Fishman RARE EARTH BASS User Manual
USER’S GUIDE
®
USER’S GUIDE
BASS
BASS
ACTIVE MAGNETIC SOUNDHOLE PICKUP
™
™
BASS
BASS
THANK YOU FOR PURCHASING THE FISHMAN RARE EARTH™ BASS !
We are pleased to offer you the finest magnetic soundhole pickup available for acoustic
bass guitars. If you have any questions or comments, you may reach our Customer
Service Department at 978-988-9665 or E-mail us at tech@fishman.com.
The Rare Earth™ Bass is a compact active magnetic soundhole pickup, designed for
4-string acoustic bass guitars. Its low profile design ensures that both your playing style
and the guitar’s acoustic tone will not be affected.
The natural sound of your acoustic bass guitar is reproduced by the Rare Earth™
thanks to state-of-the-art magnetic field/coil structure and advanced active electronics.
A unique arrangement of neodymium magnets provides excellent string balance.
Neodymium (a rare earth element, hence the name) has 10 times the magnetic
strength of ceramic magnets, which makes the Rare Earth™ smaller and lighter than
many traditional soundhole pickups.
Please note that the Rare Earth™ Bass is designed for use with bronze or
phosphor bronze acoustic bass guitar strings and will not balance as well with
standard electric strings.
START UP
If you are like most people, you will probably want to plug in the Rare Earth™ right out
of the box. Be our guest! To temporarily install the pickup, loosen the clamps with a
#1 Phillips screwdriver.Position the pickup in the soundhole, parallel to and as close to
the end of the fingerboard as possible. Gently re-tighten the clamps. You can run the
output cable through the soundhole.
If you plan to travel with your guitar or store it in its case for long periods with the pickup
in place, we strongly recommend that you have the endpin jack and pickup professionally installed in your instrument (see Permanent Installation on page 5).
There are a few good reasons to do so:
1. If you store the guitar with the pickup cable outside the instrument and the cable
comes to rest on the guitar, the rubber jacket may interact with the finish and leave
a permanent mark.
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ACTIVE MAGNETIC SOUNDHOLE PICKUP
ACTIVE MAGNETIC SOUNDHOLE PICKUP
2. A loose endpin jack stored inside the instrument may damage the guitar when trav-
elling.
3. A pickup that has not been securely mounted in the soundhole may become dis-
lodged and could damage the instrument during transit.
FEATURES
Mounting Clamps
The Rare Earth™ pickup mounts quickly and securely with these padded clamps. The
jaws of the clamps are lined with natural cork, which will not interact with the guitar’s
finish. A #1 Phillips screwdriver works best to tighten the mounting clamps.
Be careful not to over tighten the clamps!
finish under the clamps (see Permanent Installation on page 5).
Endpin Jack
The Rare Earth™ runs on two little watch batteries that switch on when you plug in the
endpin jack. To conserve battery life, unplug the endpin jack when not in use.
It is a good idea to plug the pickup in before turning on your amp to protect your speakers (and your ears) from "turn-on-transient-thump".
You may choose to keep the endpin jack outside the instrument for temporary use or
permanently mount it in the endblock of the guitar (see Permanent Installation on page
5).
Battery Power
The batteries for the Rare Earth™ are conveniently mounted to the underside of the
pickup.You can expect over 300 hours of battery life between battery changes. When
you begin to hear distortion from the pickup, it’s time to change the batteries.
Doing so may, in some cases, perforate the
3
™
BASS
BASS
Battery Replacement
Remove the pickup from the instrument and carefully pry out the batteries with a small
flat-head jeweler’s screwdriver.When you replace the batteries, be sure to observe the
correct polarity.Note that plus (
shell of the battery clip.
Two 1.5 Volt silver oxide EverReady #357 One 3 Volt Duracell DL1/3N
+
) and minus (
-
) polarity marks are molded into the
OR
THE PICKUP
The Rare Earth™ has been carefully voiced to reproduce a balanced string to string
response. If your guitar has very high action on the bass side or very low action on the
treble side, you may hear a slight imbalance between the outside strings. To attain a
balanced response in these cases, raise the bass side of the pickup with a shim.
The Rare Earth™ Bass pickup is voiced specifically for bronze or phosphor bronze
strings.
THE PREAMP
The preamp is housed within the pickup.The low-noise circuit design preserves pickup
performance in any audio environment. The preamp allows you to plug the Rare
Earth™ into a full range instrument amplifier, an unbalanced input of a PA system, a
recording console or direct box, without signal loss or degradation.You may run cables
up to 80' (25m) in length without any audible loss of fidelity.
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