GEAR REVIEW
FISHMAN FLUENCE ACOUSTIC PICKUPS | Mitch Bohannon
KEY FEATURES
• Three options to choose from
• Two voices each
• Simple installation
• Onboard boost
• No cutting
I began seeing these new Fishman pickups as they showed up on social media a while back and they caught my ear. You know, normally for me to do a review of a pickup, it requires having a new guitar or one with damaged electronics. It turns out that I’ ve got an old guitar that had some damaged wiring, so it was the perfect time to test out the Fishman Fluence Acoustic pickups! It’ s a blessing that the install is non-invasive. The only cut needed is for the strap jack.
The Fishman Fluence Acoustic series includes the Spotlight, the Rock Icon, and the Nashville Legend. I’ ve never had the opportunity to test three pickups against each other. Each of the three have two voices each plus a boost on
Voice 2. As I was waiting for these pickups to arrive, I wondered … why not have all six voices in one system? We have all lived in this world of guitar modeling for so long, it’ s an easy assumption to think they could all be packaged together in one system body. However, these Fluence pickups are humbuckers. They have physical characteristics that differ from one to the other. The curved shape adds to the uniqueness and makes them unlike any other acoustic guitar pickup.
Describing a sound is a pretty daunting task. I’ m thankful to be able to include video! Please check out this five-minute video. It’ s longer than normal because I have to let you hear rhythm and finger style on three different systems, all with two voices each. For the video, I installed each of the Fluence pickups into my 2004 Composite Acoustics COT. It’ s a dreadnaught. I put on some new strings and ran my signal into Ableton with no effects or EQ. I set up a single gain level and then I played the same thing with
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