[martingitdave]

I am absolutely at the end of my rope with pickups for my D-28 Marquis. I’ve tried everything on the market except Dazzo, which I have no experience with. I can’t yet get a full/flat frequency response from any pickup in this guitar. It’s too loud and too resonant. I use this dreadnought for folk and bluegrass music. I’m not rocking out in bars, so feedback rejection is further down the list of “must haves” than full natural sound.

So, I decided to try a Hail Mary pass and install a Lyric in this guitar. I’ve tried the LR Baggs Lyric microphone twice on previous guitars I’ve owned. I never got a usable tone out of it. It was always boxy and “honk-y” sounding.

This time, before I installed, I called and spoke with the CS rep at LR Baggs. He gave some great suggestions and provided a diagram with recommendations for an alternate location on the bridge plate along the bass side X brace, and back slightly from the saddle line.

I’m writing this in utter disbelief. I fulled expected this to fail miserably, just like the last two times.

But, instead, I can report that it sounds absolutely excellent. Full stop.

The downside is that since I am off the direct saddle line and on the side of the bridge plate, it will have less gain before feedback. But, that’s not my concern. In testing at home, I couldn’t get it to feedback. I won’t know until I play a gig.

After watching the “produced” Lyric videos in frustration for years, and advising against it based on my past experiences, I can now say that I am getting excellent tone STRAIGHT IN with FLAT EQ from the Lyric. It can be improved further with an 8dB mid cut between 600 and 700 Hz. I can leave the rest flat. And that mid cut isn’t even a necessity.

Dumbfounded.