Fishman RARE EARTH - User manual

USER’S GUIDE
ACTIVE MAGNETIC SOUNDHOLE PICKUP
™

Thank you for purchasing the Fishman Rare Earth™!
We are pleased to offer you the finest magnetic soundhole pickup available.
If you have any questions or comments, you may reach our Customer Service
Department at 978-988-9665 or E-mail us at [email protected].
The Rare Earth™ is a compact active magnetic soundhole pickup, designed
for most steel-string, flat top guitars. Its low profile design ensures that both
your picking style and the guitar’s acoustic tone will not be affected.
The natural sound of your acoustic 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 is responsible for
the Rare Earth™'s excellent string balance and light weight. 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. Each magnet in the Rare Earth™ is
voiced for precise balance with bronze or phosphor bronze acoustic guitar
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 sound-
hole, parallel to and as close to the end of the fingerboard as possible. Gently
re-tighten the clamps. For now, run the cable out 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 fit to the guitar according to the included
Installation Guide.
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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2. A loose endpin jack stored inside the instrument may damage the guitar
when travelling.
3. A pickup that has not been securely mounted in the soundhole (as per our
Permanent Installation Guide) may become dislodged and could damage
the instrument during transit.
Amplification
You can plug the Rare Earth™ into most musical instrument amplifiers, but
for the most natural sound reproduction, we strongly recommended a full
range system, such as a high-quality acoustic instrument amp, keyboard
amp, or PA system.
Features
Mounting Clamps
The 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 gui-
tar’s finish. A #1 Phillips screwdriver works best to tighten the mounting
clamps. Be careful not to over tighten the clamps! Doing so may, in some
cases, perforate the finish under the clamps (see Installation Guide).
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 Installation
Guide).
ACTIVE MAGNETIC SOUNDHOLE PICKUP
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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 (150 hours for the
Rare Earth™ Blend) between battery changes. When you begin to hear dis-
tortion through the pickup, it’s time to change the batteries.
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 (+) and
minus (-) polarity marks are molded into the shell of the battery clip.
Two 1.5 Volt silver oxide EverReady #357 One 3 Volt Duracell DL1/3N
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 slight imbalance between the out-
side strings. To attain a balanced response in these cases, raise the bass
side of the pickup with a shim.
The Rare Earth™ is voiced specifically for bronze or phosphor bronze strings.
If nickel electric guitar strings are used with the Rare Earth™, the lower
wound strings will overpower the higher plain strings.
OR
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Preamp
The preamp is housed within the pickup. A low noise circuit design preserves
the pickup’s 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 the signal
loss or degradation typically found with passive soundhole pickups. You may
run cables up to 80' (25m) in length without any audible loss of fidelity.
Pickup Flavors
SINGLE COIL
This model is for those who prefer the brightness and character associated
with a single coil pickup. Note that this version, like all single coil pickups, is
susceptible to 50-60 HZ hum. To minimize noise, keep the Rare Earth™
Single Coil away from fluorescent lights, dimmer packs, computer monitors
and transformers.
HUMBUCKING
A "stacked coil" style, for musicians who demand quieter reproduction than a
single coil pickup can offer. A brilliance switch, located on the side of the
pickup, is easily accessible through the soundhole. In the "up" position, this
switch provides a subtle, rising treble boost, from 2 kHz to 20 kHz. This posi-
tion is especially effective for adding a bit of extra sparkle to finger style play-
ing. In the "down" position, the switch provides a flat response, which pro-
duces a mellower sound, well suited for strumming and flatpicking.
ACTIVE MAGNETIC SOUNDHOLE PICKUP
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BLEND
The Rare Earth™ Blend marries our active humbucking pickup to a high qual-
ity, internally mounted miniature microphone. The system combines the per-
cussive attack and controlled sustain of the magnetic pickup with the reso-
nant, ambient qualities captured by an internal microphone. These sonic com-
ponents couple seamlessly to provide a cohesive, three-dimensional ampli-
fied acoustic guitar tone.
The microphone is a miniature electret type, with a hypercardioid response
pattern for high volume, low feedback performance. It easily adjusts into posi-
tion with a flexible gooseneck that is permanently attached to the pickup
housing.
Mic / Pickup
Blend Control
Pickup Flavors: Continued
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Treble Boost

Balance between the microphone and magnetic signals is controlled by a
small rotary blend control, located underneath the pickup. Move the wheel
towards the treble strings for more pickup, and towards the bass strings for
more microphone.
CUSTOM BLEND
For the flagship of the line, we start with the same feature set as the Rare
Earth™ Blend (see above), then add convenient internal / external micro-
phone mounts and deluxe visual appointments. A precision milled ebony top
and machined miniature brass coaxial connectors lend an understated ele-
gance to the Rare Earth™ Custom Blend.
To place the microphone outside the instrument, simply loosen the threaded
collar at the end of the gooseneck and re-fasten it to the connector on top of
the pickup. To protect your guitar's finish, we suggest that you remove an
externally mounted microphone before storing the instrument in its case.
Microphone Placement
To combine microphone and pickup signals, it is best to first find an optimum
"sweet spot" for the microphone. The best spot for the microphone is sub-
jective and depends on your personal preference. We recommend that you
take the time to experiment with microphone placement until you find a posi-
tion you like.
Here are some suggestions to get you started:
With the pickup plugged into an amplifier, begin by moving the rotary blend
control so that only the microphone signal is present. Start with the
microphone capsule parallel to the soundboard. Point it toward the edge of
the soundhole to emphasize more bass. Once you find a position you like,
blend in the pickup to taste.
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MORE BASS
LESS BASS
MORE BASS
LESS BASS
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Microphone Placement continued
Rare Earth™ Blend
Rare Earth™ Custom Blend - External Mic Mount

Stereo Blending
The Rare Earth™ Blend and Custom Blend models are prewired at the fac-
tory so that both pickup and microphone signals will combine to a single
mono output. A simple modification can be made to split the pickup and
microphone signals to separate signal paths, for true stereo blending. This
type of signal routing is especially useful for high volume stage levels, where
separate destinations for pickup and microphone may be necessary to pre-
vent acoustic feedback. (see the included Permanent Installation Guide:
Wiring Options).
Microphone and
Magnetic Pickup
OR
DI DI BLENDER
Magnetic Signal Only
to Stage Monitor
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Important Things to
Know about Stereo Blending
•
Set the thumb-wheel, located under the pickup, fully toward the treble side
(and leave it there), to keep the mic out of the pickup channel. In stereo
mode, the thumb-wheel will not affect the level of the microphone signal
that appears at the Ring output.
•
To use the Rare Earth™ Blend in stereo mode, you must connect a Stereo
patch cord (p/n ACC-BLE-CBL) or Stereo "Y" cable (p/n ACC-PBR-20C) to
the output jack to carry the separate pickup and microphone signals.
•
If you plug a standard mono cable into a stereo wired Rare Earth™ Blend,
the magnetic pickup will function normally, but the microphone perfor-
mance will be significantly degraded (see below).
•
A Stereo wired Rare Earth™ Blend can be externally retrofitted for mono
blending with a special adapter or patch cord, wired with an open ring ter-
minal (see the included Permanent Installation Guide: Wiring Options).
Specifications
SINGLE COIL
Maximum Output Level 0 dBu RMS
Output Impedance 200 Ohms
Output Noise Level <-93dBu RMS, A weighted
Recommended Minimum Load Impedance 2K ohm
Supply Voltage 3.0-3.6V
Current Consumption .4 mA
Battery Life >300 hours
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