Author Topic: Activator Pickups/AE1, Powered By Fishman Rechargeable Back Plate?  (Read 132 times)

Football

  • Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 85
Curious if this would work, instead of 9 volt battery.  Called Fishman but they said their back plate is made for their own pickups and wouldn't give advice.

If anyone has used this with Activator pickups, please let me know how it worked, and where you connected the wires to.  Hoping to connect the three Fishman wires to the proper terminals, so it works, and isn't draining the battery when there is not 1/4" cable plugged in. 

Would love to try this instead of batteries.  I have the jack in the attached pic.

Thank you

https://www.fishman.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Fluence-Single-Width-Wiring-Diagram-Strat-Battery-Pack.pdf
« Last Edit: October 20, 2023, 06:55:33 AM by Football »

adriaan

  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 4318
Re: Activator Pickups/AE1, Powered By Fishman Rechargeable Back Plate?
« Reply #1 on: October 20, 2023, 09:39:36 AM »
The Activator pickups are passive, the 9V should be fed to the Activator pre-amp - assuming you have one. Seems to me you could fry either or both the pickups and/or the Fishman components.

Football

  • Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 85
Re: Activator Pickups/AE1, Powered By Fishman Rechargeable Back Plate?
« Reply #2 on: October 20, 2023, 09:55:40 AM »
I'm not sure why there could be a danger of frying either, if hooked up correctly. 

Meaning, I have a complete Alembic Activator system that runs off a 9 volt battery.  This Fishman product would be providing the same 9 volt charge that a fresh battery would be.  Not suggesting it's impossible it could fry something, but not sure why that would seem at all likely, when providing same voltage this system is designed to run on.

lbpesq

  • club
  • Senior Member
  • *
  • Posts: 10683
Re: Activator Pickups/AE1, Powered By Fishman Rechargeable Back Plate?
« Reply #3 on: October 20, 2023, 10:43:14 AM »
IIRC, the Fishman Fluence pickups the backplate was designed for, have internal preamps, so the 9v power runs directly to the pickups (Fishman Fluence pickups are very unique ... nothing else like them on the market ... no wire, no windings, instead they have layers of plates).  I would work from an Alembic schematic and wire the backplate the same as the 9v battery.  Should work fine.

Bill. tgo

Football

  • Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 85
Re: Activator Pickups/AE1, Powered By Fishman Rechargeable Back Plate?
« Reply #4 on: January 18, 2024, 07:50:27 PM »
I got the Fishman battery backplate working.  Seems to be working fine with my Alembic pickups, best I can tell.  Not sure yet that the pros outweigh the cons, as opposed to just using a 9 volt, but will see over time with a bunch of gigs. 

Thank you for the opinions.

jazzyvee

  • club
  • Senior Member
  • *
  • Posts: 8701
  • Bass, Guitar, Preamps.
Re: Activator Pickups/AE1, Powered By Fishman Rechargeable Back Plate?
« Reply #5 on: January 18, 2024, 11:00:01 PM »
The only issue i can recall when using a regular echargeable battery in my alembic to power it was, it became hard to determine when it would fail. They seem to go all of a sudden rather than fade gradually like a regular Duracell or Energiser. I guess that block has a larger capacity than a regular battery and it wouldn't be an issue to plug in the usb charger regularly on the day of the gig so you never have range anxiety.
I would be tempted wire in an option to enable a swap the power block for a regular 9v as a backup.
The sound of Alembic is medicine for the soul!
http://www.alembic.com/info/fc_ktwins.html