Acoustic Matrix Guitar Pickup     

The heart of the system is the pickup itself. The patented design solved the age-old problems of string balance, string spacing and wire-hole placement making it applicable to all guitars. The pickup material is a highly sensitive copolymer specifically formulated for guitars and available worldwide only from Fishman. The short distance from the undersaddle pickup to its internally mounted preamp maintains the integrity of the information-loaded pickup signal.

Features

  • Made with a unique co-polymer sensing material available exclusively from Fishman. This material exhibits a sensitivity and dynamic range that far surpasses all other known materials.

  • Fully EMI shielded.

  • Multi-layered arrangement of co-polymer strips run the length of the pickup. This design allows the pickup to sense the motion of an entire guitar saddle’s length, providing superb string to string balance, as well as sensitivity to both the strings and top of the instrument.

  • May be plugged into any acoustic or electric guitar amplifier, sound system, recording console or direct box with excellent results.

  • Available in WIDE (1/8", 3.2mm) and NARROW (3/32", 2.3mm) and split saddle formats. Choice of Natural I or Natural II preamps.

The Preamps

Because guitar size, type of wood, playing style, size of venue, and playing context present different challenges to capturing a guitar’s ideal voice, two choices of preamps are offered. We make recommendations below, but there are exceptions. Please be sure to choose the one which fits your needs. Your local dealer will be able to assist you in your decision.

Features

  • Employs state-of-the-art surface-mount technology in its exclusive endpin-mounted, miniaturized interfacing preamp which doubles as a jack for your 1/4" cable.

  • Fully-buffered, miniaturized circuit.

  • Housed in an elongated shielding cap.

  • Discrete transistors for low noise.

  • Extremely low current consumption allows years of use between battery changes.

  • Onboard microphone may be wired directly to the preamp for use with the Fishman Blender System.

Acoustic Matrix Natural I

Well known, sold as original equipment in many quality guitars and widely recommended by installation and repair techs, the Acoustic Matrix Natural I preamp is capable of capturing the ideal voice of guitars in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. The electronics in this preamp have been improved to greatly increase battery life to 6,000 hours. It is primarily recommended for high quality solo steel- and nylon-stringed guitars.

Acoustic Matrix Natural II
The Natural II preamp captures the same true voice of an instrument as the Natural I. Designed for instruments that are amplified at high volumes, especially full-size guitars. It is voiced to control boominess and to provide extra brightness. The Natural II is recommended for musicians in situations where the guitar needs to stand out and sound natural without feeding back. The circuitry on this preamp allows a battery life of 12,000 hours..

Acoustic Matrix Professional
This small, onboard equalizing preamp has long been an industry leader, and is seen as original equipment on many of the most prestigious brand name and boutique guitars. We offer it with an Acoustic Matrix pickup for retrofit installation by a qualified repair person. In addition to four bands of control, it also offers a phase switch, low battery indicator, and a preset sub-bass feature.