Fishman POWERCHIP USER GUIDE

USER GUIDE POWERCHIP
Welcome
Thank you for making Fishman a part of your acoustic experience. We are proud
to offer you the fi nest acoustic amplifi cation products available: high-quality professional-grade tools which empower you to sound your very best.
Troubleshooting
Installation by a qualifi ed professional is strongly recommended.
Technical support, troubleshooting tips and installation information can be
found at http://www.fi shman.com/support/
Description and Features
The Powerchip is a miniature onboard piezo / magnetic pickup mixing preamp,
dedicated to the Fishman Powerbridge system. The preamp, mounted to the underside of a piezo volume pot, allows guitarists to combine or split piezo and magnetic pickups without any additional outboard signal routing electronics.
2
Mono Operation
Plug a standard mono instrument cable into the output of the Powerchip equipped guitar and combine the magnetic and piezo signals into a single buffered composite, suitable for any available instrument level audio input.
3
Electric Guitar Equipped with
Fishman Powerbridge and Powerchip
Mono Instrument Cable
Electric Guitar Amp
Stereo Operation
p
Plug a stereo “Y” cable into the output of the Powerchip equipped guitar and split the magnetic and piezo pickup signals to separate destinations. Send the buffered piezo signal (Ring) to any instrument level audio input, such as an acoustic instrument amplifi er or PA system. Send the unbuffered, “immaculate” magnetic pickup signal (Tip) to a traditional electric guitar amplifi er, with no added coloration or signal treatment between the magnetic pickup and the amplifi er.
Electric Guitar Equipped with
Fishman Powerbridge and Powerchip
Stereo Y-Cable
Powerbridge Signal (Ring)
Magnetic
Signal (Tip)
4
Acoustic Guitar Amp
Electric Guitar Am
Piezo Trim and Phase
Adjust the small rotary trim
pot on the backside of the Powerchip to match piezo and magnetic pickup levels.
Move the Phase jumper on the backside of the Powerchip to eliminate phase cancellation between the piezo and magnetic pickups.
Piezo Trim
Piezo Phase
5
Prepare the Instrument
Telecaster style guitars
File or sand down the corners of the 9-pin jack to fi t the standard Telecaster mounting hole.
Stratocaster style guitars
You will need to drill out the back
wall of the jack cavity to accom­modate the supplied 9-pin jack. Remove the output jack from the jack plate, then replace the jack plate on the guitar. Use a pencil through the jackplate to mark the center where your drill will enter the back of the jack cavity. Use a ¾” (19mm) spade bit to drill out the back of the jack cavity.
6
Jack Plate
9 Pin Jack
Installation and Connections
Warning: The solder pad terminals and the adjacent components on the Powerchip circuit board are quite fragile and can be easily overheated. Use only a low wattage soldering iron (30 watts max) to make your wire connections. To best utilize the space inside the guitar, solder the wires to the circuit board so that they exit toward the volume pot terminals.
1. Strip
2. Solder the piezo pickup wire to the circuit board.
The pads are located on the side of the board
opposite the volume pot. The piezo hot wire goes to the pad on the right edge of the board, directly under and to the right of the little white trimmer pot. Solder the piezo ground wire (which should be left with the braid intact) to the pad labeled “G” on the right edge of the board, directly under the piezo hot wire.
3
⁄32” (2.4mm) and tin the wire ends of the pickups.
Output Ground
(Sleeve)
7
Common
Ground
Red
Battery
Wire
Piezo Hot
Piezo Ground
3. Solder the magnetic pickup hot wire to the circuit board.
The pad for the hot wire is located on the same side of the board as the volume
pot. This pad, labeled “M,” is on the left edge of the board, ¾” (19mm) from the bottom of the board. A common system ground is located on the opposite side of the board, on a second pad marked “G,” adjacent to the piezo ground. Since there is room for only one wire on this pad, we suggest that you tie all grounds to the body of the magnetic volume pot, and run a jumper wire to the ground pad on the circuit board.
Note: If you install the Powerchip with active magnetic pickups (such as EMG), the Powerchip and the active pickups will share the same
Magnetic In
Output (Tip)
Output (Ring)
battery. Connect the positive battery wire from the magnetics to the +9V pad on the Powerchip. Connect
3-Position
Switch (Optional)
the negative battery wire from the magnetics to terminal #1 on the 9-pin jack.
8
4. Solder the 9-pin jack to the system.
A prewired output cable from the Powerchip is to be soldered to the provided
9-pin jack. Prepare the jack by soldering a jumper wire between the sleeve terminal, located on the business end of the jack, and terminal #2, directly below.
Solder the jack as follows:
a. Solder the shield from the output cable to terminal #2.
b. Solder the red wire from the output cable to terminal #4.
c. Solder the white wire
from the output cable the terminal #8.
d. Solder the black
battery wire (negative) to terminal #1.
Sleeve
Jumper
Wire
Output Ground
(Sleeve)
Black
Battery
Wire
Terminal
9
#2
Red Output
Wire (Tip)
White Output
Wire (Ring)
Optional Accessories
• Piezo-Magnetic Pickup Selector Switch—a three position switch for selecting between piezo and magnetic pickup combinations.
• Battery Compartment—a fl ush mounted, pivoting compartment allows easy access and quick battery changes.
10
Specifi cations
Battery Life: 200 Hours Current Draw: Less than 2.8mA Frequency Range: 20–20,000 Hz
Trim Control Range: 18dB
Maximum Output Voltage: 15V peak to peak
11
WWW.FISHMAN.COM
009-074-001 Rev D 4-09
Loading...