Fishman Matrix Infinity VT Acoustic Pickup (Narrow)

I received this as a gift for my Martin Guitar. Installation was very easy (if you are somewhat handy). I had it installed in about 20 min. My action was a little too low to begin with so I did not shave anything off of my bridge. After the install my action was just right (might now be the case for everyone). So far I am extremely happy with this pickup. Prior to installing this, I has attempted to use a Seymour Duncan Woody. The woody did the job but I could never get used to having it in the sound hole and on too many occasions I would step on the cable pulling it out of the sound hole (usually in the middle of a gig...you can't recover from such an error). The tone of the Infinity Matrix is great, it picks up finger tapping, slide work, and palm slaps (something the Woody did not). The Infinity Matrix has made my Martin sound like a whole new guitar. I am very pleased with this gift. I have used it plugged straight into the PA and also plugged into a separate amplifier, both options sound excellent. No feed back, no need for a sound hole cover and the on board adjustments give a wide range of flexibility. Tips for installation: Be patient, start with a small drill bit and work your way up, do not try to do it in one try (you will chip the finis of the guitar if you rush it. Use Alcohol wipes everywhere that you are going to put the adhesive clips, allow the spot to dry for a few min. When installing the pickup wire, do not pull it too tight, to much tension on the pickup wire will cause it to under perform. A small dab of lock tight on the strap button will keep it from coming loose (notice I said small dab....too much and you will never get it off again. Be sure to tighten it just enough to keep it in place, you don't want to over tighten is or you will crush the wood. Overall, I am very pleased and love performing with it. As an additional note, I use a cable that has an "L" shaped jack on the end. This helps guid it through your guitar strap and minimizes the amount of plug sticking out of the end of the guitar (this is just a personal preference)

This acoustic pre-amp/pickup really sounds great!! I am very happy with it. Fishman recommends that it be installed by a professional guitar tech, but if you are reasonably handy and have tools, including a drill, it's pretty easy to install. The installation instructions on the Fishman website are really well written and thorough, but I would offer a few suggestions based on my recent experience:1. To trim the bottom of your bridge saddle, use coarse sandpaper (Grade 60 worked well for me).2. The black insulated pickup wire contains two silver-colored wire ends that must be connected to the preamp circuit board. The smallest diameter wire, located in the center, is the signal wire that connects to the "IN" terminal. The slightly larger diameter wire, located between the signal wire and the black insulation, connects to the "GND" terminal. If you connect these wires incorrectly (like I did initially) the preamp will not work properly -- you'll just hear a lot of humming noise.3. Before you install the preamp/jack, volume/tone control module, and battery case inside the guitar body, I recommend just installing one guitar string and testing the system through your amp or P.A. while all the pieces are outside the guitar and easy to get to. That way, if something needs to be corrected, such as the aforementioned wires, you can do it without having to take all your strings off and remove all the components from the guitar.4. The canvas battery bag really needs to be attached to the inside of the guitar body with something stronger than the self-adhesive velcro pad. I used epoxy glue to attach the velcro pad to the guitar body and now the battery is secured properly.Good luck, and enjoy the sound!!

I used this to modify my acoustic into an acoustic-electric. It was definitely nerve wrecking to have to drill into my guitar to make the opening bigger for this to fit. However, after drilling, the installation was pretty easy. One of the hardest parts was getting my arm all the way into the guitar to screw this in. I had to get a student with a tiny arm to go all the way in. The sound it produces on the sound system is nice though - and it was nice to be able to modify the guitar that I already had rather than to buy an entirely new guitar. I think it was a good product for the price. My only gripe would really be that the end piece comes loose with use, and when I plug in a quarter inch, I sometimes have to screw in the back so that it remains tight. The volume is pretty conveniently located. I mostly let my sound people adjust my tone for me rather than adjusting it manually on the guitar. Enjoying being able to plug in my guitar to the sound system with this!