At 02:23 when dialed in is th ebest sound for me, I will add one with two Seymore Duncan PRails in my Epiphone BB King Lucille soon and would like to get the sound blended in for a harmonica combo..... Cannot wait for that to be done...
I try from my phone. The diagram on screen a spilt second, then an ad, then your video. No way to go back after video begins. Truly appreciate your help. Fishman contradict themselves, no help
Okay. I'll just make a short RU-vid and link it to this. I'll let you know when it's up . . . hopefully within 24 hours. And if I remember I'll post the link here also. It won't be a long clip . . .
Big thank you. Not necessary. I got the your schematic from a laptop. Doesn't really solve my problem. I'm combining Seymour Duncan's diagram and Fishman's. The Fishman requires a spst on/off/on switch. The switch is confusing me. I bought a Les Paul husk, already drilled for the Fishman, and 3 volumes, 3 tones, plus 3 mini switch holes. One for spdt I already mentioned. I have 2 dpdt for coil splits, and phase switch. Hoping someone with more knowledge could look over. Your diagram makes sense. But I can use. Truly appreciate all your help.
@drcool84 - just straight piezo pickup passively wired - I didn't even use the stereo 1/4" jack they provided with it, just soldered it directly in parallel onto the existing jack wires. After using it that way for a while, I added a 500k pot (also passive) to adjust the output from it as a mix with the wound-coil magnetic pickups. But that addition wasn't necessary. I was really glad to avoid needing any batteries, though!
My powerbridge heads out of the guitar (Gibson RD77) via stereo (y) cable to a phantom powered direct box, then to the mixer. The sound man does the eq on the pb on its' own channel. The pb has a separate vol knob on the guitar that "scoops" a bit as it gets turned up. When I blend this with a slightly chorused clean setting from the "electric" side, the sound is simply huge...
Your first hunch is accurate - the wiring has only a mono output - and is entirely passive. I first just wired the powerbridge in parallel to the coil pickups (all mono). I later added the fader/switch for a/b comparison and control (like in the video). And, yes, it's the chorus pedal that creates a stereo chorus output - it only does choruses, but it does many of them and does them well. It's a Boss CE-20 Chorus Ensemble, no longer in production (like many good things). I got mine used.
This is what a lot of people ask - check my other answers - and the simple explanation is: The FPB has six individual piezo sensors embedded in each of the adjustable bridge pieces that each string crosses on your guitar. The output from them is merged into one single output wire, with a shielded wire for output. Piezo sensors have enough output they don't need a preamp for most guitar amps. However, it may be nice to have a volume control for that output. A passive pot will do for that.
I have not tried it with the powerchip. I did not want to spend the extra money and I did not want to worry about needing a battery to make it work. It works fine without those things - for me.
It's been so long, I don't clearly recall, but reviewing the last few seconds of the vid, I'm pretty sure they are a "coaxial" wire - the grounding wire surrounds the hot wire like a sleeve. Also, the wire coming from the bridge into the controls is round, like a coaxial wire. While that's harder to strip the wire for soldering, it reduces external noise, and makes the "hot" lead obvious. I peel off the outer insulation first, then de-strand the grounding with a needle or nail to solder it.
@canonfather thanks for your video. I have seen your Amazon comment on the Fishman Powerbridge and I am interested in doing the same thing on a mbm-1. What is the value of your pot dedicated to the Fishman? I can't show you my wiring diagram to confirm it, but could you confirm that on yours, you just soldered the middle pin of the piezo volume to the tip of the jack and the same for the magnetic volume? Many thankssss
Your description sounds right - piezo and magnetic volume pots going to the jack tip connection. The value of the pot I used for the Powerbridge is, as best I can remember, 1 Meg. I can't say that's the "best" value - only that it was the value that came with the combined push-on, push-off switch. I will say that I only use the first small portion of the pot's range to control the sound. So maybe 500k might be fine - it is a common resistance in guitar pots. The 1 Meg does make sure I can virtually eliminate any piezo signal . . . but that's what the on-off switch is for, really. Piezo pickups are interesting when compared to coil pickups because the piezo works (in my understanding) a lot like a capacitor - they are essentially AC signal devices, (very small back-and-forth jolts of DC), which makes ohm meters pretty much useless in measuring their electrical circuit value because there is no sustained DC current flow. Which made it a hit-and-miss effort for me to match up a potentiometer value for controlling the signal from it. (It also explains why they can be used for cheap tweeters in speaker cabinets.) BTW, you may run into the question of a "audio taper" or a "linear taper" pot design. Don't let it worry you. Both of them will accomplish the same task. A UK website says this: There is no general rule of thumb with guitar electronics. Many imported models will use audio (marked A500K/A250K) for volume controls and linear (marked B500K/B250K) for tone.
@@canonfather Thanks for your reply! Regarding log or lin, I don't mind :p it's pretty much the same to me. Ok, let's buy a 500k and a 1M just in case, try with 500k first. You think it's better to add a Push-Pull or not at all, the pot can do the same? (the fishman from thomann will not come with toggle or any pots)
@@DerekChateau I usually try simpler before complicated - that is, skip the toggle unless you have a reason to use it. I'm going to speculate that your pot will be more than enough to squelch the piezo signal, even with just 500k. The reason I had for using the push-on, push-off switch was to allow me to switch the piezo in and out of the circuit with the ability to leave the mix level at a preset amount. (Plus the switch and pot were just one unit, so just one hole to drill.) But, as it turned out, the piezo makes such a difference and fits my use so well that I never have any reason to take it out of the mix.
@@canonfather Amazing! Ok I will take a push-pull A500k just in case. As I said, I want to create a Manson Delorean from a Cort mbm-1 (I don't know if you see what it is ;)). Once again, many thanks for your answers ;)
@@DerekChateau Good luck. I wasn't familiar with the mbm-1, so I looked it up. My expectation is that the Powerbridge will give you an even crisper tone than anything possible with just wound coil pickups I saw on the Cort mbm-1, even if they're Alnico. :) With a passive wiring (no batteries or preamps in the guitar), you can even throw in a polarity reversing switch for the piezo input - just for fun, to see what it does to the sound.
Yes, you can use the FPB on your Les Paul without the wound pickups. (You could just turn their volume down to zero.) The output will be pure string vibrations from the FPB piezo pieces under each string. However, whether or not the sound you get qualifies as "acoustic" will be according to your own ear. The Les Paul top/body vibrations will never be the same as a Gibson Hummingbird. You may want to use a Boss AC-3 or other stompbox (I used a chorus in this clip) to enrich the tone.
If by that you're asking if you can use the Powerbridge by itself without the other pickups - the answer is yes. It works fine just by itself. However, I don't think it was designed to be used on an acoustic guitar. Although it might work okay on an archtop or jazz style with a tailpiece.
@canonfather That's great! I really liked the tone you had on here as it's what I'm really trying to go for when I do this mod to one of my guitars. But I read on fishmans sight about their stereo jack and cable business. I was put off because I wouldn't be able to use it with my wireless unit. So i'm glad to see and hear that this is achievable with a standard mono jack as well. Thanks!
So did i understand this correct. You put in the Piezo. Took the Wire from it through the normal Humbucker chamber (to the left) then u just soldered the ground to the standard-pickup ground and the + and - signal to the switch? So it would have been possible to solder it to switch in a way so that you have one switchposition were you got only piezo?
No hidden switches. The tail-knobs on this guitar, typical to the Washburn Idol series, are labeled "VCC." (Maybe you can see it in the video.) On other guitars they'd be tone controls with a capacitor to short-out the high frequencies. Not on a Washburn. What they do is they progressively transition between single-coil and double-coil/humbucking wiring for each stock magnetic pickup. The powerbridge has no coil - it can't be coil tapped, just faded-the wiring is shown at video end :)
No acoustic amp was used for this video. Any normal electric guitar amp will work. An acoustic amp may have better high-frequency response, that's all - they're supposed to. In this video all three pickups - both of the humbuckers and the powerbridge - use one normal guitar cable to plug into any standard guitar amp.
I've never tried it with the preamp. I didn't want to have to worry about a battery going dead so I installed it "straight." Having tried that, it worked fine without the preamp - so I never bothered spending the extra money. There wasn't any need.
Yes - I put a high-impedance pot (about 1 Meg, I think) in-line with the powerbridge lead. It also has an on-off switch built into the pot as a push-action, which you probably noticed when I did the switching a few times.
are the hot and ground wires of the bridge (assuming they're the same as magnetic pickups) seperate from each other or do they use a sleeve kinda thing??
Your pictures and graphics are confusing to me to look at. Have you essentually wired the 2 passive signals after the switching and pots to the tip of a mono cable? Or do you go out in stereo with 2 descreet signals? It sounds great by the way it seems the chorus pedal adds a lot.
The powerbridge is in parallel to the main wiring, all output to the tip of a mono cable. The chorus pedal adds a lot precisely because of the additional high frequency response of the powerbridge. With only the magnetic pickups, the sound is mostly mushy-muddy.
No amp at all - the entire demo is played through a Boss CE-20 chorus ensemble using the "Rich" setting. The only changes during the demo are made on the guitar controls themselves. The guitar needed the Powerbridge for the additional high-frequency response to take full advantage of the chorus - which is probably why it sounds different/better than other Washburns you've heard.
@FlipsGTS (1) Yes. (2) Yes, again - but you would have to give up some of the switching options for the coil pickups, trading one of the possibilities for the piezo. However, without rewiring the switch, as it was, both volumes on the coil pickups could be dialed to "zero" and then the output is/was just the powerbridge/piezo. I hadn't run its output through any volume control (at first) so it was always full-on. (Until I added the extra control shown, giving even more versatility.)
Hey great video. I've been looking into these types of bridges for one of my project guitars. You're not running any of their preamps or powerchips are you? Just straight piezo pickup passively wired?
Hi, can you explain this, cames from fishman website "The Fishman Powerchip is recommended, but not required for all Powerbridge models." is there any chance to install FPB to my orginal gibson bridge (i've got in gold). but never mind the colour what is the difference in this fishman bridge can you explain how is it build (i mean the bridge of course)?
If you want stereo output or a separate channel for the Fishman, then you would need a second signal out - for which a stereo cable would work. But I didn't go that route. I wired the + out from the Fishman to the + of the guitar's existing jack (tip) and the - wire to the - of the jack (sleeve). (After running the + signal through the small volume pot with switch to switch it in and out.) The nice thing about doing this is that you can try it out at the simplest level to see how you like it - for example, with no switch or volume pot at all, just a straight add-on signal to the jack. If you're satisfied with that, then you don't need to bother with extra holes and wiring for the volume pot/switch. Depending on how your coil pickups are wired, if you're not happy at first (or if you're just curious) you can try reversing the polarity of the Fishman wire leads and see if that helps with the sound. Probably before you reinstall the backing plate, to make it easier.
@@canonfather thank you very much, I truly appreciate your help. I'm happy if I can wire with existing pickups, and use a toggle switch that'll allow only stock pickups, or only Fishman, or both. Fishman didn't answer me about needing a stereo cable. Have a great day
I hate to keep bothering you. Fishman keep sending different wiring diagrams. I'm not an electrician but I can follow a picture. I'm having difficulty seeing what you've done. I drew a diagram out. Seymour Duncan said it would work but they didn't know about the powerbridge. When I added the Fishman diagram, Fishman did wouldn't work. Fishman sent me new diagram without dpdt on/off/on. Do you have a diagram you can share please ? Or check mine ? Any help would be a huge help. Big thanx regardless. Happy New Year
The entire demo is played through a Boss CE-20 chorus ensemble using the "Rich" setting. The only changes during the demo are made on the guitar controls themselves. The guitar needed the Powerbridge for the additional high-frequency response to take full advantage of the chorus.
