Rosinante Posted January 27, 2022 Share Posted January 27, 2022 Just picked up a nice J50 50's original. My plan is to put an M1 Passive in the soundhole and call it done for plug and play. Can anyone recommend a good point and shoot preamp for this pickup? I'm also considering the M80 to avoid the external preamp altogether, but I would prefer to have more tone shaping ability than is available with the baggs voiced preamp. I'm pretty much over K&k, Trance, USTs etc, so please give me preamp recommendations only, or make the case for the M80 vs the M1 passive. Thanks Y'all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinder Posted January 27, 2022 Share Posted January 27, 2022 Any of the Baggs preamps (Venue, GigPro etc) will jive well with it if you want an affordable and straightforward solution. Fire Eye Red Eye would be a good choice if you want something a little more high end but not too feature heavy. The ultimate in compact hi-fi excellence would probably be the Sunnaudio Stage DI-2 PREstine, an outrageously beautiful sounding pre with a very musical and straightforward feature set. It would be the Sunnaudio all day long for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosinante Posted January 27, 2022 Author Share Posted January 27, 2022 29 minutes ago, Jinder said: Any of the Baggs preamps (Venue, GigPro etc) will jive well with it if you want an affordable and straightforward solution. Fire Eye Red Eye would be a good choice if you want something a little more high end but not too feature heavy. The ultimate in compact hi-fi excellence would probably be the Sunnaudio Stage DI-2 PREstine, an outrageously beautiful sounding pre with a very musical and straightforward feature set. It would be the Sunnaudio all day long for me. I am leaning to sunnaudio, but that price tag is at the top of my threshhold. I was thinking Fire Eye for more point and shoot, but wanted to see if others have had luck with that. If money was no Object I would probably get A Sunrise pickup and pair it with the Prestine...but I am trying to keep the cost low and the setup as simple as possible. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluesKing777 Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 The Fishman Pro will get it all done....really nice EQ choices....take the raspy thing out of the M1. And you get a DI and a few goodies. BluesKing777. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluesKing777 Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 The Fishman Pro will get it all done....really nice EQ choices....take the raspy thing out of the M1. And you get a DI and a few goodies. BluesKing777. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinder Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 7 hours ago, Rosinante said: I am leaning to sunnaudio, but that price tag is at the top of my threshhold. I was thinking Fire Eye for more point and shoot, but wanted to see if others have had luck with that. If money was no Object I would probably get A Sunrise pickup and pair it with the Prestine...but I am trying to keep the cost low and the setup as simple as possible. I’m a huge Sunrise fan…I have them in three of my guitars and they’ve been the basis of my live sound for years. I have a lot of time for the M1 Passive too, though! I tend to view things like preamps as a “buy once, cry once” thing. I use a Boss AD10 which has served me very well indeed, but I need the reverb, delay and looper etc for certain jobs. If it wasn’t for that, I’d pick up a Prestine and feel confident that I’d chosen the best product I could find. The clarity and dynamic headroom in the Sunnaudio stuff is truly astonishing. They play exceptionally well with other pickups, too-the switchable impedance is very useful in that regard. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorrisrownSal Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 (edited) I’ve used the Baggs M1 passive in my Martin D15, through a Baggs Venue DI with fantastic results. The Venue DI is a great preamp (with a crappy tuner). I also have a Fire Eye Red Eye and use it for that same setup, as well as with K&K equipped guitars. It works just fine. The Venue just allows for much more tone shaping. They both cost about the same…. Or close. Especially used. Edited January 28, 2022 by Salfromchatham 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosinante Posted January 28, 2022 Author Share Posted January 28, 2022 6 hours ago, Salfromchatham said: I’ve used the Baggs M1 passive in my Martin D15, through a Baggs Venue DI with fantastic results. The Venue DI is a great preamp (with a crappy tuner). I also have a Fire Eye Red Eye and use it for that same setup, as well as with K&K equipped guitars. It works just fine. The Venue just allows for much more tone shaping. They both cost about the same…. Or close. Especially used. hey @SalfromchathamI think have seen some posts of your having used an M80 as well. How would you compare the two and do you prefer one over the other? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorrisrownSal Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 (edited) I like the M80… but it’s overkill if you are going to have a floor preamp anyways… for boost for example. That’s why I gravitated to the M1 passive. but if you have a board guy you trust, and don’t need boost for solos, the 80 is great. I like it better than the m1a. by the way I also like the M1 passive because I like eliminating a battery issue wherever I can. My floor preamps are powered via DC or phantom…. I hate troubleshooting an issue at the 12th hour. Edited January 28, 2022 by Salfromchatham Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosinante Posted January 31, 2022 Author Share Posted January 31, 2022 I ended up going for the M80 due to the passive/active ability. For now most of my playing is going to be at open mics until I get comfortable enough to book shows again and the utility of having an active pickup will be good in those situations. When I start booking again, I'm thinking then I will be using the pickup in passive and likely get the sunn audio unit for the extra tone shaping capabilities. When the pickup arrives and I get it installed I will be sure to do a NGD/NPD post. This J50 is a solid guitar. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jricc Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 IMO, good choice. I like the M80 and M1. But the M80 is a little warmer and the active/passive option is nice to have. Look forward to your NGD post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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