Fishman TriplePlay Express USB-C MIDI Guitar Pickup

...with a few caveats.I bought this unit in hopes of using it to bring VSTs into a live setting without having to haul around a bunch of extra equipment, re-do my entire rig, or spend an arm and a leg. After a little tinkering, it's working GREAT!I first attempted to test-fit the FTP on several of my guitars and found that installing it on something with a tremolo (especially a Floyd Rose) would be challenging due to either string height or the space between the tremolo and bridge pickup. Luckily, I was able to squeeze it onto my PRS SE CU24 Navarro by moving the bridge pickup ever so slightly towards the neck.After the hardware was installed, I spent the better part of a day downloading, burning, and installing software. Once everything was installed (and updated!), I discovered that, although there are some rather nice-sounding patches included, my old laptop wasn't quite up to the task of running many of the FTP sounds (or GuitarRig) without noise or latency. That being said, it works beautifully with my copy of SonicSynth2. Latency is virtually non-existent and the tracking is superb. Time for a new laptop, I suppose.Overall, as long as you've got a powerful enough computer (or want to run it in hardware mode to control other VSTs), the FTP is a spectacular tool for expanding your sonic palette.

I am not even sure where to start but here are some of the low-lights:The original installation does not allow to set a custom path but insists on going on the system drive (under ProgramFiles (X86)). The add on products allow for selection of a custom path, however, the path needs to be entered manually for every single file. This adds up to several hours of the installation procedure, which is exacerbated by the need to open browser windows, and manually enter some authorization codes to get the unlock codes for the different software aspects. After that, half of the functionality was missing and the comment from (the actually very responsive) support team was that the only way to fix the issues was a remote session where somebody would walk me through the necessary steps. Unfortunately that remote session is only available from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm ET, which is almost guaranteed to overlap with office hours regardless which time zone you live in. Bottom line is that I have never seen any software installation as cumbersome and counter-intuitive as the Triple Play.The GUI is essentially the Fisher Prize version of what a GUI should be, it is a bit map with fixed dimensions that will work on a small number of computers but in most cases be either too small or else too large. The options are limited to selecting a maple or rosewood fret board, which simply changes the color of the fretboard from yellow to purple - and I am sorry, both look ugly and like plastic. The links that are integrated in the GUI, for example to the help sites are all broken and return 404 not found errors.The Triple Play requires a special ASIO sound driver, which unfortunately rendered every other sound device in my system inoperable, with the standard windows drivers, the lag makes the device completely useless, in other words, you pick a note, you wait, and then you wait some more and finally it is rendered. With the ASIO4ALL drivers, the lag is manageable but as mentioned, these drivers suffer from serious compatibility issues, e.g. they will not work with Steinberg Cubase or even most sound cards.When playing, the individual notes are displayed on the fretboard that is part of the GUI however, all it takes is picking some chords, even slowly and the Triple play gets hopelessly confused and sort of randomizes the individual notes rather than outputting them in the sequence they were played. This happened also with the ASIO4ALL drivers, with the Windows drivers, it was completely hopeless to begin with. Curiously, as long as the notes are played on the same string, things are working, in other words, it appears more an integration of the different pick-ups for the individual strings.The hardware itself is very nice and easy to install, I used a Fender Telecaster and it was a breeze to get everything up and running, including linking the transmitter to the USB receiver.The software is a hodgepodge of different packages mostly from Native Instruments and after 3 weeks of trial and error I still did not manage to get the unlock keys for the different features and instruments. Some of the third party GUIs can be scaled to match the screen resolution but they are still bit maps and scaling results in bad aliasing and distortions, in other words it is useless.Fishman does not issue any RMAs, those have to go through the different vendors and fortunately, that part went very smooth.For comparison, I have played other guitar synthesizers, mostly Roland and those are professional devices, whereas the Triple Play is a toy at best. I did not try using it on an Apple platform, maybe it is better there but for any Windows Systems it appears completely useless. As for system specs, I am running a dual quad core Opteron platform with 20 GB of system memory which should be enough horsepower to drive the synthesizer.The bottom line is that after 3 weeks of trying to make the triple play work and countless emails with the tech support I have not been able to get the Triple Play to work beyond generating some random noises in some pre-selected flavors.

Very happy with this product and I'm amazed it only has a 3 1/2 star rating! From what I've read, people order it without realizing it won't fit on their guitar and have to return it OR they have trouble waiting for software to download. I had no trouble with either of these things, it fit perfectly on my stratocaster and I had no issues waiting for the software since I've purchased software online before and know how long downloading something takes. It took about 2 1/2 hours for all the software to fully download, although I understand it will vary drastically based on your internet speed. I started all the downloads and then watched a movie and it was done.Only 3 applications are required to run the official tripleplay software, Kontact, SampleTank and the TriplePlay software itself, although it can be used as a midi controller upon installation, no special software required. Activating the software was not a hassle, took about 15 minutes. Just leave the download on overnight and activate it in the morning. Bends, vibrato and such work perfectly, the one thing I must point out is that muted strums do not work. Overall this product has exceeded my expectations, the range is fantastic, the battery life is great, and most importantly, the tracking is excellent. Would highly recommend.