LR Baggs M1A - Deactivate?

[TheTravis]

Hello all! I have a question I was hoping for some insight on. I have a Takamine acoustic guitar with broken electronics, and rather than try to fix/replace them I decided to put an LR Baggs M1A soundhole pickup in it. I was able to run the pickup to the onboard preamp easily enough, so I can use the EQ and everything on the guitar just fine, and the sound that that combination gives me is fantastic.

The problem is that, since this is an active pickup and it is constantly "plugged in" (to the preamp) in never turns off and the battery drains completely in a few weeks. I want to know if anyone knows of a reasonable way to turn off or deactivate the M1A when it's not in use without taking the strings off to unplug it. I've heard of people running these pickups to onboard preamps, so I feel like this must be possible, but I don't know how to do it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[lschwart]

If you've got a preamp in the guitar already and you can hook up an M1a to it, why not just use a passive M1 instead?

Louis

[RustyAxe]

Don't use the Tak preamp at all ... the M1A already has a preamp. You can unplug the endpin cable at the Tak preamp and plug into the M1A. Same connector, and works fine. I did that just that with my 1984 EF349.

[lschwart]

Originally Posted by RustyAxe

Don't use the Tak preamp at all ... the M1A already has a preamp. You can unplug the endpin cable at the Tak preamp and plug into the M1A. Same connector, and works fine. I did that just that with my 1984 EF349.

Even better!

Louis

[Neon Soul]

If you can, sell or return the M1a and put the money towards a Takamine Triax pickup.

Same design as the Baggs, and designed by them, but with an added passive/active switch that is meant for use with the Takamine preamp.