Fishman POWERBRIDGE SYSTEM User Manual

FISHMAN TRANSDUCERS

®

340-D Fordham Road Wilmington MA 01887 USA
Phone [phone] • Fax [phone]
www.fishman.com

Printed in USA © 1999 Fishman Transducers Inc.
FENDER, STRAT, AMERICAN STANDARD STRAT, AMERICAN STANDARD TELE, TELE are registered trade­marks of Fender Musical Instruments Corp. with which Fishman Transducers Inc. is not affiliated.
009-075-009

POWERBRIDGE

SYSTEM

User’s Guide

User’s Guide

®

™

®

™

The electric guitar contains a wealth of different sounds. But the rich

POWERBRIDGE

SYSTEM

The World’s Finest Acoustic Pickup...

This book will introduce you to the Fishman Powerbridge™ System

and help you get the most out of it. It is a basic overview of the

Powerbridge™ System, allowing you to get started quickly and

easily. It is also a useful reference for more sophisticated future

applications.

...For Your Electric!

...For Your Electric!

organic quality of an acoustic has never been one of them - until

now. The Fishman Powerbridge™ System - including the

Powerbridge™ Pickup and the complete line of Powertronics™

dedicated preamps (Powerchip™, Powermix™ and Powerblend™) can

reveal new colors and textures hidden inside your electric guitar.

The Fishman Powerbridge™

Pickup is built into a high

quality,made-in-the-USA

replacement bridge for Strat

®

Tele

style guitars. Piezo elements

integrated into each bridge

saddle respond directly to the

acoustic energy of your electric

guitar - providing an "acoustic"

sound quality.

®

and

On its own, the Powerbridge™ Pickup provides a subtle and

intimate "acoustic" sound. But the real fun begins when you

blend Piezo and magnetic signals together. With the complete
Fishman Powerbridge™ System you can blend the
Powerbridge™ Pickup with clean magnetic sounds for bright,

percussive tones - or with your favorite distortion settings for

a range of hybrid clean and dirty tones.

The Powerbridge™ System

also affords you a wide range

of signal routing options.
Send the Powerbridge™

signal with your magnetic

signal to a single guitar amp

or feed it to a PA and the

magnetic signal to your

onstage amp for lush, room-

filling “electro-acoustic”

effects.

Things to Know ...

Passive

Volume Control

Passive

Volume Control

...about the Powerbridge™ Pickup

Powerful but Passive

You can plug the Powerbridge™ directly into many amplifiers with
excellent results. This is called a "passive" system, because there is no
"active" preamp

(no battery) between the Powerbridge™ and the amp's

input. When you go passive, remember that the Powerbridge™ will
sound best plugged into an amp with a minimum 1 MΩ input
impedance. Less than 1 MΩ will rob the Powerbridge™ pickup of low
end.

Volume Control

If you want to control the volume of the Powerbridge™ Pickup, we've
included a special 5 MΩ volume pot. You can replace that little-used
middle pickup tone control on your Stratocaster

®

style guitar with this

pot. And there's plenty of room for it on a Telecaster®style control plate.

Six

Selector Switch

For even more onboard control, you
can add a three-position selector
switch (not included) to toggle
between Piezo alone, Piezo and
Magnetic, or Magnetic pickups
alone.

Sleeve

Tip

Your Guitar's Output Jack

Fishman Power Law

Ring

Never connect your Powerbridge™and magnetic

pickups to your guitar's existing Mono Output Jack !

If you do, you’ll experience a very bizarre and unpleasant interaction
between the Powerbridge™ and your magnetic pickups. This is
because Piezo and magnetic signals mix like oil and water - they
operate on different electrical platforms. Piezo pickups

Powerbridge™)

are capacitive devices and magnetic pickups are

(like the

inductors. This is why we've provided you with a …..

Seven

Stereo Output Jack

Every Powerbridge™ Pickup includes a TRS (Tip/Ring/Sleeve) Stereo Output
Jack specifically intended for use with the Fishman Powerbridge™
System.

Passive Powerbridge™ Setups

Stereo Output Jack

(Tip/Ring/Sleeve)

Stereo "Y" Cable

With the Powerbridge’s™
Stereo Output Jack, you
can use a Stereo“Y” Cable
(available at your Fishman
dealer) to send Piezo and
magnetic pickup signals to
separate amplifiers.

Instrument Cables

Depending on how you set up your Powerbridge™ system, you will use
one of these three cables (available from your Fishman dealer):

Stereo "Y" Cable

- Used to split your Piezo and magnetic pickup

signals and send them to two separate amplifiers.

Stereo Instrument Cable

- Lets you plug into one of our
Powertronics™ preamps for either mono or stereo Piezo / magnetic
output.

Standard Mono Instrument Cable

- Plugs into a Powerchip™
equipped guitar for combined Piezo / magnetic output. A mono cable
will short out the Piezo signal if the Powerbridge™ Pickup is not wired
with a Powerchip™.

The following pages illustrate some

typical Passive Setups for the Powerbridge

and your magnetic pickups

Eight

Powerbridge™ Signal

(Ring)

Electric Guitar

Amp #1

Electric Guitar

While playing the

Powerbridge™ through a

standard electric amp

gives you a pretty cool

alternative to your

magnetic pickups, an

acoustic guitar amplifier

does a great job of

reproducing the more

acoustic qualities of the

Powerbridge™.

Pure Magnetic Signal

(Tip)

Amp #2

Stereo Output Jack

(Tip/Ring/Sleeve)

Powerbridge™ Signal

Nine

(Ring)

Acoustic Guitar

Amp

Pure Magnetic Signal

Electric Guitar

Amp

(Tip)