Fishman AST Powerbridge Pickup Chrome

The Powerbridge is a stunningly effective acoustic pickup that will give your American Standard Tele with the closer lead pickup spacing a huge new palette of acoustic and acoustic-electric tones. Ultrasensitive built-in saddle transducers sense the natural acoustic vibrations of a solidbody guitar while a supplied stereo output jack allows independent use of the saddle pickups or blending with regular pickups. All installation materials and instructions are included. Chrome. Professional installation and use of Powerchip Preamp recommended (See recommended accessories box on this page).

Replacement bridge for Tele-style guitars Built-in piezo pickup

Displaying reviews 1-2

Back to top

I was happy with the new sounds available with the Powerbridge. I run a TRS to dual mono cable, one to my DRRI and one to my acoustasonic. I was getting plenty if not too much output to my Acoustasonic so I set up the recommended passive volume pot. Now I can turn the Acoustasonic past 1.5 and control the blend from the guitar. Worked out great. I used a concentric pot for my standard Tele pickups.
Fishman AST Powerbridge Pickup Chrome
.I have Fishman Powerbridges on my gigging guitars. I prefer the way Fishman piezo bridges sound compared to other manufacturers. My American Standard Tele didn't have one so picked up an AST Powerbridge for it. The bridge came with a stereo jack, an Allen wrench to adjust saddle height, four screws to hold the bridge, a template for mounting the bridge, and very generic instructions.

The instructions are vague. They show how to connect things up electrically, but do not show how to do the mechanical installation. You're given the template, but no instructions on how to use it. The template is for locating the spots where holes need to be drilled to mount the bridge-- yes, you need to drill holes. This is not a drop in replacement. The holes on the Powerbridge do not match up with the holes on the Fender bridge. If you fail to drill the new mounting holes in the proper spot you run the risk of really messing up the installation. You could end up with either the high or low E strings too close to the edge of the neck.

After drilling the mounting holes, you'll have to route out a narrow channel in the body from between the 3rd & 4th string to the bridge pickup cavity. The channel is for the signal wire which eventually needs to go into the control cavity. Without the channel the bridge would not sit flush. Once the signal wire is routed to the pickup cavity, it's a very tight fit to get it around the pickup and into the control cavity. So tight that I though about sending the signal wire down through the bridge grounding wire hole.

When securing the bridge down, you have to be very careful that the bridge grounding wire remains clear of the piezo solder points. This could short out the signal and you won't get any output.

In the end I do love the sound. I just think they could have designed it as a drop in replacement requiring no hole drilling or channel routing.
Fishman AST Powerbridge Pickup Chrome
.