Help with Fishman Prefix Pro Blend

[edgar_allan_poe]

Hey guys...need some help here.

I have a Breedlove Ed G. model (not the Master Class) and it has the Fishman Prefix Pro Blender system onboard. I love the guitar but the electric sounds are just awful...thin and buzzy despite my best efforts at eq etc. I am playing in an acoustic band and the other guitar players have a cheap Ibanez and an older Yamaha that was made in China. Both of these guitars kick the shit out of mine when we play out. The Acoustic sounds are amazing but as soon as I plug in....ugh..utter shite. lol. I have a couple of questions for the piezo experts here.

1. Is it possible that something is wrong with the unit? Both of the other guitars are *way* louder than mine. At last nights gig, their volume was on 3 on the board and mine had to be turned up to about 7 just to sit properly in the mix. I was very unhappy with the sound I was getting.

2. This is the first guitar I have had with this system so please excuse the ignorance of the next question..... It has the blend slider for the pickup and the condenser. Does this mean I need a stereo guitar cable or will a standard cable work? I have just been using a standard cable.

3. If it is just a shitty sounding unit, what would you recommend I replace it with?

4. Can I keep the current piezo in place and simply use an outboard pre?

BTW...I checked the battery, changed cables, all settings on the board were identical, etc...IMHO the problem resides with the unit and is not an external problem.

Thanks in advance...

[tomteriffic]

Poe, I've got the same system on an older (pre-Expression System) Taylor.

I think you may have a defective unit. But before you can it....

It's possible that the pickup/saddle/slot are not all perfectly level and sitting absolutely flush against one another. A curvature on the bottom of the saddle, for example, can raise all kinds of hell with a system like that.

Does this problem get any better when you slide the mix control all the way over to the microphone side? The mike is really meant to just be an enhancer and can be a feedback monster if you put too much of it in at stage volumes. However, if the problem and level improves, that may point to the piezo.

The other possibilities are a bad connection someplace, particularly in the output wire from the unit to the jack, or a power connection problem somewhere in there.

For what it's worth, you can't run a separate lead for the mike and the piezo on on it.

Assuming you get it working, a favorite trick of mine to 'naturalize' the tone is to push the last slider all the way up and fool with the contour (frequency) control. When the obnoxious part of the tone gets REALLY obnoxious, leave the frequency slider alone and cut with the slider that you had boosted. I'm shooting from memory on this, since I don't have the guitar in front of me, and I've been doing this in 'braille' for years. But you'll get the gist of it.

It's a very good system when it's working right, but from what you described, other than a wiring problem or a flat-out hosed unit, the first thing I'd check is the fit and tolerances in the bridge saddle/slot/pickup sandwich.

[edgar_allan_poe]

Thanks bro. So you are saying that the unit has enough output? Last night, I was thinking that their cheap units just were hotter than mine, but it just seemd like my guitar was thin and buzzy even with the volume on the board at 7. I was sliding between the condenser and the pickup and it did get fatter and beefy sounding but I could tell that it was going to feed and be unstable, so I kept the slider almost all the way on the piezo side. I will check the fit and see what I find. Thanks again.

[tomteriffic]

Rob, it should have plenty of output, although when I go straight into a +4 line input on my Mackie, I do have to crank it pretty good. Into a -10 input, no problem.

Live with my bad attitude acoustic duo (me, with my wife on exotic wierd percussion and a Roland electronic kick), I'm also the bass player, so I crank mine pretty good and goose the bass quite a bit. For that reason, I only use a little smidge of the condensor.

Anyway, from what you're describing in terms of the tone, regardless of the level, it sounds like a bad install, either of the piezo element or the wiring. It's better sounding and way more flexible than most piezo systems out there.

Also, try plugging it in straight to your recorder or something at home, just on the off chance that it's something external to the guitar that's doing it.