🤌🏻👌🏻

Added this to my Taylor academy guitar as I did not like the sound of the standard one, works and sounds great.

Excellent. Installed into a favourite acoustic guitar for some upcoming shows this is a fabulous pickup system utilising a very slim pick up in the sound hole that doesn’t compromise the acoustic properties of the guitar and a microphone in the body. You can blend these together to tweak your sound. The sound quality is far superior to a Piezo system, which I personally dislike for its toppy unnatural sound. There are cheaper pickups on the market but this is really worth installing. I read someone here complaining about the volume output. That is nonsense it works great directly inputted into an amp or PA and if you want a bit more control use a floor standing preamp. Great product!p.s. don’t ask me about fitting, I got someone else to do that!

Sehr hochwertiges System, schnelle Lieferung

A phenomenal acoustic pickup. You get what you pay for. The range of different tones this pickup can give a guitarist (along with outboard Processing) is second to none. Other reviews have stated limitations, like wishing the pickup was wired for stereo output. It is. Plug a TRS cable in, split to two TS and you get each element on a separate channel. Also, another review stated the desire for a volume knob - I don’t view that as a limitation - any number of outboard processors can serve that purpose, and the real estate is much better served for the blend dial.I was blown away by the reproduction of the natural tone of my guitar the moment I plugged it in. And the fact that if I wanted to I could dial in “all humbucker” is great too, if I feel like sounding like old Dave Matthews.Very, very happy with this purchase.