LR Baggs - Anthem

[mutley2209]

Has anyone used the Anthem SL version? It doesn't come with a pre-amp only volume control so both the mic and bridge pickup are set up before hand but i'm not sure what the balance between them is

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by Joseph Hanna

The Anthem has (for all intents and purposes) a mic attached to the guitar. It'll pick up taps

Surprisingly, it picks them up less than you'd expect. In the Anthem's I've had, a K&K picks up body sound like tapping more than the Anthem, and the Anthem does act at all like most mics. I may have I demo'd this lack of body sound in my AG review, I forget. Depending on your style, it would be a good thing or bad.

Originally Posted by mutley2209

Has anyone used the Anthem SL version? It doesn't come with a pre-amp only volume control so both the mic and bridge pickup are set up before hand but i'm not sure what the balance between them is

This has been discussed a ton here, a search should turn up lots of details. There is a preamp in the SL, with a volume control. There is a recessed control that adjusts the level of the mic (think of it like a tweeter level adjustment on a speaker). There is no option to take the mic completely out of the picture, as there is on the full Anthem. That is the main difference.

[ccarey]

Yeah it's kind of a bummer.

The full Anthem lets you blend all the way to the Element should you need.

Interestingly... When you blend all the way to the Mic, some of the Element still remains for "Low End Reinforcement" as Baggs puts it.

There is a small knob to set the Max Gain of the Mic which is accessible with a small phillips screwdriver.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by ccarey

The Anthem SL has 2 knobs (unlike the Element which has only one).

One controls the overall volume, the other controls the blend of the 2 pickups.

The pricier Anthem version has an additional gain knob for the mic which must be turned with a small phillips screwdriver. This sets the max gain for the mic when using the blend knob.

On the SL, the max gain is pre-determined but you can still blend the pickups.

You can blend it all the way to the Element, but you can't blend it all the way to the mic. Some of the Element will still remain for "low end reinforcement" as Baggs puts it.

Almost, but backwards :-)

On the full anthem, you can control the level of the mic with a set screw. The mic handles frequencies above 250Hz, the Element below, so this control acts more like a tone control - think of it as a tweeterlevel control on a speaker. You can also control the blend between the output of the crossover (UST+Mic) and the UST only. (This is the part that confuses people, because it's the same UST - it's easier to think of it as if you have two pickups - a MIC/UST pair and another UST)

On the SL, there is no way to control the blend, you always have the UST handling the lows and the mic handling the highs, and you have the same set screw for adjusting the level of the mic.

The difference between the SL and Anthem is that you can't blend it all the way to the Element-only. Neither system allows you to use mic-only.

[ccarey]

Yeah whoops... realized that after I replied then fixed it.

You're right about that for sure

I have the Stage Pro and used to have the regular "full Anthem," never had the SL so I was talking out of my @$$ a bit.

[ccarey]

Also Interestingly...

On the Stage Pro there is no set screw for the mic (at least that I can see).

And the pre seems to sound different than the regular Anthem pre I had before (never touched the UST or the Mic, just swapped pre's).

But I still can blend all the way to the Element. It's weird that you can't do that on the SL.

[guitaniac]

Originally Posted by ccarey

Also Interestingly...

On the Stage Pro there is no set screw for the mic (at least that I can see).

According to the Stagepro Anthem user guide, the screw which adjusts the mic level "is under the lid of the battery drawer".