Fishman Rechargeable Battery Pack STWH

Firstly, let me state that I have fitted the Les Paul version of this battery and their universal one no problem to several guitars and the Fluence pickups are all great. I have fitted Fluence humbuckers, Single width Strat, Greg Koch tele set and Greg's Fluence P90s with no problems and great results and happy clients.

However, after fitting this particular battery pack design to a strat I now feel I will have to advise clients against it. I feel that there are 2 design flaws in this product.

In a strat trem cavity there is a claw, screws and springs. As the spring claw is backed off, it's height rises in the cavity. On this battery cover some part of a PCB is jutting out RIGHT in LINE with the trem claw plate...TOO CLOSE.....could possibly arc or simply not allow flush fitting of battery to body without damage to components.

The guitar this battery was fitted to was finished but after a few gigs decided to put voice 2 and 3 for the Classic Humbuckers on a ON OFF ON mini toggle and the SSA 3dB boost on a ON/OFF mini toggle instead of the push/pulls for speedier voice changing. I did this but it then took me 30 mins to get this battery pack back on without damaging wires or the battery. This should not be the case.

But then, when I bench tested the guitar........NO Sound......... I investigated and discovered that the red power wire broke free where it had been soldered to the battery. On further inspection the black came off with the slightest tug. Not enough solder used, I later discovered why!!!!!!!!

I believe that in trying to keep the battery as thin as possible Fishman did not leave enough room for sufficient solder joints on the power terminals of the PCB. They utilize an isolation paste/film to cover these joints to prevent them arcing or making a circuit when touching the rear battery metal cover when fitted. Applying this paste/film adds depth. So, you have the pcb, wires soldered to tabs on pcb and then this isolating film coating on top all adding to the overall depth. There has to be enough room left to allow the metal cover to fit flush. In order to facilitate this, they use as little solder as possible to keep the depth down, too little solder in my opinion to allow for sufficient solder jointing and hence the wires come off very easily.

I had a spare Fishman strat battery and considered fitting it instead and was going to but just decided with all that is wrong here....I will just sell the spare and the Classics and be at the loss of the SSA and the now useless battery!

My build was a waste of time, cost €446 in Fluence parts, never mind my time. I'm left with a set of used classics and a used SSA and now have to rethink the HSH build and install other pickups. I do not want to route a 9v battery holder. Total waste of time..all let down my a badly designed battery. Fishman need to address this and I will be letting them know!

Put it this way...........this is similar to building a real good electric kit car with the best of everything in it..........and when you have all done and then go to fit the battery that came with the kit........you realize ........... I can't rely on this....those wires will come loose at some point...........and NO room left to correct it !!

I installed this on my Player Stratocaster to drive the Fernandes sustainer unit (that bit was professionally installed).

This was dead easy to install - it took me only a few minutes - and I'm no expert. The screw holes fit the old backplate perfectly and the unit drives the sustainer like a charm. Now I don't have to worry about batteries running down and being awkward to replace. Just charge-up before a gig and off you go!