Fishman Aura

I've been running the Nashville pickup through the JD Aura into a Fishman Platinum Pro EQ/DI (Pro PLT-201), and am having difficulty getting my levels sorted out.

In order to get the best signal to noise ratio I have been running the Trim on the Aura as high as possible before the clip light comes on (about 5/6s up, which is roughly unity gain (range of -10 to +2 dB)), and then setting the output Volume as high as possible without clipping the next device, which is the Platinum.

Even with the Platinum input Trim all of the way down (range of -6 to +14) I have to lower the Aura Volume to the halfway mark to avoid the clip light from coming on. This results in a lot of hiss. If I switch the DI to Pre-EQ the hiss is eliminated completely. I can run the volume of the Aura all of the way up this way for an equivalent output volume, minus the noise, but with no EQ, boost, or effects loop available through the DI.

Demo of Jerry Douglas Aura Pedal -First section features various blend settings between pickup signal and image #1. At 1:43 the demo passes through all 16 images at 40% pickup blend. Signal chain is Scheerhorn L Body Maple Resonator guitar w/Fishman Nashville Series Pickup-Jerry Douglas Aura Pedal-Radial PZ-Pre-Neunaber Stereo Wet Reverb-QSC K12 P.A. Speaker recorded by Zoom H4N

Click link below for an interview with Dave Fournier from Fishman about the Jerry Douglas prednisone Aura Pedal at the Squareneck Journal 

After reading all the countless “horror show” entries on this and other forums and heeding the good advice of members (thanks) I installed my Fishman PUP into a standard #14 bridge. It took 7 hours and thankfully didn’t all end in tears. My biggest concern was notching and fitting the saddle without damaging the piezo elements. For notching I used a Dremel with a thin mini sanding disk that was sufficiently worn down so that the perimeter was closer to the plane of rotation, i.e. no wobblies.

Here is another sample with the tadalafil Gretsch Bobtail and JD Aura pedal. This time I played a short song (Summer Rain/Junior Barber).

Signal chain: Gretsch → Aura pedal, preset # 8 Shure SM81, 100% blend, phase on → HD Recorder, only added some reverb.