Fishman Fluence Bass 5 Soapbar Set

I was looking at these pickups for a while now. When they came to thomann i immeadiatly ordered them. I installed it in my Spector Euro LX5, which previously had a combination of Aguilar OBP2 and EMG40DC. Let me tell you this, i am blown away by the tonal versatibility. The sound ranges from vintage p bass to a modern and clearer spector sound. It is a really well rounded up pickup system. Where the EMG lacks in middles, the fishman shines. Clearly the creators of this pickup system knew what they were doing. Give to that the ability to single coil the pickups with the push pull... so many options. Its like having 6 basses in one. It really made my Spector alive and shine. The signature spector sound is there, but this time really well rounded up.
verdict: Really versatile pickups, EMG no more...ever again. If you want to pull the trigger with this, coming from EMGs... just do it, you wont regret it

Right off the bat, the only reason I am giving a 4 star total is that they're tricky to install, and this is something others have also mentioned. I had to go to a proper luthier and it did give him a bit of a hard time. So definitely something to consider, as installation may prove more costly than you anticipated.

Now the pickups themselves: I put them in my old Ibanez SR705. The stock pickups were Bartollini MK1 which are OK but not great. As the instrument has a decent body and as it would be hard to sell for a good price to get a better bass, I figured upgrading the electronics was the way to go, and I was right! The pickups are very versatile with options for passive and two active voices (flat mids and scooped mids) and split coil. I thought I wouldn't use the split coil but I actually like how sharp it can sound in single coil mode. You can have a great sound whether you're looking for mellow Jazz or a punchy Metal. I do wish there was a 3 band EQ but to be honest you can always use the one on your DI or amp. Very happy with it, as I said only took out a star because of tricky installation

Others have already described how good they sound. For me, one of the most useful features is the ability to switch between single coil and hambucker modes, as this has a great influence on the sound and being able to choose between two radically different kinds of pickups for different music styles is a huge advantage. As for the "voices", I don't really understand why they decided to offer this selectable voices feature instead of just adding the middle control to the EQ, that would have made it even more versatile IMO.
I think they just wanted to basically made it easy to commute between two main kind of sounds, that is a vintage sound and a modern active sound, but it's rare that you have to do this on the fly while you're in a concert (usually you don't touch the sound in the middle of a concert...), so I would have preferred a 3 band EQ.
However, this is going to be a great upgrade for several basses. It definitely was on mine.
The installation is not so easy: you have to be able to solder and, even in that case, it will probably take you several hours. Some wires needed to connect the boards are missing. Being an expensive and premium product, I don't think this is acceptable, considering how cheap it would have been to include 5/6 wires. You might also need several different tools in terms of screwdrivers, wrenches etc. If you realize you miss something, you might have to buy it, so don't start the work unless you know you can use another bass for some days.
If you've never done at least a simple pickup upgrade on a passive bass, starting with this could not be a good idea. You should also be ready to solve small compatibility issues. In my case, for example, the provided rubber was too high for my pickup cavities, I had to reuse the springs from the old pickups and paste them to the new pickups somehow.
If you have to pay a professional to install them, I guess it wouldn't be cheap as the installation takes time. Some basses from Cort or Spector already offer these pickups and going directly with one of these basses could be a better idea.
If you're used to working on your basses, then you may go for it.