Fishman Keith Merrows? (vs. Classics?)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rex Rocker
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Rex Rocker

Rex Rocker

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I've read the copy on these and have done some research.

Apparently, the neck pickup is just a plain old Classic. OK.

But the bridge pickup?

I've read it's based on his Zephyr Nazgul. But it has an A5 magnet rather than Ceramic? Also, Voice 2 is supposedly a Van Halen-y PAF-type?

Any idea how his Voice 1 compares to the Classics Hot Rod voice? And his Voice 2 to the Classic's PAF voice?

Thanks!
 
Yeah the Merrow voicing is pretty different from the Classic’s “Hot Rod” voicing. It is medium hot output wise and has more of a lower midrange growl to it instead of an upper mid focus. Low end is tight and the top end has the Fishman hi-fi extended sound to it. For me this is a bit too much, at least in the guitar I’m talking about, so I engaged the “high frequency tilt” pad on the pickup and this rolls it off a little which sounds more normal to me.

The PAF voicing in my opinion is awfully bright and sizzly.
 
Bardagh said:
Yeah the Merrow voicing is pretty different from the Classic’s “Hot Rod” voicing. It is medium hot output wise and has more of a lower midrange growl to it instead of an upper mid focus. Low end is tight and the top end has the Fishman hi-fi extended sound to it. For me this is a bit too much, at least in the guitar I’m talking about, so I engaged the “high frequency tilt” pad on the pickup and this rolls it off a little which sounds more normal to me.

The PAF voicing in my opinion is awfully bright and sizzly.
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Oh, really? I thought the Hot Rod voicing on the Classic is a bit too fat for my Les Paul. Not sure if I'd like MORE low-mids.

How about output-wise? Because I feel the Hot Rod voicing on the Classic is a bit hotter than an actual JB, but the PAF voicing is way hotter than an actual PAF-type. I actually very much like that.
 
Rex Rocker said:
Oh, really? I thought the Hot Rod voicing on the Classic is a bit too fat for my Les Paul. Not sure if I'd like MORE low-mids.

How about output-wise? Because I feel the Hot Rod voicing on the Classic is a bit hotter than an actual JB, but the PAF voicing is way hotter than an actual PAF-type. I actually very much like that.
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Well, it would be hard for me to imagine it in a Les Paul because I have it in one of the MkII Merrow sig guitars which is a thin, light neckthru made of all bright tonewoods. It has zero mud to it, the low mid growl is very harmonic and clear. It’s a pretty unique sounding pickup. I haven’t used the regular fluence classic but from what I have heard of it I definitely prefer the Merrow.

Output wise like I said the Merrow voicing is not super high output, it has some of that active pickup compression that makes it sound a little more tailored and maybe like it’s hotter than it actually is hitting the amp, but is still pretty open sounding. They designed it to sound good running into a Peavey 5150 boosted with a tubescreamer, so it makes sense more of a medium hot output is what they ended up with. I think it works fine into a 5150 without the boost though.

The PAF voicing output is definitely more of an overwound PAF kind of thing, not vintage low output. In the Merrow sig I just don’t like the PAF voicing because the guitar is too bright and snappy for it.
 
Interesting. Thank you! I kinda want to give them a try to have something else to grab for one of my other Les Pauls.
 
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