Fishman Guitar Pickups

Fishman Guitar Pickups

An acoustic bass player named Larry Fishman launched the Fishman Company in the early 1980s. Fishman invented a transducer that made his acoustic music louder, and he called that device a pickup. The Fishman Company produces amplification products for both electric and acoustic guitars.

Fishman pickups are electronic devices that translate a guitar’s unamplified sound into an electrical signal that can be transmitted through loudspeakers or amplifiers. The signal from the preamp can also be routed through a preamp to make it even louder. These devices can be categorized as:

• Magnetic pickups: These devices achieve their amplification effect by combining a magnet, copper wire, and an iron alloy. The output voltages of these magnetic devices can be very high. These devices are usually positioned between an instrument's bridge and neck. Single-coil pickups may be the most familiar example of magnetic transducers.
• P90s: P90s use the single coil mode but with wider coils that help reduce sonic distortion.
• Humbuckers: Humbuckers use two coils to cancel out much of the acoustic interference that’s associated with the magnets.

A piezoelectric, or piezo, pickup is a type of microphone that is commonly used to amplify the music of instruments like acoustic guitars, cellos, and violins. Piezoelectric devices can be inserted into the bridge of an acoustic guitar without affecting the way it’s played. These devices pick up the actual vibrations of the strings and transform them into electrical currents. They can be used with electric guitars to transmit the notes associated with the strings. Both piezoelectric devices and magnetic devices can be used on the same instrument.

Both active and passive guitar pickups both use magnets and coils, resulting in very different sounds and tones. Guitarists should test out both types of pickups to see which sound works best for the type of music they wish to create.

• Active devices incorporate a preamp into its design, enabling it to use a weaker magnet and fewer coils. Active devices offer a wide range of frequencies in the middle and high ranges.
• Passive devices rely upon the power of their magnets to pass electrical currents through their coils. Passive devices have a greater dynamic range but can be prone to discordant feedback and other types of audio distortion. They also tend to enhance lower frequency sounds and lose the detail in higher frequency sounds. This distortion is commonly used in heavy rock or metal type sounds.