Three Cheers for the Anthem!

[Vancebo]

I am what you would say is in between guitars. I only keep one or two really nice guitars at a time then I have what most people would call a "beater" guitar. My beater guitar in this case is a Taylor 310 that I use at school when I am teaching music. It is an okay sounding guitar, nothing special. It didn't have a pickup in it and I happen to have 3 sitting around not being used. I had a Lyric, a full version Anthem and a DTAR dual source. All were previously installed in other guitars. I thought it was time to put a pickup in this guitar.

First I tried the Lyric. I tried 4 different placements. The best was the original prescribed placement. It had the dreaded low mid honk. End result, I pulled it out again and replaced it with the Anthem. Got brave and drilled the holes myself. Lets just say, I never needed to try the DTAR.

The Anthem sounded pretty fantastic. I set the mic adjustment on full and EQ set flat it was a great sound. Added the BAGGS Session and it was even better. A couple of minor EQ tweaks on the amp even better yet. I remember having this installed on a prior guitar and removed it because the luthier doing the install couldn't get the string balance right. It always had a boomy A string and a soft high E string. Anyway, with all of the experiences I have had with many different pickups, this was the first I remember that sounded good set flat. I was always somewhat jealous of you who claimed they could do just that. Now for once I can. Woo Hoo!

I wonder how many of you have great Anthem stories? Or maybe you gave up on the Anthem for some reason like I once did. Tell me. At some point I am going to be deciding on a new main axe. Will I want to go this route again?

[Petty1818]

I tried the Anthem in a Breedlove a few months ago and was very impressed. At first I thought it was the Lyric but I had mixed up the colour of the volume control. I found the Anthem to be very natural and full. It really is a fantastic pickup. The only reason why I haven't installed it is because I don't want the Element under my saddle. I know it's minor but it does impact the unplugged tone a bit. I also find that you can still hear a lot of the piezo tone when plugged in, even with the mic turned all the way up.

I installed the Lyric in my Taylor for fun and really, really like it. It has its downsides (not as full as I would like, a bit of hiss) but it's very fun to play. I am in the process of looking for another UST to pair with it. I just find the full eq range Lyric to sound a bit better than the Anthem's tru-mic version which is tweaked a bit to get certain frequencies.

[Vancebo]

I have been using the Lyric since day one. I have learned to use it in spite of the drawbacks of lack of a powerful bass or a low mid honk. In this guitar, which is not anything special, I get that nice larger-than-life bass and I don't care if I am losing something in the acoustic tone. This time I am not noticing it like a may have perceived it in the last install. Normally I would not want to put a UST made out of soft material in my guitar either. This time it just works. The Session helps things a bit as well.

[guitaniac]

I'm a fan of the Anthem (Anthem SL, in my case) also, having used it in four of my own guitars (concert, OM, grand concert and dread body styles). I've also installed the pickup in two of a friend's guitars, a Martin D35 and a beautiful '70s Guild Jumbo. In my observation, it tends to require less EQ assistance with the larger guitars.

[jseth]

I'm a big fan of the Anthem SL... I have it in both my Mark Angus 6 and 12 string guitars; they are the ones I designate as my "stage" guitars...

The Anthem is a lot more touch sensitive and dynamic than the previous UST (Matrix Natural?) I had in the same guitars... finding the balance between the True-Mic and the Element is crucial to the overall sound of that pickup... and I don't think it's a "One size fits all" type of balance, either... I probably run 60-40% (Mic > UST) on the 6 string and 50-50 on the 12 string... works very well for me.

The one thing I did not like about the Anthem was that I felt it changed the tone and volume of my guitars, mostly on my 6 string Mark Angus F-40 which I have played for the past 30+ years professionally... Felt like I lost volume and the tonal spectrum was shifted. For that reason alone, I would hesitate to recommend it to anyone who just wanted a "casual" pickup in their acoustic; I WOULD recommend it to someone who was going to be amplifying their guitar A LOT...

The Anthem is about the best "plug in and play" pickup I've seen... and heard... and played...

[Petty1818]

jseth, that's a good point. I play plugged in a lot but my gig guitar is also my main acoustic. If I had a "stage" guitar then the Anthem would have been installed by now. I just don't like the Element and the impact it can have on the unplugged tone. I am a bit surprised that Lr Baggs have not redesigned it by now.

I have used Fishman Matrix pickups in guitars over the years and never really heard any tonal change once installed. I don't love the Matrix by any means but I always found it to have a more pleasing tone than the Element. That's probably my only other minor complaint with the Anthem. You can still hear that Element tone, which distracts from the natural tone of the tru-mic.