[jseth]

Funny, I don't experience much, if any, noise from handling either my 6 or 12 string acoustics that have the SL installed...

Turning the screw clockwise increases the True-Mic's presence in the mix, and, as someone stated, that tiny screw is VERY sensitive. Took me quite a while to get the sound I wanted with that control.

In the SL (contrary to one reply), the UST portion handles ONLY the low freq's and there's no way to change that... the True-Mic handles everything above the lows, but it isn't a "hard-shelf" control, so there is a bit of overlap. I find that I prefer MORE of the UST than less, with both of my guitars, but as the years have gone by, I've dialed in a bit more of the True-Mic.

One important thing to do is to SET THE BALANCE WITH THE SYSTEM THROUGH WHICH YOU WILL PLAY THE MOST... "one size" is NOT going to fit all, with this pickup. As I play primarily through my Bose L1 Model II, I have mine set for that unit; I'm fortunate that the same setting sounds equally good with my AER Compact 60 as well.

I would suggest that you work with the pickup without anything in the chain adjusted anywhere from "flat"... actually, it would be best to set the thing WITHOUT ANYTHING in the signal chain that is an "addition". The Anthem IS a pre-amped signal, so using outboard pre-amps is both redundant and a bit tricky to configure for the sound you want.

Once you have the pickup sounding good to you (or as good as you can get it), then start tweaking the various controls on the PARA DI to finish... be sure to set your gain stages correctly - google "gain staging" and check it out, if you aren't certain - and then set that gain on the first piece of equipment the signal encounters, then do each additional "downstream" piece of gear. I've noticed that my Anthems sound weak, thin and brittle when I've plugged into others' systems and not had the input gain adjusted to suit the Anthem.

Another thing to do is do all of these adjustments WITHOUT any FX in the mix... add them later, once you get everything dialed in.

Remember, EVERYTHING you do to that signal is going change the output sound; if you don't start "from square one" with controls set flat, you won't know what is doing what, exactly.

I've been very happy with the "stage sound" from the Anthem SL for 7 or 8 years now; I'm sure that you will find a great tone from yours with some work.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes...