What pickup actually sounds like an acoustic guitar? GUITAR SHOOTOUT!
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- čas přidán 8. 01. 2022
- #acousticguitar #shootout #comparison
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I installed an LR Baggs Lyric in my Alvarez Yairi DY61 and, if plugged into a decent PA or amp, it represents the sound quite well. Very happy with it.
I have 3 of the lyrics and love them
Man that was brutal! They all sounded so good acoustically and no good with the pick up.
es verdad...
Was hoping he'd A---->B the KNA ap-1 to mic. Considering something for a nylon string.
so sad
is there any other pickup out there that would sound better than those?
I can't play only with a mic on stage, as it always ends up being too soft or too feedbacky
@@giovannivicari8615 try a maton guitar with their AP5 pro system. its the best i've heard so far.
Yeah even the zoom mics sounded WAY better than all of em…was hoping the kk would sound good but it looks like im buying a mic. Original owner of a 90’s taylor 512 but rarely played it until recently and immediately hit the acoustic DI tone wall with the fishman i had installed 6 years ago. Time to take it out and get a mic. Thanks for this video.!
Great comparison Jeremy. K&k sounded closest to a mic’d sound to my ears. I was pretty surprised how close the plugged in acoustasonic sounded to a mic’d acoustic.
Wow man. What an amazing video! The Anthem stage pro just blown my mind. I think this is the only pickup that really transfers the meat of the original acoustic sound...
Hey Jeremy, thank you for sharing your knowledge. I get a lot of value from your videos.
Thank you Jeremy... another super informative video. Keep up the great work here in 2022. Prayin' for your continued success brother.
Always loved the Lyric and K&K! I ultimately went with the Lyric when I bought, but it still has things I like to tweak away with my preamp/eq pedal the Grace ALiX
Thanks for this comparison! It really helpes to decide which pickup I want.
I liked the K&K best. I got it in one of my guitars and I think I'll take another one in my other guitar.
Great comparison! Thank you.
The Baggs Anthem, followed by the Baggs Lyric were the two best to my ears. A pickup you don't hear much about but which sounds very good is the Baggs LB6. I have one in a Seagull guitar and I'll put it up against much more expensive setups.
I have the same set up sweet
Great technical review 💚
I install the K&K Puri Mini in all the guitars I build. I like it the best because it doesn’t alter the guitar in anyway.It picks up not only the strings but also the body as well.
You are upping your tech game/production values. Well done Jeremy :)
I do enjoy the Anthem, however my preference usually are passive systems that I can contour with a good acoustic DI
This is the best video on acoustic pickups I've seen! Your Baritone is wicked... I love "wicked"
One additional comment Jeremy.. I’ve read through all of the comments thus far and come to a conclusion about something - I’m happy that I ran across your channel recently, because you have an audience that knows their stuff, myself excluded. I’m grateful to folks like you, who stepped out there financially to help bring an interactive format for others to benefit from. Very impressive brother J! Thanks again
I have a Lyric in my 70's Takamine (Martin lawsuit era) and it was the closest I could get to the guitar sounding the same plugged in and with my ears. The Lyric does have a tiny, screwdriver operated tone control on it to help tame the highs and stop it from feeding back. I dialed it back almost all the way and now it sounds like the guitar in the room when I plug it into my interface or PA.
Wooooo man!! Absolutely gorgeous video!
This is the ultimate guide for chosing acoustic pickups.
I have the Acoustasonic Telecaster Player, and is one of my favorites, but Taylor's system makes me doubt....
Thanks for sharing!
LR Baggs Lyric was it. Thanks for the audio !!
Absolute proof that pickups are completely pointless in high end acoustic guitars.
How so?
@brendancurtis7848 you're not going to be able to hear the complexity of tones that a high end acoustic has unplugged. There really isn't a good acoustic guitar pickup out there. The best bet is an external mic like the old bluegrass guys. If you're going to buy an awesome high end guitar, don't slap a bunch of electronics inside that interfere with how the top would naturally reverberate. For live play with a pickup, a playable mid quality guitar is a better work horse.
Exactly
@@nickzav Agree ! Still understand why people mics high end guitars, as the feel and playability is also a factor. But the only way to hear the wonderful sounds of a great acoustic is clean.
Unless you wanna use one live :)
Love the LRBAGGS LYRIC in my Martin Custom Shop OO-18 & FISHMAN RARE EARTH BLEND in a Martin OOO-28 (didnt require Permanent Installation) but won’t be changing because of the Great Sound I’m Able to Get!
I do use an LRBAGGS VENUE DI but it’s not a Necessity…played without and never think about those Pickups in those Martins until I watch a Demo Video. Thank You for the Extra Effort in your Video Jeremy, the Time it MUST TAKE in Comparing All of those!
Ok, well the answer is....none of the above sounded like the guitar. And that makes sense because the Zoom recorder is picking up the output of the sound hole, and the pickups are buried inside the body. The sound of the guitar is very different in both of those places. Guitar builders are shooting for beautiful sound hole projection. The pickup is an afterthought. So, to be fair, you would need to adjust the EQ on every pickup to match the guitar which was not done here. Add to this, that when acoustic guitars are recorded, a combination of microphones and internal pickups are used - all to different tracks - and blended later. So my view is - you could make any of those pickups sound great - except that Fender acoustic. You need to slam that guitar in a car door and use it for fire wood.
Overall the K& K mini to my ears. What was surprising to me was not how the acoustasonic sounded cheap ( not unexpected) mic'd but how good it sounded with the pick up.
The Gibson J185 sounded sublime in all modes.Lovely
Great video. This helped me a LOT making a decision on my next pick up for my Martin CEO-7. I currently have a Fishman active pick up with a nasty hum and I want to replace it. I thought the K&K definitely had the most natural sound and I really love its simplicity. I use the Fishman Aura DI box as well so I can blend that with my stored images and hopefully get it dialed in nicely.
Hi man😊 I have the same guitar. I spent a lot of time to find the best pickup system solution for this particular guitar. I highly recommend you to try Journey tek pickup system. Even the simplest Journey transducer sounds much more natural and pleasant for me than bunch of magnetic pickups, undersaddle piezo and etc. I remove the lr baggs lyric from my guitar, which sounds just terrible and absolutely happy with it. It's really capturing the natural sound of the instrument and add nothing. Lr baggs lyric for example sounds good, but shifts the frequency to high range that this guitar do not really features.
I was totally amazed at the difference in sound from mic and pickup.
I was also very impressed with the Tele.I need to consider one.
I will listen a few times more and let you know my thoughts.
Good lesson .
Thanks for the comparison! I'm a fan of the K&K. It maybe needs a little EQ, but I don't mind that. Where it really beats out other pickups in my opinion is its dynamic range, the guitar just feels more natural.
Love the Lyric and K&Ks. I have Lyrics in several guitars and people come up at gigs and say (paraphrasing) "that's what an acoustic is supposed to sound like." K&K is a close second to my ears.
Hello Jeremy, I can't tell you which "on-board" guitar system I like the best but I will echo what has been said below, the guitars played through the open air microphone produces the best sound to me. Thank you for the videos.
I used to be a K&K guy, but recently have switched to the Anthem. Sounds great in my D35 once I've got it eqed! Just like having a mic without being stuck on stage with a mic. I'm also gonna guess that the pick up will need to be paired with the guitar....some pick ups might actually sound better in different guitars!
no need to worry jeremy:), even through a crappy phone speaker the differences are stark on all fronts. great resource vid 👍
I use the Bartlett Audio Guitar EJ. It is a high quality, omni-directional, which is installed inside the guitar body. It connects via an endpin jack (thus the EJ). The XLR connector, on the other end, contains an EQ circuit to reverse the bloat and honk sometimes characterized by guitar internal mics. Bartlett is the former microphone designer for Crown, and now does this in his semi-retirement. You can find sound samples online.
I liked the K&K pure mini as the closest pickup sounding like the acoustic, and will get it installed on guitars that may need electronics. I bought a guitar with a K&K Trinity and that sounds super. I've also bought into Martin's version of a Fishman Aura and that make the amplified sound like the guitar sounds acoustically. I also have Taylor guitars and the ESP2 works/sounds fine. I don't plug in much because of where I play so the K&K is my preference.
The LR Baggs Pro stage Anthem sounded the most natural in my opinion,and the Fender Player in the acoustic setting not bad at all...great video!
Hi Jeremy. Just came across your 2019 video about when to lowball people on a sale. That touched me sooo much that I had to respond. Thank you for being the person that you are and your understanding of people getting taken advantage of and calling them out and posting a visual reprimand of the "sharks" out there. There certainly are a sea full of them and I, for one, appreciate you for calling them out and helping the unknowing to have a friend when needed. The world is lacking in, what I call, real people and you are one. Thank you. No need for a reply. I just wanted you to know. P.S. I'm a beginner intermediate player and am going this weekend to upgrade from my $100 Tyler Mountain to something more substantial.
The Lyric is the winner in my book. Followed closely by the pure mini. Thank you for this revealing video
Helpful!
I’m so jealous of your collection! Wow
This is why I don’t often buy guitars with pickups in them. My main stage instruments all have the Baggs Lyric in them and I use the Baggs Para DI to adjust for the room/stage wonkyness. One of my guitars that I tune super low I have the Anthem SL. One thing to point out about the Anthem and Lyric is that the Anthem has a crossover circuit in it that makes all the guitars signal from 400hz on down go through the under saddle. It can give you the feeling that it has more low end because of that. The Lyric requires a little more planning on stage but sounds the best when adjusted to the guitar. That little trim pot does a lot!
How is the feed back situation with the lyric?
i got the lr baggs lyric. it with a good eq sounds perfect. the bad part is the sensibility of the mic. get all the sound of the contact for the guitar on your body (learning english)
Hey brother Jeremy! I have found that I cannot stand acoustic guitar pick ups. Therefore, for the last several years I have been using a DPA-4099G condenser mic that attaches to the guitar. You might give this a good look/listen, I think it is the truest acoustic sound I have found to date. Thanks for the great videos! Keep up the great work!
Audio engineer here. The variables we aren't accounting for here are the room and mic placement. Those mics are in XY but they're basically pointed at the ceiling, not facing the guitar, and appear to be 3-6 feet away. None of the miked guitars sound very good and I know that's not accurate because some of those are outstanding guitars. So there's a mic placement issue. There aren't any pickups that will sound like that, nor should they. Move your mic - and I recommend just using one - 8-12in away pointed at the treble side of the upper bout. Set the input gain so the mics and the pickups are hitting roughly -18 to -12db. You'll get a much straighter comparison.
There’s a Brazilian pickup company called Harmonik microphones. 2 mics & a piezo, mix tone and volume knobs tucked under the sound hole (you can adjust the mic balance and piezo levels with a special tool). And the dealbreaker is a feedback suppressor button, which can store settings for frequencies that feedback (20 for the mics, 10 for the piezo). Piezo pieces are long enough for extended range acoustic / classical guitars (quite common in Brazil). I’m guessing the only reason they are not more well known is because they are Brazilian and not widely known outside?
Would love to see you review that
Well brother J, you just convinced me that my initial thinking still stands. The better choice in my mind is to simply mic my acoustics. By the way, that tele grabbed my attention. The acoustisonic line sounds fantastic plugged in. I can see why you are a fan.
1000% :)
Great video man! This was very informative! I also struggle with this same problem. The K&k, and the Expression System probably sounded the closes acoustically to my ear. Although the Lyric with some EQ might do the trick as well.
I'll throw this out there, the Takamine Tld-2 system is an amazing pickup. As well as the Fishman Matrix Infinity Mic Blend. I've also been running some of my acoustics through a LR Baggs Session Align pedal to sweeten the sound. Check it out if you haven't already, it really makes the guitar stand out more naturally in solo or duo performances.
Thanks again for the video! Cheers!
I like the fishman one!
Great guitar collection! I’d love to see a re make of this video with a mono mic signal and some basic EQ on the direct signals. I think this would be a practical comparison as most pick ups are mono and generally everyone applies basic eq to make pick ups usable when plugging in. On a side note, I think your Anthem equipped guitar is somehow missing a large chunk of top end in it’s direct signal. Perhaps the mic trim screw needs a tweek or maybe the treble control was down. It’s a fantastic guitar and the anthem should be able to reproduce it. BTW, I love that Zoom mic on your guitars. Sometimes I turn mine sideways to spread the strings left to right across the speakers when finger picking. Great video, thanks for sharing.
With the K&K being a passive pickup, it may sound better if you plug it into a preamp with a higher input impedance (ideally 10 MΩ, I'm not sure what the input impedance on the interface you used is). Low input impedance can have a sort of high-pass filter effect on piezo pickups. That may help open up the bass response and make it a really good sounding pickup.
Great video, you should do a video comparing acoustic pedals. I recently got an impulse response system, and it makes a HUGE difference!! I’m finally satisfied with all my acoustics plugged in.
Great idea.
I enjoyed your video with my buddy John Wohlford at the Gibson Garage. John is a great guy.... and like you ...he knows his stuff!
Thanks for the video, truly a huge challenge to match a pickup that represents the natural sound best. I have installed LR Baggs, lyrics, anthem SLs and the full Stage Anthem in a Martin D-24, a Taylor 416cE and a Gibson Sj-200. without a doubt, the four stage anthem with onboard controls and blend between Mic & piezo has been very best and most accurate representation of the natural sound. Get ready to spend about 300 bucks but it’s worth it!
Interesting and insightful. So many choices, so many options. Just one thought though, each guitar has its own tone wood variable which can also impact on the pickup choice. So to get a more informed shootout, each pickup would need to be in the same guitar spec to get an idea of how different they sound. To do that would be so difficult though, to install a pickup in four or five guitars and be able to compare them in one video episode. I’ve been able to compare a cheap fishman under saddle (under twenty UK pounds) with an Ortega Magus under saddle pickup (just under sixty uk pounds) and an L R Baggs M80 sound hole pickup (came installed in the guitar) and I found the L R Baggs to be a really good option, especially when finger picking, easy to install, and great output. The Ortega was really balanced and produced a good overall sound. Only issue was the piezo cable needed quite a large drill hole in the bridge to pass the piezo through, but it’s a tidy unit. The fishman was ok, but lacked tonal output. Decent for the money though, but a more upmarket fishman would probably be best (e.g. the Matrix model) I think that in the end a mic is the purest sound but a mic can be limiting by way of stage proximity etc. I prefer onboard pickups, and have top conclude that if you can afford it try more than system and decide on one that suits your particular guitar build and tone wood voicing.
I liked the K&K the best. They have a preamp that supposedly makes it even closer. I almost bought the system for my guitar, but settled on the Mojotone sound hole pickup because it sounded better to me. I wish more CZcamsrs would review it and give it a try.
K&k for me en journey picups the best acoustic pickup for les dollar eddy from Belgium
On most of my acoustics i’ve installed the k&k trinity (undersaddle +mic) which goes into their preamp. And I have to say it is very close to the acoustic sound :) As in all systems with a mic be aware of the feedback in live settings and bring a feedback buster along..
I first bought the Mojotone NC-1 soundhole pickup for my mahogany Martin. Best sound I heard from a magnetic pickup, but it still sounds like a magnetic pickup. It also had so much background noise it ruined soft playing. Furthermore, it easily picked up RF interference from the mains, so I basically ended up with a constant 4Khz tone depending on which venue I played in. The NC-1 is advertised as having a noise cancelling quiet coil, it's anything but that. Loudest noise I've ever heard in a pickup.
I sent it back and then tried the L.R. Baggs M80 which was much quieter, but didn't sound as good as the NC-1. Both pickups had a bit of that electric guitar sound, especially when strumming hard or playing percussively. Inevitable for magnetic pickups.
I then tried the L.R. Baggs Anthem, which sounded amazing (when using the mic), but turning up the volume just a little bit introduced a lot of feedback, which wasn't viable for me since I play loud gigs in unpredictable venues. Unavoidable for mic pickups.
I sent the Anthem back and finally settled for the K&K Pure Mini with the soundhole-mounted volume wheel (no preamp needed). My guitar now sounds much more like an acoustic, has absolutely zero noise and resists feedback well. It's a tiny bit quacky since it's a piezo but thanks to its sticky transducers it is far less quacky than other under-saddle piezos. Either way you're gonna need some EQ for any acoustic pickup. The K&K sounds much more natural than any magnetic pickup to my ears, doesn't get in the way of my playing and is much less hassle.
Don’t know about the pickups , but that lick you played on the 12 string guild was KILLER!!! Might I ask what tuning you were in?
Nice job. I can't believe the only one I liked through the pickup was the Fender - and that's a whole different category.
While listening I did wonder whether you might get somewhat closer to the acoustic sound by tweaking the EQ, tone and volume controls.
Gee, thanks. LOL! Trying to decide what to put in a Martin 000-15M. I had settled on the K&K mini after watching your video on it and I think I'll stay with that. Love your videos, Jeremy. Oh, and Guild baritone has a great sound plugged or not.
Go fill the world with music and friendship. Love it!
The Baggs Lyric has a presence control. It’s important to adjust it for a natural tone when installing. It’s adjusted with a plastic screwdriver, so not intended for use on the bandstand.
Great video, Jeremy. It's all very subjective but do yourself a favour and try a K&K Trinity. It's in a whole different league. I have two of my guitars outfitted with them and when time and money allow (they aren't cheap) I plan to replace my Larrivée's 20 year old Baggs I-beam with the Trinity rig. Can't wait.
Thanks for all your great work.. and I look forward to more! Happy new year from Ontario.
Thanks Jeremy. This vid and an article by Dana Bourgeois in acoustic guitar mag (dated 2/20) convinced me to keep my nicest guitars mod free. I’m going to save for a proper mic for the new Redwood/Sinker OO/12-C DA Sig Deluxe and keep using the Taylors and a Baggs Session DI if I need reinforcement when playing out. #goodonya
my yamaha fsx3 with their Atmosfeel system is fantastic….even anthem or kk mini don’t come close. Please include in your next compatison!
Great video! Just a heads up that your photo of the Expression system is the wrong version. That’s the ES1. You have the ES2.
I vote for the Furch as top sounding. I have a Baggs Anthem SL in my Martin 00015 Streetmaster and it sounds great. I run it through a Radial Passive Pro DI to the mixer at church.
The first tone thats the sounds that i need❤
The LRB Anthem gets my vote. Mines on a 20yr old Epiphone and being able to blend the piezo and mic is priceless. I'll probably swap it onto my Guild OM140ce and replace the OEM Fishman GT1 (which also sounds good). Biggest concern with a mic pickup is feedback but I rarely play loud enough to cause that...
I have three Martins (D15M, D18 and D35) with the K&K Pure Mini. I go straight into acoustics amps. If I have to go into a PA or panel at a venue, I insert the Pure Premp. Great sounding. In a Martin Custom GP-18E all Koa, I have the LR Baggs Anthem. Because, over time, the Koa bass improves, so the Anthem lets me blend the under the bridge pickup and internal mic so I can back-off the bass over time as it naturally gets stronger with Koa. So my favorites: K&K Pure Mini and LR Baggs Anthem. Nice video - we also get to hear guitar differences. Another note: The Ear Trumpet Edwina seems to be a great mic for those who want no pickups. It would be fun to hear different mics.
Nothing beats a good mic or two, something we've known for decades. Thanks for proving it once again.
I agree for the purity of tone but really don't enjoy having a microphone live.
The tele sounded good plugged in very surprising meanwhile the k and k the Taylor and the microphone in the Huss and Dalton and the sonitone sounded good
Nice. Would have loved to hear the Fishman Rare Earth Blend soundhole pick up. Thanks. Liked.
I think it has a lot to do with what your running your guitar through. I ran my guitar (Parker Fly Deluxe w/piezo) straight into a Roland SRE 555, then that goes straight into a old peavey acoustic amp. I also had to make an adjustment to the piezo tone under the back cover panel of the guitar and a ball of wax. It sounded exactly any acoustic guitar you heard on the radio.
I have the K&K Trinity system in my Collings. Bummer you didn’t get to demo one here! I play it through a PA multiple times per week, and the comment I get the most is “I’ve never heard an acoustic sound that good through a PA before!”. That’s from both engineers and laypeople. Definitely worth the money.
The Lyric sounded close to the real guitar. I’m going to listen again because I would replace the pickup In my Yamaha LL16 D
My favourite guitar with mic was the furch but I was torn between the mini k and the lr baggs on the collings.
The first 2 are money. Good stuff.
Did want to install pickups in my Martin and my Hermanos Conde. Now I don’t 😊 I knew it would sound different but not that much. Thanks for a great video.
Yeah bosssss its tottally sick!!!
Upon a few more hearings,I preferred the Furch and the Waterloo, but really enjoyed the Tele
What I got from this is that-- when choosing a guitar the application needs to be kept in mind. If you play unplugged then choose an instrument for that purpose or if amplified what tone is the goal?
Tnx for this comparison, it's what I was looking for months! To me, probably the LR Baggs Lyric is the best, then the Taylor's Expression System and then the passive pickup on the Waterloo. But you know what? I thing I'll keep using an external mic, maybe I'll go for a clip-on mic
I have 4 favorites, the only ones that I thought were faithful to the mic only sound. They are the L.R. Baggs Anthem, the Taylor Expression System 2, the K&K Sound Pure Mini, and the Fishman Acoustasonic. I think I would vote for the Anthem as the most realistic sounding, but I’d be happy with any of them. The Pure Mini really surprised me as a passive pickup, maybe that should be what’s used on lower end guitars instead of crappy sounding active systems. Also, that Gibson sounds AMAZING!! It’s really a shame how bad it sounds through the pickups compared to mic’ing it. (BTW, I’m a Jeremy too!) Great video, love your content!
I haven't been the biggest fan of acoustic pickups. I honestly expected the Taylor to sound better than it did. One of my favorite acoustic tones is Justin Sandercoe's Froggy Bottom which has the K&K Trinity in it. I'm sure he's probably using an IR as well. LR Baggs into their Voiceprint can sound amazing. I've heard really good tones from just about every acoustic pickup in to a multi-effects with a good acoustic IR that blew me away too.
All of these pickups require a good eq; I have tried all of them and to be honest the most natural sound i have found is a K and K Pure mini with the Baggs Voiceprint DI. Great video though and super helpful for many people i assume. The K and K is a very difficult pickup to beat pricewise with the quality you get. In this video, the K and K still sounds the most natural to me. In my mind that doesnt make sense because youd think the lyric would.....but it doesnt.....
The microphones are the best sounding, both the active condensor as well as the passive ones.
I stripped the ES2 out of my 3 series Grand Symph & had a K&K Trinity installed. Crazy difference.
Whatever acoustic amp and EQ and preamp, whichever ones, will have a big affect, but generally I like the K&K Pure Mini
Great video! Very useful. I have a lyric and as it is in this video it was the one that sounded the least bad. They all sounded bad but the lyric was better. As long as it isn't piezo it has a chance to be somewhat usable. Mike Dawes has the best approach, 4 pickups and each processed differently. Highly unfeasible but you can't argue with results
I think the closest to a “natural” sound were the Lyric Acoustic Mic and the K&K but both would definitely demand some EQ to get the right sound. Some time spent messing around on the mixer or an acoustic amp is inevitable. I have the Fishman MX T in my Martin D12 which is just ok IMO and a Fishman Presys that I had retrofitted to my old Takamine GS330. The Presys can blend mic and piezo and I end up with a better plugged in sound out of my beater guitar than the Martin. At least to my own ear. Go figure.
Listen to the AP5 pro from Maton then think again !
L.R. Baggs Anthem ( I got one in my all solid McKenzie and Marr Cedar top rosewood s/b )
8:51 I so enjoy your taste in acoustic guitars, if you ever want to part with your Waterloo… I’m your huckleberry. Thx for all your hard work, I really love your videos.
I put an LR Baggs Anthem SL in my vintage Sigma DR-28 a while back. Still was unsatisfied with how it sounded plugged in so ended up making my own IR (Impulse Response) for it using a mic'd up recording of it as reference. Now it sounds almost exactly like it does mic'd up when plugged in through a pedal that can use IRs. Of course that's only EQ wise and no where near the same dynamic signal as what you'd get through microphones but a huge improvement.
I think it's probably the next step for acoustic guitar manufacturers. Creating built in IR processing units in the pickup systems and creating custom IRs for each individual guitar that comes out of the factory so that no matter what you plug into, it sounds like a mic'd up version of that guitar
I like the sound of the first one, LR Baggs pickup
I have several of those options. With proper acoustic preamping and careful EQ, you can make most of those options work well. Also, I have a Tele Acoustasonic, and I use it almost every week (over a Taylor, Alvarez Yairi, and 3 Martins).
Why? Playability and, with proper EQ, it sounds so good plugged in (and I worry less about bumping it around on stage).
The Fishman Prefix Plus was so close that I didn't realize you had switched except for reading it. The Lr Baggs Anthem at 50/50 sounded the same but it was a lot quieter than the mic you use for comparison which kinda throws a person off.
I like the pure mini, it’s just a little too quiet for my taste. Got an M80 and love it.
As someone who owns a Taylor 510 with an LR Baggs Anthem Stagepro, I think the one you have might not have the mic dialled in correctly. There’s a small screw inside the battery compartment & the mic adds high end & clarity. When you went to the “mic only” blend, it’s actually a split frequency with the element handling just the lows (the element is never off). I’d expect that to sound full & clear but it instead sounded as if the mic blend was dialled back so it lost clarity. Moving the slider to full element pickup removes the mic from the sound & goes to Baggs version of a piezo.
So basically the acoustosonic impressively and unexpectedly sounded better plugged in than most acoustic guitars with pickups... man, I feel dumb for hating it
The LR Baggs Lyric for me. Although still different, there are more similarities to the sound I think. I still think the AP5 Pro in Maton Guitars is the closest I’ve ever heard to the acoustic sound, going through an AER Compact 60, or De Capo 75 amp. Cheers
I AGREE….I HAVE 2 J200s, i with Fishman and 1 with Baggs, but my Maton custom small jumbo is the nearest to unplugged sound direct into Bose L1 S.
You are spot on bud, that set up leaves everything else for dead !
journey picups are the best
Tommy Emmanuel plays a Maton and he sounds great. Does he use the AP5 Pro?
K&K Trinity with the added silver bullet mic in the sound hole is the best.
I have two guitars with the Anthem system. A Martin with the SL and a Walden with the Stage Pro. Best system I’ve ever used, bar none. But… the Furch with the Pro system didn’t sound right to me… have you ever adjusted the master Mic level inside the battery compartment? It sounded muddy, so I wonder if bringing up the mic level would brighten it up and make it sound more natural. The internal crossover allows the under-saddle pickup to carry the lows and the mic to carry the highs. After dialing in my Stage Pro for my Walden it literally sounds almost the same recorded as with a condenser mic (minus some of the string noise a mic just can’t pick up inside the body).