Fishman Aura

Its a little tricky to get set up but once up and running it works fine and is fairly simple to get access to patches, tuner and notch filter.

I have used this unit with various guitars, Loweden and Aidan Edwards custom etc, mostly going straight into high end PA systems or in the studio.
I was not very impressed with the sound quality of this, firstly it is a little too noisy to use in proper studio setup although fine for live work, just that tiny little background hiss. In terms of the quality of the modeling the initial impression is quite a nice softening of the sound and it does quite well to get rid of the pietzo quack from an undersadle pickup. Unfortunately it does suffer from lossing a lot of the dynamics and attack from the guitar. Although this may sound nicer from an audience perspective for me it looses too much of the playing experience to make it worth using.

I have had quite a few problems with the pedal in reliability, firstly the case mounting broke so I had to repair that, one of the foot switches has been temperemental and is ok most of the time but occasionally doesn't work. I have also had the unit do a factory reset in my bag going to a gig, making my guitar sound horrible and meaning that I couldn't use it at all.

The guys at fishman have always been helpfull and provide good email support on all sorts of questions although sometimes I might like a slightly more technical answer.

I play acoustic folk, some jazz and a little rock, have been playing full time professionally for the past 10 years. I feel this unit was a bit of a waste of money for me and would much rather have a good mice to add to my pickup sound either internal or external to the guitar.

straightforward.

yet another hyped up piece of twaddle. I play ovation 12 string legend lx and I sat with trembling hands waiting for the beautiful acoustic tone to emerge from my roland ac 60 amp.After hours of twiddling with this thing, I came to the crushing realisation that I had a nicely polished box of crud! ??200 worse off.

I play early Genesis type of stuff, lots of finger picking 12 string.This box is no help at all.Ive been playing Ovation guitars for 25 years ,and Im still looking for a reasonable priced amp to reproduce its acoustic sound. After reading some proffessional reveiws, I thought that fishman had come to my rescue, but no , they have just increased my torment!

Pretty complicated because no settings start with good sound.

This pedal destroys the acoustic sound of a guitar by replacing it with a sterile, compressed digital impersonation of a guitar. Rather than spending good $$ on this pedal, go to the source, and put your money into an excellent pickup and DI box. Better still, buy the best quality acoustic you can afford.

I play acoustic finger style guitar. Been playing 30+ years and I've seen techno toys come and go. Let this one go...

The salesman at Buffalo Brothers almost tried to talk me out of making this purchase, but I persisted. He warned me this was a complicated unit to get a good sound out of, and he was right. But once you work with it, and compare several Sound Images to find the right one, this unit sounds great! It can be confusing when you first start editing patches, since you really have no frame of reference. Stick with it and you will be rewarded with excellent live sound.

The balance is left primarily at 100% Aura, but I sometimes feather in a slight amount of the undersaddle pickup. I adjust the EQ so that it sounds good to my ears onstage. The compressor is kept at C5 for all settings, as this provides a fair amount of compression without being too obvious.

The tuner functionality is a little clunky, so I don't rely on it. I just clip on one of those small tuners to the headstock between songs.

My goal is to use the Aura as the core for my live acoustic rig, using a Fishman Performer amp for onstage monitoring and sending a direct line out to the PA. I use several guitars; Goodall RGC Grand Concert, Martin D-41 and a Martin D-18 (Nashville tuning). I also plan to add my National Tri-Cone and Gibson F5 mandolin to this set-up eventually. I like the idea of being able to step through up to 50 unique pre-amp settings.

I spent a lot of time downloading and auditioning available Sound Images until I found the right ones for each guitar. You'll know it when you find the right one. It will be that obvious! For me, it was most apparent on my D-41. For example, it seemed logical to use the D-41 Sound Images on my D-41, so that's where I started. They sounded okay, but not stellar. Just for the sake of comparison, I thought I'd try a Martin HD-28 Sound Image. WOW!!! What a killer sound! Needless to say, I now use the HD-28 Sound Image on my D-41 with stellar results. On my Goodall RGC, there is an embarrassment of riches to choose from. For fingerstyle guitar, I finally settled on two Sound Images, and alternate between them; the Olson James Taylor and Breedlove Ed Gerhard Sound Images. I am absolutely blown away at the sound I get for delicate fingerstyle guitar with these presets. Truly amazing!

Our sound man is blown away, too. He can bring up my acoustic guitar level to compete with a too-loud drummer in a has-been country band. Maybe we're all so old, we've just lost our hearing. He says the acoustic guitar cuts through like it never did before and sounds very present and rich. Quite an endorsement coming from him!

I haven't used the Aura in the studio yet, but look forward to giving it a try. I'm a bit of a purist in that I don't think the Aura will be a direct replacement for a vintage Neumann mic in a great sounding room with wood floors. But it still may do in a pinch!

I can understand why some would give the Aura a low rating. It's a complex unit to operate. But if you take the time to get under the hood, you will be rewarded with some excellent sounds.

I've always had excellent luck with Fishman products. Their stuff is well made and intuitively designed. I've owned their stuff since it first came on the market and have yet to suffer a failure. Knock on wood.

I like the idea of getting Sound Images for each of my instruments, but don't relish the idea of shipping all my guitars off to Massachusetts to get them done. Since I have access to numerous world class studios in SoCal, I called to see what I needed to record and send to Fishman, so they could do the Sound Images for me. The gentleman I spoke with seemed very helpful, but said he needed to get back to me. He took my number and I never heard from him again. In all the years I have used Fishman pickups, pre-amps and amplifiers, this was the only time I ever called Fishman. I'll give them the benefit of doubt based on the other reviews I've read.

I play country, bluegrass, blues and classic rock. The Aura seamlessly flows from one genre to another. I've been playing for about 35 years and own a slew of vintage and new gear. My primary electric guitars are a '97 58 Reissue Les Paul, and a Fender '54 Reissue Tele. My other electric guitars are a '65 Strat and a '69 335 and Fender lap steel. Amplification is a combination of Mesa Boogie Mk III and Fargen Mini Plex Mk II. I use a Radial HeadBone to switch between heads, which works flawlessly. My acoustic instruments were already listed above.

Rumor has it that Fishman will launch a new and improved version of the Aura sometime in 2009. I needed to make a move right now and couldn't wait until then, so I bought the "old" one. I have no regrets. In fact, once the new version is released, I'll probably pick one up and use the one I have now as a back-up (not that I would ever need a back-up). If it were stolen, I'd get another one immediately.

What I don't love about it is that it takes quite a time commitment to get excellent results. What I love about it is that once I've taken the time to find excellent sounds, it's just plug and play. When I use it live, it is seamless and never an intrusion into the creative process.

My wish list: I wish the screen showed more data, perhaps the ability to name each pre-set. I wish the tuner was easier to use and more accurate. I wish it had more than one output, so I could use one pre-amp for several instruments live. I also wish it had it's own digital effects. I'll wager each of these issues will be addressed in the next version when it comes out some time in 2009.

Easy to use, but if your feet aren't to big, it might be quit a challenge to hit both buttons at the same time for tuner mode access.

This is the worst crap ever! A friend convinced me about the Aura, and all my former knowledge about Fishman was great. But this isn't worthy Fishmans brand at all. It's sounds just like what it actually is - a digital prossessor. Either you like it or not, your guitar will sound digital. Well, at least I thought that I could use it without the blending, and save several settings for compression, boost, eq, etc. But even with no guitar connected, it makes so much noise that it's totally useless. Worst buy ever!

Well, it's kind of reliably terrible. Allways noisy.

They've been very helpful as allways.

I play jazz, pop, and songwriter music. Should have been a good match according to the propaganda. It isn't. I've been playing for 20 years, and I play Blueridge, K. Yairi and Breedlove. They work perfectly good without the Aura. I would never ever buy it again, and I'm looking for some way to get rid of it. I just feel terrible ever buying it.

This is for the AIP Dreadnought "stompbox" version of the Aura, with no tuner or presets. There's no manual included, but one isn't needed, if you know what a trim pot, a clip indicator, an on/off footswitch, a phase switch, and volume and blend controls all are. The only other thing on it, besides the jacks and "on" LED, is a central 16-position rotary switch for choosing the sound variation you like best. It's very simple, intuitive, and totally easy.

It's powered by a 9v battery, or appropriate AC adapter, and has 1/4" jacks in and out.

Right now, I'm plugging a '98 Ovation Collector's Series (OP-24E preamp) into it. After the Aura, the signal is going to a stereo chorus, then into an Mbox audio interface, and finally to a pair of Behringer B2031 Truth powered monitors. Onstage, it will go to a Mackie board and a 6-piece JBL EON system. The Aura introduces no noise that I could detect.

It would be easy to dismiss this unit too quickly as just a box with 16 different EQ settings. I only found one that I liked, but that's the one that works, and all that I need. It's not intended to be any kind of a varaiable "effects" device. And, as for it being a substitute for a good acoustic guitar properly miked in the studio with a really good condenser or ribbon microphone, well... while it's certainly closer, there's still no substitute for the real thing.

But there is one trick that this box does, that makes it entirely worth the price: IT GETS RID OF that obnoxious PIEZO-QUACK-rubberband-spang character that permeates the sound of piezo-equipped guitars. I've tried to EQ that sound out, and I've come to the conclusion that it can't be done. I don't know how Fishman did it, and don't care. With the Aura, piezo quack is really and truly gone, and that's what I bought this thing to do. That makes this box fairly indespensible for live gigs.

If it works this well with my Ovation, I can't wait until I try it with the 2006 Gibson J-185 EC that I just won the bid on off eBay, and is on its way here. That has factory Fishman Plus electronics in it, so it should get along with the Aura very well; certain new top-line Gibsons have a version of Aura built in. Perhaps I could have waited until I try it with that, before writing this review, but after it working this well with my Ovation, that is news enough to justify reporting on it.

It appears to be well-made of good components, and pretty classy-looking, too. The top and bottom are brushed chrome (although that scratches a bit easily), and the middle looks to be powder-coated metal, all held together with hex screws. The knobs are metal, the pots are tight and smooth, and the unit has a pretty good heft to it, so it seems pretty heavy-duty. Yeah, I've played a couple thousand gigs in my time, and I'd use it without a backup. You can break anything, and I do have spares of a number of important things, but if this unit quit or got broken, I could muddle through the gig without it. I'd trust it.

The only contact I've had with Fishman is I emailed them during the weekend, asking which specific model (they make six) they recommended for the two guitars mentioned, and they got back to me early on Monday with an answer, so they seem approachable, anyway.

I'm an old rock'n'roll fart from way back, am working more towards solo acoustic and vocal without my MIDI backing tracks, and I don' do no friggin' Koomboyah. I play strong, rhythmic guitar arrangements using a big, full sound, with the idea that people won't miss the drums and bass. For me, acoustic guitar is not "spice," it's the whole frikkin' band. Yeah, I still got an attitude...

I just started working with it, but I can tell already that I won't want to be without it. If it dissapeared, I'd need another one real quick.

I could have given it 10's across the board pretty easy, but I admit that I'm "still on the honeymoon," and I don't want to give Fishman an excuse to quit trying to make something better. As is, the unit comes on maybe just a bit pretentious with the esoteric-sounding name "Aura," and claiming the sound of studio mics and all, but it does take you a very useful and substantial step in that direction, with no ill effects. They perhaps could have made it a slightly simpler box with fewer than 16 presets, simply called it "Quack Smacker" or something, but then again, maybe it is first in its class at what it does, and thus deserves to look a bit "special."

I was able to get very usable results within half an hour or so. Read the instructions they do help.

I am using an Epiphone dreadnaught with a Martin platinum plus under bridge pickup. I am using a Genz Benz shenendoa pro as the amplifier. I did have to add a dbx AFS-224 feedback suppression processor to deal with feedback problems with this setup. First I can get very loud while still retaining the sound of this guitar unplugged. Is there any other reason for this product? I do add just a little compression and sweeten the tone just a little. I use a flat pick. The beauty of this box is all of the strings come through very clearly.

Had this for about 6 months now. No problems. This is built very well.

Haven't had to talk to them.

Little pricey but then you should be able to use with any of your acoustics. Sounds great. I have gotten a number of posative comments when I perform using it. Seems to be very well built. Requires some setup for each different guitar but once you have done that and saved the patch just a question of selecting patch and setting volume. I would buy this again if it were lost or stolen

It's very simple to use and set up. You are allowed 50 presets so, it's easy to create a setting for different guitars/instruments for whatever situation you might desire

Of course nothing will be able to match a high end mic in a studio. However, this is not bad. It's primary use is live performance. I've used everything including a piezo, condenser mic, a combination of a condenser mic with a piezo. The Aura allows gives you the choice of 4 different emulated mics (with a lot of tone adjustment) along with a piezo (tone and sustain/compression adjustments) and blending capabilities of those two amplication tools. I'm giving this a 9 because the sound isn't quite as good as a high end mic but it really could deserve a 10 because it's as close as you can get without all the feedback problems of a mic in a live setting!

I've had mine for 2 years and never a problem!

Never needed it!

I searched for 30 years until I found the Aura 2 years ago. The search has ended! I play in a bluegrass group with some world class pickers and I prefer it to any microphone in a live setting because you don't have to worry about feedback! The sound guys love it too!

easy to use

This thing is so ridiculous. What a joke. You know right away when you walk into venue if someone has this goofy thing running or not. It sounds so artificial. I??d be embarrassed to say i own one. Too bad because fishman??s other stuff is usually of great quality

Good. Fishman admits this thing is not for everybody.

You might as well buy a synthesizer with guitar sounds if you want to sound that silly.

Very easy to use. There is a input volume trim to be set to avoid clipping distortion, then choose a patch, and finally set the mix between the raw pick-up output and the Aura output.

It takes my Composite Acoustics (CA) Legacy Player Dreadnought with L.R.Baggs active element from good to fantastic. Depending how much Aura output you choose to mix with the raw pick-up output, it can completely eliminate that classic piezo sound and give you a flawless microphone like sound. All 16 patch selections are usable (I thought some of them would be clearly better for under-saddle piezo and some for magnetic sound hole). I liked 1 best for strumming and 6 best for finger picking, and maybe 6 best overall. I am using a Genz-Benz 150LT for this evaluation.

Appears to be very well built and I have no plan to buy a back-up.

I have emailed Fishman customer support in the past. They are responsive and knowledgeable.

Given the ~25 hour 9v battery life of current Aura electronics and the reasonable price of this pedal; it really makes sense to me to buy this pedal once, put it on the floor with an external power supply, and then put a relatively inexpensive active piezo in all my guitars. This is a great product. I've spent years trying different pick-ups (Macintyre Feather, K&K Pure Western, Ibeam, Rare Earth Blend) with none of them quite sounding right (actually the blend was pretty good but too physically intrusive for my tastes). With this pedal you can take the ubiquitous plain jane under-saddle piezo and make it sound perfect.