* I bought my DeArmond Tone Boss a few months back to replace the M80 I had in my D18 I sold during the shutdown... I love it! It does not have the percussive aspect I liked in the M80, but it still sounds very sweet.
Though passive and has a volume wheel, the Tone Boss has enough power to the signal going direct into my Loudbox Performer and needs no external EQing or preamp, thus no battery! This won't replace my beloved Taks, but I do enjoy the punchiness of this pickup on the top end and fingerstyle sounds lovely on it too. So that's my take on this lil' mag and if you run it through a FERE, I'd like to hear your thoughts.
* Here's a lil' vid I recorded at a gig to see for myself how it sounded live. I think it needs some top end tweaking or maybe it's just my iPhone 11 because that's all I used to record with. My D18 has Ernie Ball 80/20 mediums and both guitar and vox are direct to my Loudbox Performer with a touch of the amp's onboard delay. Not great, but usable for some gigs.