Thank you for choosing the Fishman Pocket Blender. Our goal is to provide you with acoustic amplification
products that will simply let you sound your best. With our long-standing commitment to quality, you can
feel confident that your Fishman gear will produce great sound and trouble-free performance for years to
come. Please take a few minutes to read this guide and familiarize yourself with the system. Your satisfaction
is very important to us. If you have any questions or comments, please contact us at [email protected] or
by phone at 978-988-9665.
C
ONTENTS
Introduction ......................................................................
1
2
Install pickup/Microphone on the instrument ...................
1
3
Quick Start .......................................................................
1
4
Features ...........................................................................
1
5
Power Options ..................................................................
1
6
Front Panel
Microphone Channel ............................................
1
6
Transducer Channel ............................................
1
7
Master Section .....................................................
1
8
Rear Panel .......................................................................
1
8
Suggested Input Options ................................................. 10
Suggested Output Options .............................................. 12
Outputs/Effects Loops ..................................................... 13
Trouble Shooting ............................................................. 14
Optional Accessories ....................................................... 15
Specifications ................................................................... 15
Block Diagram ................................................................ 16
Appendix - The Microphone ........................................... 17
I
NTRODUCTION
: T
HE
B
LENDER
S
YSTEM
The Fishman Pocket Blender is a compact yet full-featured
2-channel outboard mixer/preamp designed for acoustic
stringed instruments. It is specifically set up for blending a
pickup with an onboard miniature microphone.
1 - Microphone and Pickup (Transducer)
Everyone loves the way a microphone captures the natural
ambience and resonance of an acoustic instrument. But
microphones have a downside; they feedback when you
crank up the volume and tend to get lost in the mix when
there are other amplified instruments onstage. Pickups
deliver a balanced high output signal with low feedback,
but they can sound somewhat dry compared to
microphones.
MINI-MICROPHONE MOUNTED ON
X-BRACE NEAR SOUNDHOLE
UNDER-SADDLE PIEZO
TRANSDUCER
2
P o c k e t B l e n d e r
High Frequency Feedback
The microphone's rising response can create a feedback loop with a high frequency driver in your speaker system. This feedback
usually starts above 1.5 kHz, peaks at 4 kHz and subsides at 9 kHz. There are several approaches to minimizing high frequency
feedback:
1. Strategic Positioning: This works best in low to medium volume settings. The simplest solution for this type of feedback is to keep
the microphone out of the path of the loudspeaker.
You can do this by:
a. Avoid standing directly in front of your amp.
b. Send separate mix and transducer signals to your soundman and have only the transducer signal sent to your stage
monitor.
2. Turn down the treble control on microphone channel.
3. Reverse phase switches on both channels.
4. Insert an outboard equalizer after the Pocket Blender's output (i.e.):
a. EQ with sweepable frequencies: The Fishman Pro EQ Platinum has sweepable frequencies to let you dial out high
freq. feedback.
b. Parametric EQ: We suggest cutting 5 dB at 4 kHz, with a 1.5 octave bandwidth (Q).
c. Graphic EQ: Cut 3 dB at 1.2 kHz. Gradually increase the amount of cut to -9 dB at 4-5 kHz. Above 5 kHz, gradually
decrease the amount of cut to -3 dB at 10 kHz.
19
P o c k e t B l e n d e r
20
dB 0
-30
-10
-20
-30
-20
-10
100
1k
10k 20k
FIG. 1
20
dB 0
-30
-10
-20
-30
-20
-10
100
1k
10k 20k
FIG. 2
20
dB 0
-30
-10
-20
-30
-20
-10
100
1k
10k 20k
