Xpression vs Fishman Blend

[UhOh]

Hi... New Member, First Post

Close to purchase of Taylor 6 & 12 string.

I know this partly depends on personal pref but wondering about some kind of consensus on which is preferred by those of you that have tried both. Expression system or the Fishman Blend system?

Thank You

 

[apl]

Welcome to the party.

I have a Fishman Rare Earth Pro-Rep-102 Humbucking Soundhole Pickup Alvarez Festival Acoustic (ash top, sides, back, brass
nut) that I used to record:

https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?s=&threadid=118786

I really like it. It doesn't have the boinginess of piezo based systems.

(Please leave your comments on the song. Thanks!)

 

[Light]

I much prefer the Fishman Matrix. I like the sound more, and I like the reliability a lot more. Taylor has been having a lot of problems with the ES system failing. Unfortunately, you can not get a Taylor with the Fishman anymore, unless you have it installed separately.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[Richard Monroe]

I am so happy I've got a Taylor (710CE) with the Fishman stereo blender. I consider it vastly superior to the Expression system. It offers a wider range of tones with far better feedback suppression for live use, and the ability to split the pickup and mic signals and process them separately makes it a usable DI system for some studio recording, which surprised the hell out of me. One of the songs on my album "Reunion" was done DI with the Taylor into the 2 channels of a Joemeek twinQcs. It was intended as a scratch track, but Littledog (the mixing engineer) liked it, and suggested there was no reason to replace it, so it became a keeper. I have not used a better guitar pickup system. There's a reason it was used by Martin, Taylor, and Gibson. Dropping it was one of the dumbest things Taylor ever did.-Richie

 

[UhOh]

apl, Light, Richard, Thank You

Fishman it is!

 

[Scooter B]

Doing some research and found several threads here covering this but thought I would ask for some updates.

I am in the market for a used Taylor, Larivee etc and for the most part the new ES system seems to be running at least a 2:1 to 3:1 not so good or not as good as the Fishman system that preceded it - at least from experienced recorders/engineers.

I do plan to rely on micing for recording but would still like some built in electronic mic and /or piezo system for live and having another option to blend in as well.

Any new experiences with recording and have the repairs requests on the ES system decreased? Perhaps they fixed an instalation or design error at the factory.