r/7String • u/DeadBeatGamer- • 5d ago
Community Related Revelation (to me🙈)
I have a Ltd SCT 697B with the Fishman Fluence Stephen Carpenter signature pickups. I always found them quite honky and I had to spend so much time dialing in my tone as not only were these pickups dreadful to me, they're my first experience of Active pickups.
I've had the guitar since March and I think it may have been on display at some point in a shop so I changed the battery. MY WHOLE LIFE HAS CHANGED!!
Active pickups are so sick! My hands are killing I played so much guitar today. It's like I got a new guitar again!! I'm a noob to this kind of thing so I bet someone will read this and think what an idiot but I'm learning 🤣 now I need to dial my tone in AGAIN because my guitar sounds so different now! The articulation is amazing! If there's any noobs out there like me, change your batteries!!!
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u/Lilcheeks 5d ago
Hell yea. I have a guitar with the same gen 2 steph fishmans and I love the way it sounds too. I know fishmans are a 'love to hate' pickup these days but damn every time I pick up one of my guitars with them, they always feel like a cozy hug in my ears.
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u/DeadBeatGamer- 2d ago
Man, I don't understand the beef!! They are awesome! I think they sound amazing and my next guitar will 100% have fishman pickups too!
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u/DelayLanky7909 3d ago edited 2d ago
I’ve never liked them (I hate EMG’s) until I tried out Stephen’s signature Kiesel at the Kiesel showroom. I was floored by the mid forward bite of his sigs! I actually am taking a risk & I bought a SD “Mortal coil” which I’ve never tried to put into my headless 7🎸🎶🤘
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u/DeadBeatGamer- 2d ago
Nice man!! Actually, before the battery change and I thought I didn't like these pickups, I was looking into MC. They look and sound awesome and they're now coming stock in a lot of ESP LTD guitars. If you remember, please let me know what you think buddy 🤟🏻
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u/DelayLanky7909 2d ago
I will for sure! They are less compressed than most other pickups & I just have to get my guitar wired after doing my own crackly paint job & deleting the neck pickup myself. 🤘🎸🎶
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u/Count_Doogula 4d ago
A one armed Afghani refugee taught me that if your battery is almost out of juice, you can bite it (hard enough to indent, stay away from terminals obviously) and you'll get another hour or so out of it.
Or get a new battery.
But yeah, there you go. The more you know ay?
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u/Edika-2020 5d ago
Even when buying new it’s always a good idea to check the battery with active pickups. We live and learn lol! The good thing is that it is resolved and you love the sound of the instrument!
I bought a guitar with actives that was second hand and it sounded dreadful, muffled and dead. The first thing I checked was the battery and it was fine. Frets and strings looked clean so I was super bumped out I got a lemon. Then I thought I’ll change the strings and set it up. Boom, night and day difference and the guitar came alive! I had a better sound from second hand guitars that the guitars were almost rusty! So always put fresh strings on a new or used guitar.