A bit of a mouthful , but has anyone tried (or got) the 'Fishman fission bass powerchord fx ' box?

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

This caught my eye on you pube today. I thought the only pedal I want this year, is the bass whammy. But, I have now seen this.
Could anybody tell me if it's really as good as it looks ?

[Dave_the_bass]

Want to keep an eye on this as I have the same question.

It's very expensive for something I feel could end up being nothing more than a toy.

[bertbass]

I've got one and love it. Seriously great effect. It's to me what an 8 string bass should sound like. Mind you, the built in distortion is not that brilliant but it does have a separate effects output and I take this to a separate amp and use the amps distortion. Brilliant.

If you have any questions just fire away and I'll do my best to answer.

Did I mention that I love it?

[BobVbass]

I've had a Fission bass and the Akai Unibass. They're a good idea but I find only really useable in specific circumstances - in a three piece playing classic rock they're great; the distortion on both is very sharp and fierce so it works where there's loads of space to fill and you need a grungy distorted over sound. For anything else I found them far too unsubtle - especially the Fission; it's a real sledgehammer to crack a nut - the distortion is basically on or off and it doesn't sound great without any. The Akai has more variation and so is more usable.
Long and short of both was they were handy (I used my Akai all the time in Vinyl Tap) but not worth me keeping just for a few songs in the sets that I play these days

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

Yeah, it's pricey for home use only. Love the sound from the you pube clips.
More opinions needed

[iamtheelvy]

I didn't like it much. Too synthy and not really natural sounding. Prefer the whammy - still digital-y but getting better each generation.

[Dave_the_bass]

[quote name='bertbass' timestamp='1393196958' post='2377339']
Mind you, the built in distortion is not that brilliant but it does have a separate effects output and I take this to a separate amp and use the amps distortion. [/quote]

It's this I was thinking of. I'm in a (musically) three piece band and some of the songs feel a little flat in the solos, tends to be the ones where the nuances in the solo need to shine through so I can't "busy up" the bass.

What I do have at my disposal is a really nice, all valve,
guitar rig so I was thinking of being able to stomp the box and replace the missing guitar.

I think I might have to bite the bullet and give one a try.

[bertbass]

We're a 3 piece as well. An example of how I use mine is when we do the Spencer Davis Group, Gimme Some Lovin'. The guitarist uses a pog so we've got the organ sound covered. I play the main riff with bass and an octave up and for the chorus I press the 5th footswitch and I'm playing chords above the bass line and then back to just bass and the octave up again. It sounds so full and powerful. A drummer friend of ours who heard us play it, said it sent shivers down his spine it sounded so good.

As a pedal it's not perfect and as others have said it can sound synthy and possibly a bit harsh but in with the rest of the band and through a separate amp it's brilliant. It's like being Thin Lizzy all on your own or hit the 4th button and you're a one man Deep Purple and Rainbow tribute.

[KevB]

Does this mean that there isn't much demand for the Unibass any more S/H (I know its discontinued)? I have one that I hardly ever use and was thinking of putting it on eBay but if it has basically been replaced by this Fishman product maybe it's not worth it? Although the unibass would probably be about half the price of the fission. I agree with Bobvbass about the distortion on the unibass, you don't want to overdo it and it sounds like the fission is similar.

Edited February 25, 2014 by KevB

[BobVbass]

I think the Unibass is better to be honest - I just found it more usable and a bit more friendly to use. But yes the Fission does replace it

[bertbass]

I've used both and I thought that the Fission tracked better, also, with the Unibass you have a slide switch to change effect type whereas with the Fission, it's all done with foot switches.

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

Update; big thanks to Happy Jack! He loaned me his fishman for a week .(very nice of him to do so, and a top bloke).
Before I took it away, jack gave me a demo. As soon as I heard it , I loved it . He did advise me that the distortion was not much to write home about, (or pretty average). He also advised me that performance varies depending on the type of bass you have.

So, I took it home and used 3 basses with it. The deeper and thud dire the bass, the better the sound.
On my washburn status (which was made passive), it was okay. True, the distortion was fairly light on its own.
When mixed with the octavers, it sounded much better.
Similar on my vester fretless , active bass.

However, on my '77 Telebass it was great. I got lots of studio sounding geezer butler and dug pinnick.
If I had to keep distortion off, then the lower octave is the most fitting for live situations and tight sounding.
With the distortion on , and the lower octave it was best of all. The upper octave sound was a little weak imho.

Prefer it with amp ,instead of studio monitors. Would I get one? Tbh, as I have overdrive /distortion already, I would say no, and would try the digitech bass whammy,which ha been on my mind for sometime.