[jseth]

I currently have the Anthem SL in both my 6 and 12 string "stage" guitars (both hand-builds by Mark Angus), and I like them quite a bit. Had them in there since just after the Anthem came out... spoke at length to Brian at Baggs to decide whether the "full" version or the SL would suit me better. Thanks to him, I decided on the SL.

So, they've been in the guitars for6 or more years now. I play through a Bose L1 Model II system (with the T! mixer/preamp) or my AER Compact 60. The Anthem sounds really good with either rig. With the SL, once you set the balance between the UST portion (which handles the lower frequencies) and the True-Mic portion, you don't really have to mess with it unless you want to. Over time, I've moved that balance more towards the mic side; when I first had it installed, I favored more of the bass/UST side a bit.

I used the Fishman Matrix Infinity pickups for nearly a decade prior to the Anthem SL, and I liked them just fine. The issue with the "Quack" seems to be more pronounced when the player has a fairly "heavy" picking hand, and I have more of a medium-light attack strength mostly, so the quack wasn't that big an issue for me. I would also put a Shure SM-57 in front of the guitar when I played, just to bring some string noise and "breath" into the signal chain... I received a LOT of compliments on my acoustic sound with that set-up.

The one thing I will say about the Anthem (either the SL or the full) is that installing it WILL CHANGE THE SOUND OF YOUR GUITAR... demonstrably, in my case; I lost volume and the tone seemed "flattened out" across the spectrum. The tone thing wasn't all that bad to deal with, but the volume loss was considerable. After about 6 months or so, it seems that the volume "came back" mostly... if I didn't really like the amplified tone of the pickup, they would have come out immediately... so that says something more about the sound of the Anthem.

Both my Angus guitars have been with me for well over 3 decades now; 1979 for the 6 string and 1983 for the 12 string... so, I am REALLY familiar with the sound of those guitars - and the changes after the installation were very obvious to my ears. I suspect that, if I had only had the guitar for a few years or less, I wouldn't have heard much difference at all.

don't have to tweak the Anthems very much at all to get a good sound from them, but, then again, I don't consider adjusting tone controls as "much" when it comes to tweaking! That's what they are there for, right?

sounds like the Anthem would be a good fit for you, but, have you considered just getting an outboard (stand alone) preamp and using what's already in the guitar? Seems that would be the easiest solution, if it would work...