Fishman VT Powerbridge

Pickup features: Replacement bridge for Vintage Telecaster with Piezo-equipped saddles for acoustic guitar sound.
Impedence or other specs: Details may be found at http://www.fishman.com/Products/PowerbridgeSystem.htm

Model of guitar or bass: Homemade Telecaster
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: None
Other pickups on guitar: Neck: Tom Holmes Humbucker. Bridge: Lindy Fralin Steel Pole 42.
Artists using this pickup: See http://www.fishman.com/Products/PowerbridgeSystem.htm
You musical style(s): Contemporary Christian, which means everything.
Reason for pickup change: I play primarily in church and was tired of lugging seemingly half of my equipment to church every time I played because our music director wouldn't give me a song list in advance (THAT problem has since been rectified). As the material we do often requires me to switch from acoustic to electric and back during a set (which can last anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes), I wanted to make my Tele a "one size fits all" guitar to be able to play everything on ONE instrument.

Perceived output level: With the optional volume control (a 5 MOhm pot) noticably hotter than a conventional, non-preamplified piezo saddle pickup. In fact, hot enough that it distorted above approximately 2/3 volume (using a Fishman Pocket Blender for external preamplification).
Tone: Very disappointing. While I knew this setup could not compete with the simple piezo pickup (Martin 332 by Fishman) in my Taylor 12-string acoustic guitar, it didn't even come close. It sounded like a thin, quacky, poor imitation of an acoustic guitar.
Sonic evaluation: The Powerbridge requires rewiring the guitar's output to a stereo jack with a common ground. I utilized the supplied volume control for the Powerbridge, a stacked 250K/500K concentric pot for the volume and tone controls for the magnetic pickups, and a 3-way switch to select magnetic output only, combined output, or piezo only. The outputs were sent through a Y-cable (stereo to dual mono) with the magnetic pickups going to a conventional effects chain and guitar amplifier, and the piezo output to the effects return of the piezo channel of a Fishman Pocket Blender (one of Fishman's recommended external preamplifiers) and thence to the house sound system.
As I indicated, I was very disappointed in the sound. Even with the addition of effects (particularly chorus) to "fatten" the sound, it always sounded thin to me, and had a very pronounced piezo "quack". While I know people who like that sound from an acoustic guitar, I've always strived to have my acoustic guitars sound like...acoustic guitars. Comparing the Martin 332 (Fishman) piezo pickup in my Taylor 12-string to the Powerbridge is probably unfair to the Powerbridge, but to my ear it didn't even come close, even with both using the same external preamplifier (Fishman Pocket Blender).

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I play Contemporary Christian music, primarily Praise and Worship, which pretty much covers all styles. Most of my playing is at my church, which has a concert-quality sound system which we run at low to moderate volumes. The system is EXTREMELY high-fidelity, and the Powerbridge + Pocket Blender just didn't sound good in that application.

Comments: There is more to this story than what I have shared above. To understand where I am coming from, you need to understand that I am an aerospace engineer, a part-time professional luthier, have been performing and recording on guitar for 31 years, and also done both live and studio audio engineering. As a result, I think I have a basis of experience on which to evaluate all aspects of this product.
I first ordered a VT Powerbridge in October 1999. Carefully following the supplied instructions I removed the existing bridge from my Tele, moved the magnetic bridge pickup to the Powerbridge, and installed the assembly and its volume control. After restringing I tried it out and...nothing! After carefully rechecking all connections and ensuring no signal grounding, I tried again with the same result. Out came the multimeter to check connections and components for shorts, and lo and behold it turned out that the Powerbridge itself had an internal short which showed up only when pressure was applied to the front of the unit (like tightening up the mounting screws or pulling the strings up to pitch). I can understand that this is the type of "infant mortality" failure which won't be caught by all but the most thorough quality control checks, so I called Stewart MacDonald and explained the problem to them and asked if they would prefer I deal directly with Fishman. Bless them, they considered it a defective part and exchanged it for a new one immediately (one of several good news stories I can tell about StewMac's Customer Service). The second unit checked out fine on the multimeter, and worked fine when installed.
Because of the control setup on my guitar, I had to go to a stacked 250K/500K (Jazz Bass type) concentric pot for the magnetic pickup volume and tone controls. I was never totally happy with the resulting sound, and wanted to go to a 500K volume + TBX (stacked 250K/1M) tone control for the magnetic pickups. In the meantime, since the last time I had used the unit live I had removed and reinstalled the unit 3 times while trying different bridge pickups (as a luthier I know how to remove and install bridges). So, in August of 2000 I decided to rewire the unit's output to the alternate form shown in the instructions where a very high value resistor is used in place of the Powerbridge's volume control, thus freeing up a hole in the control plate for the revised magnetic pickup control setup. Rather than use the Fishman-supplied 6 Meg resistor, I wanted to set the volume control to a non-distorting level, measure the pot's resistance at that volume, and use that value of resistor. When I tried that, guess what? Sometime during the 3 removals and reinstallations the (second) unit had failed - once again, no output! At that point, since I really didn't like the sound of the unit anyway, rather than contact Fishman and see if the one-year limited warranty still applied, I just wrote the Powerbridge off as a failed experiment and reinstalled the original (standard) Tele bridge unit.
Please note that I am not denegrating Fishman's Customer Service; as a matter of fact, my single previous experience with them was quite positive. I simply made a decision not to pursue potential warranty repairs on a unit with which I was not entirely satisfied anyway. In addition to my dissatisfaction with the sound of the unit, I also feel based on my sample of two units that the VT Powerbridge (as produced in 1999) is a delicate device and probably would not withstand the normal abuse a regularly-played guitar will see over a period of several years. The concept is outstanding (one guitar does it all), but it's execution would appear immature. My recommendations to Fishman for a follow-on product family would be to utilize state-of-the-art sensor material (rather than 1980's piezoelectric technology) for better sound quality and to ruggedize the unit so it is not so sensitive to manufacturing, installation, and handling.