Anthem pickup question
 

Hi All,
I got my X20 with an Anthem pickup installed last week. I love the guitar. It feels and sounds great. I'm not sure I'm as enthusiastic about the pickup. I find the audio output to be very low. I took it to an open mic yesterday and we had to put it through a pedal booster to hear it. At that time we did set up the blended mic level and it did sound real good. My question is this.... is this normal for the Anthem pickup to have a very low output level? Or might there be a problem with the preamp.

Dan

I installed an Anthem in my X20. I have no problem with the output. Make sure you have the volume adjustment on the Anthem high enough. Try playing directly into a Fishman Loudbox or similar type amp and see if you have the same problem.

I'm running the anthem with the volume full up. I tried it in a 15W Fender acoustic amp with same results. I had to turn the amp full up to hear it and it wasn't really loud.

Hey Dan,

Before I start answering, can you please tell me which version of the Anthem you have. Full Anthem or Anthem SL?

Baggs has great phone tech support. It might be as simple as needing a new battery but they will walk you through figuring it out.

It's the full anthem

You’ve checked your cord(s) and changed the battery?

Hey Danz,

No. That is not normal. The full anthem has a high output. I’ve used the anthem in six or seven different guitars, and never once had one that needed any kind of boost. Quite the opposite. I generally have to keep the overall volume low, or it winds up being very loud.
If you’ve checked everything else in your signal chain, I would suspect the preamp or it’s wiring is the culprit. Give Baggs a call. They’re great to deal with, and they will help you rectify the issue.

Mark

Battery is good. I just pulled it out and tested it. Different cords as well. I'm suspecting the preamp. The pickups seem to work as they should. When going through the booster, I dialed in the mic level to find its sweet spot and it's sounds great.

Dan

Ok Dan,

The Anthem has been a hot topic for me the last few months. I emailed Baggs tech support quite some time ago about the same volume issue your having. I have an Anthem SL equipped Gibson, and Full Anthem equipped Emerald X30. These 2 guitars alone have quite a different output and Baggs support told me that the output of the Anthem is generally considered a low output pickup anyways, they claim that every guitar will be different and mentioned factors like size of the body, type of bracing, etc that all will have an affect on the Anthem output. They said that if I'm hearing any output at all than it is working fine but I was welcome to send it back even though they figured there was nothing wrong with it.

This response left me feeling uneasy about the pickup. I double checked every component myself and never found any issues so I opted not to send it back. I left the Anthem SL in my Gibson as I'm going to be selling that guitar to fund the X20 I just ordered but I ripped the full Anthem system out of the X30 as I was sure it was negatively impacting the unplugged tone as well. I removed the element UST first, did some playing, removed the preamp, did some playing, and removed the mic. To my surprise, the component that was affecting the unplugged tone the most was the mic. It is tiny and only weighs a couple ounces but man does it ever interfere with the soundboard on the Emerald.

I won't be putting it back in unfortunately. I know it's a popular system, a lot of people seem to love it, but for me I can't really name anything I like about it (except maybe the 170hrs of battery life). Every time I went to play plugged in I found myself messing with EQ and effects and that too became annoying. Hope this info helps you somehow!

Thanks for that info Guitarluva. I talked to the tech at the guitar shop that I frequent. He didn't think that the output should be that low. When I talked to LR Baggs, they also told me that the Anthem has a lower output than an Element pickup but he didn't think that it should be so low that a booster pedal was needed. My X20 does sound real good unplugged and the Anthem did sound good going through the booster pedal. I'll let you know if I resolve this. If not resolved, I may end up changing it out too.

Dan

Thanks as well Dan. I like hearing other peoples experiences with pickups. Every guitar seems to respond differently to each pickup system and unfortunately there's no perfect solution yet. Maybe one day there will be!

Today I went to my local guitar shop and plugged a Gibson that had an Anthem pickup into the same amp that I have. It was considerably louder than mine.
Another thing I noticed is when I had my X20 plugged in at home, I put my hand inside and as I touched some of the wiring I was getting a lot of loud crackling noise. I think I'm going to take it into the guitar tech at the guitar shop and get him to check it all out.
I love the guitar more and more every time I pick it up. It sounds awesome unplugged and it sounds good plugged in through a booster pedal. I haven't touched my Martin since it came lol.

I have a Gibson in the same boat as your Martin which is why I'll be selling it eventually. My Emerald does not miss the Anthem though and neither do I.