Bought a used 2001 guitar with LR Baggs I-Beam

[Doubleneck]

Was happy to see my new purchase had a pickup installed cause that was not mentioned. Looked inside and it had a 9 volt battery inside and put a mirror in last night and saw a I-Beam on the bridgeplate. Its active but no volume control, silver end pin preamp so it must have been a early model? Had a IMix once in a guitar but this is the first time for a straight I-Beam. Heard it had feedback issues, but this is a 1/2 size guitar so the small box volume may help there. Anybody still using these, haven't tested it much yet. Doubt this guitar will be used allot electrically but you never know, it is probably the best made guitar I have.

[simondylan]

Originally Posted by Doubleneck

Was happy to see my new purchase had a pickup installed cause that was not mentioned. Looked inside and it had a 9 volt battery inside and put a mirror in last night and saw a I-Beam on the bridgeplate. Its active but no volume control, silver end pin preamp so it must have been a early model? Had a IMix once in a guitar but this is the first time for a straight I-Beam. Heard it had feedback issues, but this is a 1/2 size guitar so the small box volume may help there. Anybody still using these, haven't tested it much yet. Doubt this guitar will be used allot electrically but you never know, it is probably the best made guitar I have.

Hey Doubleneck. I used an i-beam for years and for the most part I really liked it. I still have one in one guitar. It will feedback just like all SBT's but I never have had a feedback issue with it that I couldn't handle with the appropriate EQ, phase, and notch settings. I played it with and without a band, in all sorts of live situations. The most important thing I had to learn was what the common frequency my guitar fed back on. Then I just always would notch that one out, find the right phase, and then no problems. I still have a seagull with an i-mix but had the straight i-beam in 2 other guitars. Swapped them out eventually for Anthem's.

[Doubleneck]

I tried it for about a half hour today with my acoustic amp. Sounded very nice. I think it may be a good match for this guitar, it seemed bass heavy which is actually a little helpful because this is a very small 1/2 size guitar. Lower bout is just 12" and 3.25 inches deep. I really liked the total lack of a piezo bias, very natural sounding. The technology may have gotten better but its installed and works well. Like the 1000 hours of battery life, less worry about it going dead in a performance. Think I will use the don't fix what's not broken theme here.

[Doubleneck]

Working with the I-Beam, its seems to be boomy on the low end. Have to EQ out a lot of bass. Is this typical or I have read that a little different placement of the pickup can alter things quite a bit. Looks like the I-Beam came out in 2001 the same year the guitar was made. At the time it was probably the latest and greatest? Still sell it.

[cat_guitar]

Interesting to hear that the I-Beam can be fit into a 1/2 size guitar. I thought the size of the I-Beam would be a problem for small-bodied guitars.

If the sound is too boomy, maybe you can try using a sound hole plug. I just bought an I-Beam passive a few day ago and I found that a sound hole plug can be very useful, both tone-wise and feedback-wise.

BTW I can't hear the slightest bit of quack from my I-Beam even when I strum it very hard. It's just so natural.

Eddy

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Doubleneck

Working with the I-Beam, its seems to be boomy on the low end. Have to EQ out a lot of bass. Is this typical or I have read that a little different placement of the pickup can alter things quite a bit. Looks like the I-Beam came out in 2001 the same year the guitar was made. At the time it was probably the latest and greatest? Still sell it.

Hi Dn...

iBeam was the predecessor or forerunner of many of the SBT (Sound Board Transducers) of today. I don't know why they still sell it. They have their fans, and they did sound better (marginally) than under saddle pickups (less quack).

When properly situated, they can sound really nice. An installer actually said to me in a major botique guitar store in Denver (he was trying to get me to have one installed), "We only had to move this one 4 times to get it right…" He was talking about the in-store guitar for demoing them.

I asked how many times typically they needed to move them before customers were happy. He said 3-6 times. And that meant, installing it, plugging it in, going through setting the tone etc. and then deciding if it needed to be moved, loosening strings, reaching inside, moving it, re-sticking it, and about every other time replacing the tape. Then when they finally achieved what they wanted, glue it down (or at least mark the outline in pencil so if it fell off they could stick it back in the right place).

He admitted it usually meant the customer took it home and brought it back in after the next gig and they moved it again. I just didn't have 3-6 trips to Denver in mind when I was going to have a pickup installed.

Passively they sound horrible, and preamplified substantially better. I had a friend with them in 3 guitars, and our discovery process led us to presume the closer to dialed-in you got, the more feedback prone the guitar became.

Ultimately, we were really thankful to discover K&K pickups! Baggs really pushed the iBeam really hard (as they do all their pickups), and the ad copy looked great. There just seemed to be a lot of small print missing.

[Doubleneck]

Thanks Larry you tend to be right on with your comments. Mine is the active Ibeam but no volume control. Probably will live with it for a little while and see if I can use it effectively in our church situation without feedback. Nice thing is that guitar is drilled for a quarter inch plug so I can easily change things if I want.

Off topic to you, you have always been such an advocate of really good high end wood guitars, as totally worth it given the added dimension they give you. Totally have felt that with the Keller, its 1/2 size but just feels like you are on a different plain. Felt that with the McKnight's I played at his festival this year as well.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Doubleneck

…Felt that with the McKnight's I played at his festival this year as well.

Hi Dn...

Yes, wood turns my crank. And Tim builds awesome guitars!

[noledog]

I have one in my Goodall BTO CJ...very nice natural sound, good at low volumes, nice recording too, but with this guitar's high resonance, it has feedback issues at higher volumes for gigging, but like an above poster nicely detailed, good notch filtering and eq will handle that...I just prefer the ease of Tak electronics and my new M1A LR Baggs in my D18 for gigging.
Congrats & best wishes on your new guitar!

[Doubleneck]

Originally Posted by noledog

I have one in my Goodall BTO CJ...very nice natural sound, good at low volumes, nice recording too, but with this guitar's high resonance, it has feedback issues at higher volumes for gigging, but like an above poster nicely detailed, good notch filtering and eq will handle that...I just prefer the ease of Tak electronics and my new M1A LR Baggs in my D18 for gigging.
Congrats & best wishes on your new guitar!

Thanks given the small box of the 1/2 size guitar I am hoping the feedback tendency will be minimized. On vacation now will be interesting to put it into the mix at church. In front of my acoustic amp at home no feedback issue so we will see. Interesting, totally the opposite of my Lyric. That is a little bass weak, the I-Beam is a little bass heavy.

[david57strat]

First - congratulations on your guitar purchase, Doubleneck!

I've had an iBeam Active pickup installed in my Alvarez ADCK60 acoustic, since November of 2007. Prior to that, I had been using the stock System 500 II on-board system (which came with the guitar, purchased in April of 2001). This System 500 II sounded awful, by comparison. I just could not dial in a very sweet sound with that system - ever, and I tried countless different string types/gauges.

Finally, after about six years of playing through the stock pickup, I discovered that I was getting no pickup sound out of my low E string, and this was the catalyst in seeking out a better pickup system.

After the system was installed, I plugged my Alvarez directly into my little Roland AC-60 amp, and played (I'm primarily a fingerstyle player), and boy, it was just beautiful (all the better through a full system, with the rack toys)! I fell in love with the amplified sound, on my guitar, right away. I heard a natural openness - details out of the guitar that I had never heard before, plugged in - and I didn't even know, were possible out of a pickup system. My new pickup...well, no longer sounded "like a pickup".

Prior to buying this system, I had listened to some recording demos, and was favorably impressed with the tone, for the money (at the time), and was very excited about recording and playing live with it (and I was sick to death of the typical piezo quack sound of cheap acoustic guitar pickups).

I found that, at higher volumes (in a band setting, for instance), acoustic feedback tended to be a problem, which later resulted in me, first, using a sound hold cover; then also purchasing a dbx AFS224 (a 1-unit rack mountable notch filtering anti-feedback unit), to reduce the feedback problems. This has helped greatly, and has remained in my acoustic rack, since.

I've always had a tendency to use quite a bit of reverb (very long-tailed plate reverb-type settings), and this, of course, added to the feedback problem - especially playing in a band, at higher volumes, through a PA system. The use of a sound hole cover helped, but wasn't the complete fix. The dbx unit (and the EQ on the Presonus preamps) helped a great deal - but were NOT cheap.

I agree with the other poster - correct placement of the sensor (the little strip that mounts directly under the face of your guitar) is crucial, for the best sound, and yes - it can be trial and error before finding the best balance of sound, for your particular guitar. On the other hand, it's very sweet-sounding pickup, and you could do a whole lot worse.

My system had the single tiny little volume control, which I had to have mounted a little bit farther away from the sound hole, so I could still use a sound hole cover in the guitar, without problems. It became pretty much a set and forget it thing. All volume control is now handled through a pair of Presonus Studio Channel tube preamps, now. I love them!

It's been quite a while since I've priced out and compared acoustic guitar pickups, so I've no idea what's out there; but I'm pleased to say that I have the best recorded (plugged-in) sound that I've ever had out of any acoustic guitar I've ever owned, with this pickup, with very little EQ necessary for a nice, natural-sounding (as natural as natural can be, with effects lol) out of a plugged-in acoustic guitar.

[Doubleneck]

I have played with the I-Beam enough now to know the bass response is just too much, especially the low E string. It seems proper placement of this pickup angles it away from the bass strings and not parallel to the saddle. I posted on the LR Baggs Forum and the tech there immediately answered my question and is sending me free tape to help in my moving it. Very nice customer service given its a used 13 year old guitar. This weekend I will get some mirrors in place to see how much room I have to work with. With a 1/2 size guitar there may not be enough room to make the adjustment I need? I enjoy being my own tech, love the challenge. If it's a bust, my first K&K may be in my future.

[pf400]

Had an I-Beam system installed in my Taylor 514 a couple of years ago. Nice to have the volume control so handy, as I need to turn it up a bit when changing between flatpicking and fingerpicking. I get a unique tone, very sweet and deep. Might be the age of the cedar top (18 years). I really had to try a lot of amps before finding two that brought out the best of the guitar-- a Roland keyboard amp and a Crate 30 watter. Guitar is for sale BTW, although not listed anywhere, as I'm preferring nylon string now with an occasional sitdown with my Strat.

[Doubleneck]

My Zoom A3 seemed to tame the I-Beam pretty well. Built two patches one with the Graphic EQ and one with their Para-EQ. The Para-EQ had two sparate bands which worked well. Other effects were the guitar model and a little reverb. Church tomorrow will be the test.

[televisual]

Would love to hear your results from church Doubleneck; currently I have an Ibeam in an Advanced Jumbo and have been eye-balling a Zoom A3...