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Old 04-23-2015, 07:46 AM
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Old 04-23-2015, 07:51 AM
kydave kydave is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Randers View Post
Hey everyone, I was just wondering if anybody had experience taking out an L.R. Baggs pickup. It came with my J-45 and to be honest, i've plugged it in probably twice in the 8 years that I have owned it. Plus I feel like it just adds weight to the guitar.

For those who have had it taken out, or took it out themselves, how long did it take you to do? It does not seem too complicated.

Cheers!
Baggs makes a lot of different pickups.

Is yours a UST?

An LB6 (saddle replacement)?

Ibeam (soundboard contact)?

Lyric (internal mic)?
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Old 04-23-2015, 07:53 AM
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Originally Posted by kydave View Post
Baggs makes a lot of different pickups.

Is yours a UST?

An LB6 (saddle replacement)?

Ibeam (soundboard contact)?

Lyric (internal mic)?
Sorry about the Dave, should have probably clarified. It is the Element Active Acoustic Pickup System.
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Old 04-23-2015, 08:44 AM
jimmy bookout jimmy bookout is offline
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It's easy. Take the strings off the guitar first.
Unscrew the strap button and use a 1/2" wrench to take the nut off so you can remove the endpin jack. You will need to reach inside the guitar and disconnect all the wires (pickup, battery, volume control) from their wire clips (those are little foam backed clips that keep the wires from vibrating against the top/back/sides). You can just pull the pickup itself out from under the saddle through the sound hole. The volume control is held on with double sided tape, gently rock it back and forth and it will come loose. The battery pack is held on with Velcro so that's easy. Obviously, the whole thing is wired together so it comes out together.

Once the pickup is removed, you will have two things to deal with. The big thing is that you will almost definitely need to shim your saddle (or have a new saddle made) as the saddle will be too low now (assuming your action was correct with the Element in there). Also, you have a large hole in the endblock now (where the endpin was), Stewmac offers endpins that work in guitars with removed pickups, like this:
http://www.stewmac.com/Hardware_and_...ak_Endpin.html

Removing all of this stuff is literally a 4 minute job, if that.

Jimmy
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Last edited by jimmy bookout; 04-23-2015 at 12:16 PM.
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Old 04-23-2015, 08:50 AM
llew llew is offline
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Bob Colosi also has endpin replacements. I did the same thing with a J-45 Standard and it made a noticeable difference to me tone wise. Nothing between the bottom of the saddle and the top of the guitar. Plus if the need arises at a later date you could always have a bridge plate pickup installed. Either active like the Baggs Lyric or passive like K&K mini or McIntyre Feather?
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Old 04-23-2015, 08:53 AM
Gypsyblue Gypsyblue is offline
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I just removed the Baggs UST from my Seagull. It's easy.

A few years back I removed the factory installed UST from my '95 Taylor 710B. The B stands for Brazilian.

In both cases it was easy. Installing a full size Colosi bone saddle in my Taylor and a Tusq saddle in my Seagull took some time (a couple of hours) but wasn't THAT difficult.

Are you good with tools and can you do precise and careful work?

If you can then don't shim the old one.

If you want to do it yourself and keep it easy get a new Tusq saddle and fit it tightly.

Or get a bone saddle from Bob Colosi and fit it tightly and install it.

Your guitar will sound better (deeper, more resonant - just better) with a saddle that is not shimmed.

I'd go with bone first and Tusq second but either will make your guitar sound better than shimming your old saddle.
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Last edited by Gypsyblue; 04-23-2015 at 09:02 AM.
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Old 04-23-2015, 09:18 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Randers View Post
Hey everyone, I was just wondering if anybody had experience taking out an L.R. Baggs pickup. It came with my J-45 and to be honest, i've plugged it in probably twice in the 8 years that I have owned it. Plus I feel like it just adds weight to the guitar.

For those who have had it taken out, or took it out themselves, how long did it take you to do? It does not seem too complicated.

Cheers!
I've pulled the Element out of two of my Gibsons. The procedure literally takes 10 minutes and is very intuitive.

Take off the strings, pull the saddle out and feed the element through the hole into the guitar. Detach all the velcro parts and the wire retainers, then unscrew the endpin jack and push it into the guitar body. You can then take it all out of the soundhole as one connected unit. I've sold mine here and on eBay for about $80 each.
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Old 04-23-2015, 09:50 AM
RustyAxe RustyAxe is offline
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The weight it adds is negligible. The piezo ribbon and cables might be couple of grams. The preamp is on the end pin jack, and the battery is on the neck block ... both are quite light and mounted in relatively non-resonant locations. If you don't use it plugged in, just omit the battery (which is by far the heaviest component).

At the very least you'll have to shim or replace the saddle. Of course, this involves a quick set up to get it right.
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  #9  
Old 04-23-2015, 12:08 PM
Wade Hampton Wade Hampton is offline
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Just for what it's worth, my experience with the LR Baggs Element is that it doesn't have enough mass to impede the acoustic tone of the guitar. This isn't true of all undersaddle pickups, or even all LR Baggs pickups, but it's true of the Element. If you're contemplating taking it out for acoustic tonal reasons alone, I don't think you'll notice much if any change in the sound.

Naturally, your mileage may vary, and maybe the Element in your guitar was part of their special run of depleted uranium "Glow In The Dark" undersaddle pickups. That would have a tonal impact on the acoustic sound, if it existed.

But since I just made that up, I seriously doubt that it does.

Anyway, if you want to take it out, take it out. But I don't think there'll be much if any discernible tonal difference if you do.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller
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Old 04-23-2015, 12:50 PM
kydave kydave is offline
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Have a new bone saddle prepared, measure to be the same height as the combination of UST and existing saddle are (unless you intend to raise or lower the action).

Have a large hole replacement endpin at hand OR (if you have one) a 1/4" jack end pin without the preamp attached.

Yank existing stuff out, toss, give away or save...

Put in new saddle and endpin.

Play.

You quite possibly will hear a slight improvement in your acoustic sound.
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  #11  
Old 04-23-2015, 01:46 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gypsyblue View Post
get a new Tusq saddle and fit it tightly. Or get a bone saddle from Bob Colosi and fit it tightly and install it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jimmy bookout View Post
The big thing is that you will almost definitely need to shim your saddle

I found that when I pulled the Element's UST element from the saddle slot, the action was perfect. Don't automatically replace the saddle without seeing how it responds to the slightly deeper saddle slot!
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Old 04-23-2015, 01:52 PM
kydave kydave is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Willie Voltaire View Post
I found that when I pulled the Element's UST element from the saddle slot, the action was perfect. Don't automatically replace the saddle without seeing how it responds to the slightly deeper saddle slot!
Your action must have been pretty bad prior!

That is a big jump - the difference with UST in place or not.
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  #13  
Old 04-23-2015, 01:55 PM
Gypsyblue Gypsyblue is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kydave View Post
Your action must have been pretty bad prior!

That is a big jump - the difference with UST in place or not.
That's what I was thinking.

The action must have been high to very high and the guitar must play more easily now.

Long as it doesn't buzz when you do some hard playing or hard strumming I guess all I can say is: CONGRATS!
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Taylor 512...Taylor 710B...Blueridge BR163...Blueridge BR183a...all with K&K's & used w/RedEye preamps

Seagull CW w/Baggs M1 pickup...National Vintage Steel Tricone...SWR California Blonde Amp
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