[martingitdave]

I've done some live testing with the Lyric. It's a great option for me. Overall, the tone is full and balanced, and the impact on the guitar is minimal. But, there is a mid hump around 500Hz to 800 Hz that sounds best when cut out. I'm in the process of testing a second Lyric installation in my other dreadnought. Surprisingly, it actually sounds even better than the first install. The second guitar isn't quite as resonant, so I suppose that helps. It might not need any EQ. I'll have a better idea once I've dome more testing live with the second guitar.

Here is what I've learned:

I've come to the conclusion that this internal mic can be tricky. In some guitars, I think it works perfectly in the recommended position. I didn't have much luck with the recommended position. I've had success now with the two alternate locations (back of the bridge plate and along the bass x-brace.) What I found with the tone was consistent in the two guitars. When located next to the X brace, there is a better bass response and less high mids (nasal sound) than you get with the standard placement. That said, it still needs a little EQ for the high mids and low mids. I found that the further I move the Lyric away from the saddle, towards the back of the bridge plate, the high mids are mitigated. But, the low mids (distant sounding honk) remain. Also, I found it's sounds best towards the low e string for better bass. So, what does this all triangulate to? I'm locating the lyric on the back of the bridge plate behind the A and E strings. There, I get a good solid bass and very little of the harsh mids. However, there is still a slightly distant sounding honk in the tone. Again, that's the low mids between 500 Hz. and 800 Hz. When I cut that frequency out with a parametric EQ, by about 6 dB, it sounds like a mic in front of the guitar. Without the EQ, it sounds a little more like a mic inside of the guitar.

Next Steps:

I'm toying with the idea of getting another preamp that has at least two paramteric EQ bands. But, I'd prefer to keep things simple. For those using the Lyric successfully, which parametric preamp/DI (if any) are you using?