Fishman Prefix On Board Blender

Pickup features: Active blender, under saddle piezo and a condenser mic housed in pre-amp
Impedence or other specs: "Blend" slider to adjust gain from piezo and mic, literally blends the signals

Model of guitar or bass: Taylor 410E
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: None
Other pickups on guitar: None
Artists using this pickup: Many. See Taylor's website
You musical style(s): Acoustic Rock, Roots Rock, Flatpicking & heavy strumming
Reason for pickup change: No change. One of the reasons I bought this guitar was because it had the blender system installed.

Perceived output level: It's based on the Fishman Prefix Plus, so you can go direct into an amp or PA (my preference). Plenty of volume, decent EQ capabilities.
Tone: Balanced once you dial it in right for the guitar and the DI/amp/PA setup. This takes some experimenting
Sonic evaluation: I am fortunate to have 9 acoustic guitars in my collection, so I have been able to compare the blender to a lot of other pickups. Depending on the situation I use different setups with the blender. I gig about twice a month on average, and play/practice/write with it about 2-3 times a week. I think the best sound is going direct into the PA with little or no EQ on the board, dropping the mids way down on he blender, leaving the notch filter at about 12 o'clock, click the phase in an out a few times to see what sounds best, and the blend about 75% towards the mic position. This works and sounds great at failry low volmes or even for recording direct. At high volumes you'll get feedback form the internal mic so you need to add a soundhole "Feedback Buster", you know those rubber things that go in the soundhole. Also at high volumes you need to do more EQ on the low end, roll the bass off a bit.
For loud venues/gigs, I go through a Yamaha AG Stomp, which has a nice EQ on it as well as some efects it desired (reverb, chorus, delay, limiter, and some mic simulations to enhance the sound although I leave it on "Condenser 1"). The Stomp also stores output level settings in the patches so can have patches set up for different guitars that all come out at about the same volue, very useful when you (or your band mates) are your own sound man so you don't mess up the levels every time you switch guitars.
My PA is a Behringer Eurorack mixer with Behringer B300 Active Speakers. One of my band mates has some Active FBT Speakers that we run of one of our Behringer mixers. I've never tried the belner through one of those so called "acoustic amps", I'm not really a believer in those...and I have a decent PA. I have plugged directly into a Behringer B300 and that sounded about the same as through th emixer. For recording we use Pro-tools on an iBook with an M-Box attached, or a Boss BR portable digital recorder to capture the trakcs and then Pro-Tools for mixing and everything else.
The flexibilty of this system makes it great for anyone. With some patience you can get whay you want out of it and the mic ads that little bit of "airiness" and livliness that the piezo lacks.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Acoustic Rock, Roots Rock, Hard Rock overs on Acoustic, I strum hard and flat pick.

Comments: This is a 9.9 out of 10, and I say that only because feedback can be an issue with the internal mic at loud volumes, and the rubber sound hole cover thinging dulls the overall sound of the guitar a little so it is a comprimise. So far this is the best acoustic pickup I've found. I have one on two of my guitars...this Taylor and a Guild DC5E which has the smaller Pro-blend system that is the same thing just smaller. The standard Fishma Prifix systems are nice onboard pre-amps, but the piezo system sounds like a Piezo which might be OK if you play with 5-6 other musicians and can bury the sound of the acoutsic a little, but the blender sounds the most like an acoustic guitar I have ever heard, and it's very flexible.
The new Blender's have a stereo switch that allow syou output the signal in stereo (one channel carrying the piezo signal and another carrying the mic signal). This is a great add if you want to use an external DI blender system or record both signals so you cna adjust the blend later.
There is also a new Ellipse Blend system that is a great add to guitars that have an undersadlle piezo or that don't have a pickup at all. It mounts under the top near the sound hole, so no cuttin gholes in your guitar. I haven't heard it, but if it is close to the Prefix blender than it'll be pretty good.

Pickup features: active mic/transducer setup
Impedence or other specs: HOT pickup-very good tone too.

Model of guitar or bass: Taylor 310ce
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: basic Fishman Prefix system.
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): fingerstyle, classical, Christian Contemporary
Reason for pickup change: much better pickup system....blends, has a notch filter, 3 band EQ, phase reversal and extremely easy access to battery for quick changes.

Perceived output level: hot pickup. very high output into an amp....definitely use the "low gain" input
Tone: very balanced
Sonic evaluation: I'm using a Taylor 310ce with the full blown Prefix Onboard Blender system, into a Alesis MEQ230 and Behringer Modulizer Pro, and out to a Peavey Ecoustic 112. talking pristine acoustic sound. very great pickup for live. makes it ez to dial out feedback and not worry 'bout the soundman doing it.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: acoustic fingerstyle and Christian Contemporary

Comments: If it were stolen, i'd get another Taylor with the blender system. I've got only 3 years under my belt though i feel i'd have a hard time finding a better -live- pickup system. I've compared it to the LR Baggs DualSource system. The baggs is vibration sensative, and has better control over -mic-/-transducer- control when using a stereo cable. I seriously think this pickup system is great for the price.

Pickup features: Active pezioelectric/condenser mic
Impedence or other specs: not sure

Model of guitar or bass: Taylor custom acoustic
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: none, installed w/ custom built acoustic
Other pickups on guitar: none
Artists using this pickup: don't know
You musical style(s): pretty much anything, but ranges from tap-harmonics to strumming away to flatpicking & fingerpicking styles
Reason for pickup change: see above

Perceived output level: So-Hot-You-Don't-Need-An-Amp (active pickup) for an acoustic, this is great, SOunds great plugged straight into the house
Tone: This thing has an onboard 3 band EQ. Works great. Has notch filter for avoiding feedback.
Sonic evaluation: The pickup features a pezioelectric/condenser mic combo in which one can choose the amount of which signal to blend in. For a band situation, little to no mic signal works great, but in an "intimate" acoustic setting, the mic sounds great! Overall, a very versatile pickup that brings out the sound of my Taylor wonderfully!

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Great match. This pickup is good for any and allacoustic situations. The ability to switch between mic & an under-the-saddle pickup is wonderful!

Comments: If it were stolen, I'd get a new one! I have been playing for 8 years, and this is the best & most versatile pickup I have heard &/or used! No complaints at all