FAQs not Flack

[Randi Gormley]

Coming in late on this, sorry; i don't mind being redirected to previous searches or threads when i've duplicated a question -- although with the number of people joining this on a regular basis, there's always the chance something new will come up if you just ask straight out, as someone else mentioned.

But i did want to point out that even the very best of searches and former discussions aren't as complete as people remember. I was checking to see whether a fishman pickup needed a preamp (since i've ordered the one and didn't know if i needed the other) and while my search gave me a half dozen old threads that included the words 'fishman' and 'pickup' none of the discussions gave me the anwer i needed and several were discussions on other things entirely with just a glancing mention of either fishman or pickups. yet there were enough threads listed that i didn't feel comfortable posting the question -- and i've never felt that anybody here would ever give me a snarky answer! -- because i figured it was answered somewhere if i had an extra hour or three to search it out. that's the downside of FAQs -- you have to wade through lots of other stuff before you realize your answer is (or isn't) there. The discussions are riveting, of course (!) but if i'm on time limit, it does become an issue.
I sometimes think that FAQs are like those telephone trees to nowhere you sometimes get into when you call a business. They'll tell you 'press one if X, press 2 if Y, press 3 if Z" and then wait for a tone. If you are actually looking for A, it's not on the list; sometimes the business just hangs up the phone if you don't press anything or press zero. Most frustrating. So you press the wrong one just to get into the system, and you get another selection that isn't what you want. Repeat until you either give up or get hold of a human being by accident. Of course, I may have just had bad experiences with FAQs that lead me astray! But I can see why some people would just as soon ask outright and not go to an FAQ.

[MikeEdgerton]

If you're asking a question that's never been answered in a previous thread it's obviously a valid question. I'd be more inclined to talk to the people at Fishman myself but that's just me.

[Randi Gormley]

I actually talked with the guy at a (different) music store -- that human contact, you know? -- and it's more of a 'wait and see if you need it' kind of thing. sigh