[Washburn100]

Let me start by saying that I was having issues with the factory installed Fishman MXT that the guitar came with. The high E,B and partially the G were much quieter then the D, Low E and A stings. It was not a lot but enough to bother me and I was going to send it to a factory dealer to look at. I have changed the strings several times and inspected the saddle and fit and it seemed fine. Bottom of the saddle was flat and the slot looked good. The Fishman UST had a funny look to the end like it may have been pinched at some point and I suspected this was the problem.

Anyway, I had been reading up on the Anthem and Anthem SL on this forum and others, and decided I wanted one of these especially if I had to get work done on the new guitar.

My local L&M only stocked the full Anthem so I threw caution to the wind and bought it. I spent today installing it. I am no luthier, but have been around guitars for a lot of years and always have done my own setups and minor maintenance. I also have some electronics experience.

So let me say the installation went flawlessly and I was able to use the stock martin battery compartment and also installed the Anthem 1/4" jack in it as well. No modifications were required to the guitar at all. I was concerned about the larger preamp/control unit, but it fits on the soundhole perfectly.

The only issue is the bridge plate was too narrow to install the mic on it either in front or behind the pins. I put the mic directly on the top up against the bridge plate towards the soundhole.

After I plugged it in and messed with the mic mix a bit, all I can say is I am totally blown away with the quality of the sound. Playing through a Bose S1 speaker, as I turned up the volume, the sound of the guitar literally increased but to me sounded almost identical to the unplugged sound. It is by far superior to the factory Fishman MXT pickup and I also tried my Taylor 224CE-K with the ESP2 electronics as well as my Gibson J35 with LR Baggs VTC pickup for comparison. The Anthem in the Martin SC13-E was vastly superior to both.

The Anthem comes close to the sound of my guitar in front of a condenser mic.

I know others were concerned about how the Anthem would install in an SC13-E and I can confirm it went extremely well. The only loss is the soundhole tuner which was a poor tuner at best, full of lag and not very sensitive. I will not miss it.