Using the FISHMAN FLUENCE 'High Frequency Tilt' on my Charvel - a BEFORE/AFTER comparison....

Here's a before/after comparison of the HFT function on my Fishman Fluence Open Core pickups. The 'High Frequency Tilt' is supposed to make these active pickups sound and feel more like regular passive pickups.
02:03 Connecting the HFT & GND pads
02:42 How I recorded the comparison
03:23 Before/after comparison
06:40 Some final thoughts
The guitar is a Charvel Pro Mod SoCal Style 2, and the amp is a Revv D20. Check out my full demo and review of the guitar at • Charvel Pro Mod SoCal ...
Many thanks to Dan Rogers (www.danrogers.co.uk) for playing bass on the backing track for this video.
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[@lexdon]

Came for the High Frequency Tilt demo, stayed for the awesome playing. Well done!

[@Tiger1016.]

Great playing. So much more enjoyable than the average solo jam session out there.

[@digitalfid]

Thanks for the comparison! Just what I needed to hear - you've saved me a bit of wiring. Love the tight, articulated and interesting chops.

[@Dave-qs4zv]

I knew within 20sec after your 1st comparison that I wasn’t going to worry about installing a tilt switch. Stayed through the whole video to listen to you play.

[@XenoTravis]

Oh I was wondered what that did. Always saw it on diagrams. But if you have great speaker for the kind of output, you can basically throw away any difference in pickups with good pedals. Tone is almost all in the speaker. Get a cheap soldering iron and also find some old tech. Start by removing some components. You can get used to it a lil that way. Then put them back on using new solder. You can look up how to remove solder. There are solder suckers that help. Just as they sound it is a lil thing quickly sucks in air and hopefully your solder (that is heated).

[@gordonlee7027]

Just got the pickups and searched YT to see what difference the HFT would make...really happy to find your great comparison video. Nice job and awesome playing!!! Seems not so dramatic a difference, so guess I'll leave it out for now but maybe come back to it if I find their too bright when I'm done. Thanks for sharing your testing and tasty licks!

[@AndyWattGuitar]

Cheers Gordon, glad to be of service!

[@michaelnugent9758]

Awesome job, Andy! Pretty much exactly what I was searching for about the HFT. The only thing I can recommend to improve in the future is to use the same lick for the back to back comparisons but, that’s just nitpicking, really. This was really well done. Your tone and playing especially was fantastic! Thanks for the comparison and the copper tape idea!

[@kemalicecek]

Guess I’ll have one more switch on my guitar in the future. Thanks!

[@guitfiddleblue]

Just ordered the hardtail version of this guitar (in black). I’m looking forward to trying out the Fishman pups. Your reviews with the guitar are nice! Thank you for posting all of these.

[@aphexlane]

Absolutely killer playing sheesh

[@lucienlai7822]

Brilliant playing

[@davidwilliamson8029]

My god man great chops

[@johnplunkett2004]

Interesting video. Have the same guitar and wasn't aware the pickups could do this. Probably not something I'd do though. Awesome playing by the way.

[@AndyWattGuitar]

Cheers John…. It’s an interesting additional feature - would be handy to have it on a switch, but the guitar probably has enough switches already!

[@michaelinglis567]

Ive had a set of Moderns in my 7 for years and they are excellent. I have voice 1/2 for the bridge on the volume pot, voice 1/2 for the neck on the tone pot, i added two way dpdt on-off-on toggles one for each pickup that selects inner coil tap, humbucker, outter coil tap (and yes its tapped with these pickups not split, the terminolgy isnt interchangable and they certianly mean different things) and i also have one more dpdt on off on for voice one low gain so its bridge and neck v1 low gain, neither, or jut neck v1 low gain. I use all those options regularly (but i will admit that i could pick either inner coil or outter coil and probably not loose any sleep...well not much sleep lol). And lastly inside the guitar i have a slider switch that selects HF tilt in this order, bridge HF tilt, neither HF tilt, bridge and neck HF tilt. The HF tilt i dont find useful on this guitar specifically. But its an option that im certain in some scenerios will be perfect so im glad its there. Its really stupid thinking to say "it doesnt work for me in this scenerio so it must be useless in every scenerio for every person". But its really common for people to say that sadly. I also ditched the 9v battery and use an external supply that powers the pickups through the guitar cable (i hate batterys and refuse to use them wherever i can get away with a power supply). Plus the supply is variable which is cool with some active pickups to change the headroom by adjusting the voltage. I built guitars, pedals, amps and restore tube radio receivers so nothing is safe from my workbench. If it can be modded/improved im doing it lol.

[@endezeichengrimm]

You don't need to solder them and just use a little clip. Fishman usually provides 2 of the jumper clips in a box of new pickups.

[@fedest]

That’s an older version of the pickups, where you had to solder for single coil variants. The newer ones have the “voice 3” on the pins that you jump with the provided clips or cables, and HFT is a solder patch.

[@endezeichengrimm]

@@fedestMine must be the older version then.

[@3rdtonefromthesun]

Hey Andy it was me! I've now settled on using the HFT on the bridge only however I still find the bridge single coil mode a tad too bright compared to the bridge, hopefully I can rectify that with a bit of pickup height adjustment... Certaintly is a sensitive guitar, though rewarding!

[@AndyWattGuitar]

Nice one, thanks for putting me onto the HFT in the first place! I’ve kept it on since doing this video - think I prefer the slightly tamed high frequencies 👌

[@franklovestojam888]

I also have the same guitar. I do prefer the smoother darker sounds of the mod but like John's comment I'm not likely to do the mod. Your suggestion of changing the EQ on my pedals and amps to achieve a similar result is the path I'm most comfortable with. Great playing as usual Andy in a style that suits my musical tastes.

[@AndyWattGuitar]

Thanks Frank! 😎🎸👍

[@TorsteinJN]

Brilliant playing!

[@fredrenault8178]

Really interesting 🙏 I got the same guitar and gonna make the change too (a bit harsh yep) ! Yes "you"somehow, help me made the choice few weeks ago and thank you for this cause the guitar is really good ! And wonderful playing to illustrate wow 🔥🔥🔥 !

[@robertomejias5479]

Thanks for this. Very informative!

[@therealcharliebrown]

The Frequency Tilt sounds like a soft frequency clipping, articulates the pick percussion, and smooths out the dirty harmonics for a cleaner, more precise sound IMO.

[@Mursalin_Hredoy]

I’m sold on your playing man

[@CheGorilla]

Thanks Andy. This is exactly what I was looking for. Think I’ll probably leave my HFT as it is and use EQ instead. Great playing!

[@marzbitenhaussen]

after sounds better to me, i will do the same on mine thx for the tip

[@RelayerBob]

Excellent, very informative. Thanks.

[@riskromer9773]

the brit version of Eric Forman rocks amazingly!

[@michaelinglis567]

Also i should add they include (or at least used to) a jumper that slides over the prongs to ground the HF tilt connection to activate it so you shouldnt have to use copper tape. But i have a very old set and im not sure if they changed the contact terminals on the new ones. On mine everything is on the terminals and the single coil option is on pads.

[@carmelofiorilla868]

Wonderful playing! I slightly prefer the after HFT, and i think i will buy this guitar. Do you stil recommend it in the 2024? By the way, happy new year!

[@AndyWattGuitar]

Thanks! Yes, the Charvel is great, still use it a lot!

[@Worlds_Worst_Guitarist]

I'm using HF Tilt -nearly- all the time. Without the sound is to sharp for my taste.

[@randucci]

Awesome solos!

[@glendoggett9670]

Does the HF Tilt also change the impedance so that the active pickups play nicely with impedance sensitive pedals like Fuzz and Wah?

[@FedericoMK]

great video and playing as always :) I have this very guitar myself. Is it bright? yeah, IMHO charvel guitars are a bit on the bright side, depending on the body and fretboard wood. Now, would I do this change? I don't know, I've learnt that on charvels the easiest way to achieve this is by using the tone knob which I usually never touch on other branded guitars. Usually setting the tone knob to 9/10 would do the trick for me. Furtheremore I find the neck "modern voice" to be too nasal, which is great for jazzy/fusion semi clean tones, but not so great for distorted ones. I worry that darkening that would be making even worse. What's your feel on this?

[@onemancarnage]

I hooked my mini toggle to this feature . I have a pro mod dinky . 2 humbucker 5 way . I changed to a 3 way blade . Eventually I'll hook up another 5 way to get the inner outer coil sounds . Would've been allot of unsoldering to change the 5 way that came in the guitar . Now I do wish they had an actual hole to drop the wires through to solder , versus soldering to a PC board . I'm not a fan of putting heat to these things . Have to be incredibly careful .

[@SpookyApparition]

My guitar (Schecter SLS Elite) is wired with HF Tilt on a push/pull on the tone knob and I truly cant tell the difference at all...its subtle with yours but its discernible. Have you considered the V1 gain option as well?

[@tman6495]

Actually the HF Tilt can be achieved by a Para-Eq

[@ritualsoundsystem]

Great video! I've tried soldering the bridge HFT to ground and heard zero difference. Must be doing something wrong. Where did you connect the copper tape to once it was connected to the pickups?

[@AndyWattGuitar]

It sounds like you’ve done it right - I just connected the HFT and ground pads with tape. It’s just very subtle - if I hadn’t recorded clips beforehand I’m not sure I’d have heard the difference!

[@spiral-m]

Do you know how it looks without the scratch plate? The guitar seems really good functionally but the aesthetics of that large scratch plate on the wood are not so pleasing..

[@AndyWattGuitar]

Yes - made a video about it recently! kzbin.info/www/bejne/oXWuenWdq5d6mLc I'm actually considering replacing the scratch plate with a custom etched metal one - watch this space....

[@jayz6008]

British people are awesome

[@AndyWattGuitar]

Thanks 😂

[@JeighNeither]

*Solder wick