Fishman Aura question

Bidley · December 2014

Anyone have much experience with these? I know @ICBM has one so perhaps he can help...

Basically I fancy a nice DI/preamp, as I'm doing more acoustic gigs these days. I want to use it for a mandolin and a (to be built) custom-built acoustic guitar.

The problem I have is, the way I understand it, the Aura Sixteen and Spectrum work by using models of existing guitars and applying them to your sound. There won't be a specific model for my guitar, and I can't really tell if there are any sort of models for mandolins.

So what I'm asking is, will they work ok if I use a model that isn't necessarily made for my instrument(s), or will it sound balls?

ICBM · December 2014

If it's too far away it will sound balls. The difficulty is knowing how far is too far without trying it.

I have to say the Aura is probably the piece of gear which is the easiest to get a bad sound out of that I've ever used. Not helped by my initial assumption about how it works - like a lot of people I suspect, since Fishman have changed the documentation and made it much clearer what it's meant to do.

It's almost a 'reverse modeller', a bit like the idea of active noise cancellation. It does not model guitars, it models microphones. You have to give it the pickup signal it expects in order for it to do its magic and produce a natural sound.

For example, my Gibson CJ-165, which is a sort of concert-sized jumbo (if that makes sense!) sounds great through the Jumbo model but balls through the Concert model.

There are models for mandolins, but a limited number, all in the 'Bluegrass' setting along with resonators etc. I haven't dared fit my resonator with a pickup and tried it yet!

I think you can download more models from Fishman, but I suspect it may cost money and it's not a cheap thing in the first place! I bought mine second hand... probably wouldn't have without being able to test it thoroughly with my own guitars first.

Bidley · December 2014

I've heard it works best with undersaddle piezo pickups, which is handy as that's what I'll be using.

But yeah, that's pretty much what I expected. If I can pick one up second hand I will, they seem to hold their value pretty well, so I can flip it if it's no good for what I need.

But otherwise are you pretty happy with yours? Is it worth the price, in your opinion?

viz · December 2014

I have one on my ibanez ep9. It's great but you have to read the manual.

Lewy · December 2014

It's free to download additional models from Fishman via the (again free) desktop software. What costs money is of you want to send them your actual guitar and get them to create images for it. No idea how much that costs but would imagine it's only an option for a very high end or unique instrument. But there are a lot of images available to download so you even though there won't be one for your guitar, there will probably be one or more for guitars with similar body shape, materials etc that will probably work. I have the Spectrum DI and I only got it to sound good with a UST feeding it. I've tried it with magnetic soundhole pickups and it's not quite right. ICBM - the Reso models are all for spider bridge guitars so if yours is a biscuit or tricone don't bother, it will sound bad. Apparently they tried to image non-spider bridge resos and it just didn't work.

Bidley · December 2014

Thanks chaps.

@Lewy thanks for that, good info. I won't bother with sending them my guitar, god no! Mine won't be that unique. By UST I presume you mean an undersaddle pickup?

The clincher will be if it works well with mandolin. I'm using a soundboard transducer (K&K Twin Fusion) so I'm not sure how that's going to go.

Lewy · December 2014

Fishman say that the Aura is not supposed to work with soundboard transducers I guess because it's modelling resonance on top of resonance - but you could always turn the image right down when using it with mando.

Evilmags · December 2014

ICBM;441046" said:
If it's too far away it will sound balls. The difficulty is knowing how far is too far without trying it.

I have to say the Aura is probably the piece of gear which is the easiest to get a bad sound out of that I've ever used. Not helped by my initial assumption about how it works - like a lot of people I suspect, since Fishman have changed the documentation and made it much clearer what it's meant to do.

It's almost a 'reverse modeller', a bit like the idea of active noise cancellation. It does not model guitars, it models microphones. You have to give it the pickup signal it expects in order for it to do its magic and produce a natural sound.

For example, my Gibson CJ-165, which is a sort of concert-sized jumbo (if that makes sense!) sounds great through the Jumbo model but balls through the Concert model.

There are models for mandolins, but a limited number, all in the 'Bluegrass' setting along with resonators etc. I haven't dared fit my resonator with a pickup and tried it yet!

I think you can download more models from Fishman, but I suspect it may cost money and it's not a cheap thing in the first place! I bought mine second hand... probably wouldn't have without being able to test it thoroughly with my own guitars first.

There are loads of specific images to download for both your guitar models. They have pretty much every gibson model.

ICBM · December 2014

Bidley said:

I've heard it works best with undersaddle piezo pickups, which is handy as that's what I'll be using.

Yes, I would say it works best with a pure, un-preamplified UST. It's OK with a preamped one as well but not quite as natural-sounding on the attack especially, so it's probably intentionally designed for the relatively unnatural attack of the piezo UST, and as before, the further you move away from that the more it isn't working with what it's expecting.

That's entirely OK with me and one of the reasons I bought it - I don't want electrics in my guitars at all if I can possible avoid it.

Bidley said:
But otherwise are you pretty happy with yours? Is it worth the price, in your opinion?

Very happy with it - it's the best amplified acoustic sound I've been able to get yet. I paid half the new RRP and I'm very happy with that. At the new price I'd have to think a bit harder as to whether I could justify it, but it's really very good. I purposely wanted the full model since I have not only the two Gibsons but a Martin 12-string I wanted to use it with as well. The resonator would have been a bonus, but...

Lewy said:

It's free to download additional models from Fishman via the (again free) desktop software. What costs money is of you want to send them your actual guitar and get them to create images for it. No idea how much that costs but would imagine it's only an option for a very high end or unique instrument. But there are a lot of images available to download so you even though there won't be one for your guitar, there will probably be one or more for guitars with similar body shape, materials etc that will probably work. I have the Spectrum DI and I only got it to sound good with a UST feeding it. I've tried it with magnetic soundhole pickups and it's not quite right. ICBM - the Reso models are all for spider bridge guitars so if yours is a biscuit or tricone don't bother, it will sound bad. Apparently they tried to image non-spider bridge resos and it just didn't work.

That's all excellent info, thanks! My reso is a biscuit type, so you've just saved me drilling a hole in it

.

Evilmags said:
There are loads of specific images to download for both your guitar models. They have pretty much every gibson model.

Also excellent, thanks! I've found some of the stock models which work very well with both the Dove and the CJ, but it can't hurt to get more accurate ones.

This is the only problem with buying one cheap second hand, you don't get to find all this out

.

Bidley · December 2014

Thanks @ICBM

Lewy said:

Fishman say that the Aura is not supposed to work with soundboard transducers I guess because it's modelling resonance on top of resonance - but you could always turn the image right down when using it with mando.

Thanks for that too. Makes sense really! I'll look into getting a Sixteen then I think.

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