A couple of weeks ago, at the NAMM 2006 show in Anaheim, Fishman celebrated its 25th anniversary . Fishman is widely known for its excellent transducers for acoustic instruments, and is nowadays the world's largest supplier to acoustic instrument manufacturers. Fishman continues to expand its product line in the category of acoustic amplification. At the NAMM show, Fishman launched a new product in the Loudbox series of acoustic amplifiers, the Loudbox 100.

Some excerpts of the history of Fishman:

Fishman, who grew up in upstate New York and North Carolina, became involved in music in elementary school ... going on to study and play cello and, later on, acoustic bass at N.C. State and at Boston's celebrated Berklee School of Music. He went on to play acoustic bass professionally throughout New England in a series of pit orchestras and jazz bands.

At that time in the late 70s and early 80s, jazz was becoming more electronic in nature and Fishman was having serious problems amplifying his acoustic instrument to achieve parity on stage with electric pianos and guitars. Refusing to give up his acoustic bass for an electric equivalent, he started working on a pickup system for the bass. Analyzing every device available at the time, he experimented with new designs at home and on the bandstand at a jazz club in Cambridge with "horrible acoustics," until he came up with an acoustic bass pickup that finally, as he puts it, "took it to the next level."

The product line currently includes pickups and supporting electronics for the entire guitar family of instruments, dobros, classical guitars, western-style guitars, as well as banjos, mandolins, violins, cellos, basses, etc. As Fishman describes it, "virtually anything with strings on it is our specialty. We have 23 issued patents over the years, with more pending."

"With the advent of programs like 'MTV Unplugged,' we realized acoustic musicians didn't want to be tethered to a microphone. They wanted more freedom of movement on stage and the ability to play louder which eventually brought the acoustic guitar out of the living room and small clubs onto the world stage. Our contribution to the music is to make the acoustic instrument coequal and viable in larger venues."

Nowadays, Fishman products are found for all (acoustic) string instruments, and a number of their products are very popular in the violin world, including their acoustic violin pickups (Concertmaster, V-100, V-200-M, V-200-Professional) and preamps (e.g. G-II, Pro-EQ-II, Pro-EQ-Platinum).

For more info, check out the Fishman website, which includes a useful retail pricelist.