Baggs Pickup Fever

[BluesKing777]

 

 

Baggs pickups demo:

 

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

 

 

[BoSoxBiker]

BK, Baggs has an AmericanaFest series via Newsletter from when I registered something online with them. Almost always inspiring, though I will sometimes let them sit in my inbox for months at a time before binge watching.

Good stuff and thanks for posting.

[BluesKing777]

 

Not much interest in this video here it appears, but I thought 4 guitarists taking turns playing 2 Baggs M80, Baggs Anthem and Baggs Lyric would be number one on the hit parade....

Sunday afternoon here and I have will give some of my thoughts.....

 I have a Baggs M80 and my Dove I just bought has an Anthem already fitted. I have been tossing a coin between an Anthem (full version) or a Lyric to put in my 2002 J50. The Lyric in the video is the guy on the right. I like that one best, but people (on forums) all seem to can it. Also in the video, they all run to a Baggs Venue DI. I don’t know if the guitarists EQ’d their own sound or someone else did it for them. My guess by looking on their faces is the guy on the far left was too loud and the others couldn’t hear themselves properly. But that is only Detective BK777 First Class urrrrrr, guessing!

Now, honest, I quite like the Anthem in my Dove and have merrily fiddled away since I bought the guitar and have achieved what I consider my second best plugged in sound....best by a long shot 20 - 30% are my Matons with AP5-Pro pickup systems, which you can almost just plug direct to that enemy of all pickups - the Mixer console. EEK. Though people do this all the time with all kinds of truly ghastly pickups designed to scare even Joe Ramone.

Back to the video and the M80 of the guy on the left sounds like.....an electric guitar. Now I have found with some heavy EQ from various devices that I can get a nice sound from my M80 and the bigger my guitar, the better the sound. I have put the M80 in my J50, plugged both that and a vocal mic to my Boss VE8 and if I STRUM a song while singing with mic up louder, the spill from the mic added to a soft guitar strum is....very nice. But if I fingerpick hard, the bass goes to Telecaster mode and the highs turn Strat. If I play lead lines it turns to a Les Paul. I just want to sound acoustic. Fully impossible, but the Matons are close and then it is easy to fingerpick without thinking about the out of control bass sound.

So to play my J50 somewhere plugging direct with no gadgets, (except EQ and DI and....), I will need to get the Lyric or the Anthem, I conclude. The advantage of the full Anthem model is that I can turn the mic part totally off and run the Element part to my Tonedexter to get a realistic ‘guitar through mic’ sound, to avoid feedback problem of an internal mic. And yes, as they all cry: “Just get a K&K!”, - I have a couple of guitars with K&Ks and I run these to the Tonedexter, but don’t like them without that, plugged direct.

I was going to a friend’s  to play the Dove with Anthem flat out in his PA....flat sticks to iron out some wrinkles before inflicting it on the blues club, but he lives high in the tree line and it has been blowing a gale all weekend, trees down, rescues etc. Patience for another time. He also has some Maton dreads I am keen to try plugged. Wind is getting worse now and the blues club starts in about an hour and a half from now....might just go to the beach and try windsurfing without a sail....

 

BluesKing777.

 

 

Edited February 9, 2020 by BluesKing777

[Twang Gang]

I found this very interesting, although it would have been more helpful if they described which type of system each guitar had, and what they were doing with the DI boxes on the floor.  A couple of months ago I bought a SJ200 Standard and it came with the LR Baggs Anthem system which I understand has an under saddle element and a small microphone.  You can control the balance between the under saddle and the mic, as well as volume and a phase switch.

I gotta say so far I am not at all impressed with this system.  What I am looking for in an acoustic pickup system is a way to amplify the guitars natural tone as accurately as possible.  I bought the guitar for it's really nice mellow tone.  

With the balance over toward the under saddle element it does not sound natural at all.  It sounds very clicky/slappy (hard to describe), like you just have a sensor under the bridge, and the tone from the body of the guitar is removed.  (similar to the sound the fellow 3rd from left got when he starts the video)  With the balance all the way toward the "Tru-Mic" it's better, but it's sort of boomy and again not the natural tone of the guitar.  As I try to blend them, as soon as I get to a point where I can hear the under saddle's influence it starts sounding unnatural again.  

There is another tiny little screw adjustment - the "Mic Level Control" and I am going to mess around with it to see if I can get a better tone.  But in reading about this control it would appear that it is a level or volume control for the mic only.  "If it lacks clarity and top-end, increase the mic's level.  Back it off slightly if you experience excessive handling noise and/or brightness".  

I'm hoping if I back off the mic level a little maybe I can blend in the under saddle and get a more natural sound?

In any case I have to say that this system does not accurately amp the guitar's sound as well as a B-Band System, or Taylors ES-2 system.  I've had both in previous guitars and didn't feel the need to micro adjust either of them for a nice accurate acoustic sound.

[BluesKing777]

 

This video about the Anthem from Reverb.com is interesting. (but in the first video above and in the various forums, a lot of people also have the Baggs Venue DI to tame the EQ. A huge advantage of my Maton AP5-Pro system is the sweepable mid controls on the upper bout to cut the yoinky mid sound... hence the Venue DI. Sweeping and cutting the mids can also cut the annoyance factor! But you know, just saying it is jinky without saying what it is plugged into or the style of playing or if in a band or solo....etc

 

 

BluesKing777.

 

 

Edited February 11, 2020 by BluesKing777

[Twang Gang]

Thanks for the second video BK which was very appropriate since the fellow was using an SJ-200 which is what I am working with.  

I have adjusted the "Tru-Mic" level control and the tone of the guitar improved dramatically to a much more natural sound like the guitar has when not being amplified.  First I turned the Tru-Mic level up, and the sound was worse.  It was so bad that the guitar sounded best when only using the under saddle pickup.  So then I turned it down to a level that was lower than it was from the retailer, and reached a point where I get a nice natural sounding tone with the balance just slightly biased toward the "Tru-Mic".  

I made the adjustments a couple days ago and fooled with it until I felt I was getting ear fatigue and wasn't quite sure what I was hearing.  But I went back today and plugged it in and it sounds good.

Thanks again as this thread and the accompanying videos have helped me to get a much more workable tone for stage use with my guitar.👍👍

[BluesKing777]

 

Another happy customer!

The next thing to try is an added preamp to fool around with, sorry I mean to ‘experiment scientifically’ with...but the aim is to get more control over your pickup level and very importantly, the EQ.

Baggs Align EQ, Baggs Venue DI, Fishman DI.....plenty of different ones to try. It can be a lot of work if you haven’t done it before but you might be glad when you are playing live and the fab sound you had at home is turning to poop.

But back to the Anthem.....after torturing mine for a few months, I have arrived at the sound I like most with the mic on full blend and the volume on full. Then I carve bits out of the tone with a preamp/EQ. For my style of fingerpicking, I like it sounding clear, balanced and precise so when I launch into something like a rag or blues in John Hurt style for example, the bass notes don’t boom or sustain too much and get in the way. Once I have that sorted, I have my ‘platform’ and I can do any kind of tune, any style.

BluesKing777.