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  #1  
Old 05-13-2023, 12:18 PM
SpruceTop SpruceTop is offline
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Default LR Baggs HiFi In A Larrivee D-40R Blue Grass JCL Special--An Installation Progression

Thanks for looking in, Folks!

-----

The First Demo has arrived:

Here's my heavy-handed rhythm guitar demo of the beginning of The Small Faces hit "Itchycoo Park" from 1967. I'm not very happy with what I'm hearing. I'm playing the song in the Key of G as opposed to the Key of A in the original as I wanted to bring more of the bass strings into play. The strings are moving in blurry arcs. DIRECT-TO-COMPUTER, ALL FLAT EQ (LR Baggs HiFi Tone Wheel at its middle-position Detent), NO EFFECTS, NO MICROPHONES, NO SLEIGHT-Of-HAND ANYWHERE IN RECORDING! Your Comments Are Welcome!



Today, I made a second demo:

This second demo was made after checking my initial installation of the LR Baggs HiFi. The first half of the demo is moderately-aggressive flat pick strumming with a Guitar Moose .65 mm Classic Pick. The first section of the demo is with the flat pick and with the HIfi Tone Wheel at its Detent position and the second section is with the Tone Wheel at its full Treble position. The second half of the demo is fingerpicking, the first section is with the Tone Wheel at its Detent position and the second part is with it at its full Treble position.



Another fingerpicked LR Baggs/Larrivee D40R Blue Grass JCL Special demo. This time the track is the vocal backing for a verse of "Baby Let Me Follow You Down" with the LR Baggs HiFi Tone Wheel at Detent. DIRECT-TO-COMPUTER, FLAT EQ, No Effects:

__________________
Martin HD-28 Sunburst/Trance M-VT Phantom
Martin D-18/UltraTonic
Adamas I 2087GT-8
Ovation Custom Legend LX
Guild F-212XL STD
Huss & Dalton TD-R
Taylor 717e
Taylor 618e
Taylor 614ce
Larrivee D-50M/HiFi
Larrivee D-40R Blue Grass Special/HiFi
Larrivee D-40R Sunburst
Larrivee C-03R TE/Trance M-VT Phantom
RainSong BI-DR1000N2
Emerald X20
Yamaha FGX5
Republic Duolian/Schatten NR-2

Last edited by SpruceTop; 05-30-2023 at 04:13 AM.
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  #2  
Old 05-13-2023, 01:19 PM
SpruceTop SpruceTop is offline
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After some bashing and crashing of the new strings and my hands warming up, I'm starting to like the LR Baggs HiFi. More to come ...
__________________
Martin HD-28 Sunburst/Trance M-VT Phantom
Martin D-18/UltraTonic
Adamas I 2087GT-8
Ovation Custom Legend LX
Guild F-212XL STD
Huss & Dalton TD-R
Taylor 717e
Taylor 618e
Taylor 614ce
Larrivee D-50M/HiFi
Larrivee D-40R Blue Grass Special/HiFi
Larrivee D-40R Sunburst
Larrivee C-03R TE/Trance M-VT Phantom
RainSong BI-DR1000N2
Emerald X20
Yamaha FGX5
Republic Duolian/Schatten NR-2

Last edited by SpruceTop; 05-13-2023 at 01:38 PM.
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  #3  
Old 05-13-2023, 01:38 PM
mondoslug mondoslug is offline
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Clips or it didn’t happen.

JK! Looking forward to them though!
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  #4  
Old 05-13-2023, 02:46 PM
BlueStarfish BlueStarfish is offline
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Hi SpruceTop,

Looking forward to hearing more about it!

I’ve seen lots of comments about how this pickup sounds muffled (no treble) when the tone wheel is at the center detente. Just a thought … my observation is majority of tone wheels are roll-off only, no boost. So when they are at 50%, that means 50% roll-off, not flat. Flat is actually rolled all the way to one side, not in the center. Wondering if the HiFi works the same way? If so it would make sense that it sounds muffled with the tone wheel in the center … it means you’re putting a pretty hard cut on the trebles.
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Old 05-13-2023, 02:51 PM
BillyH BillyH is offline
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Comparison to the Trance?

Billy
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  #6  
Old 05-13-2023, 03:13 PM
SpruceTop SpruceTop is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BillyH View Post
Comparison to the Trance?

Billy
Hi Billy, I'll have a shootout soon. My initial audio impression of the LR Baggs HiFi is improving and I'm looking forward to a Trance Amulet vs. LR Baggs HiFi showdown just as much as you are Pardner!
__________________
Martin HD-28 Sunburst/Trance M-VT Phantom
Martin D-18/UltraTonic
Adamas I 2087GT-8
Ovation Custom Legend LX
Guild F-212XL STD
Huss & Dalton TD-R
Taylor 717e
Taylor 618e
Taylor 614ce
Larrivee D-50M/HiFi
Larrivee D-40R Blue Grass Special/HiFi
Larrivee D-40R Sunburst
Larrivee C-03R TE/Trance M-VT Phantom
RainSong BI-DR1000N2
Emerald X20
Yamaha FGX5
Republic Duolian/Schatten NR-2

Last edited by SpruceTop; 05-13-2023 at 03:30 PM.
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  #7  
Old 05-13-2023, 03:38 PM
SpruceTop SpruceTop is offline
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In case you missed its addition to my OP, The First Demo has arrived:

Here's my heavy-handed rhythm guitar demo of the beginning of The Small Faces hit "Itchycoo Park" from 1967. I'm playing the song in the Key of G as opposed to the Key of A in the original as I wanted to bring more of the bass strings into play. The strings are moving in blurry 1/32nd-inch arcs on either side of zero (at rest). DIRECT-TO-COMPUTER, ALL FLAT EQ (LR Baggs HiFi Tone Wheel at its middle-position Detent), NO EFFECTS, NO MICROPHONES, NO SLEIGHT-Of-HAND ANYWHERE IN RECORDING! Your Comments Are Welcome!

__________________
Martin HD-28 Sunburst/Trance M-VT Phantom
Martin D-18/UltraTonic
Adamas I 2087GT-8
Ovation Custom Legend LX
Guild F-212XL STD
Huss & Dalton TD-R
Taylor 717e
Taylor 618e
Taylor 614ce
Larrivee D-50M/HiFi
Larrivee D-40R Blue Grass Special/HiFi
Larrivee D-40R Sunburst
Larrivee C-03R TE/Trance M-VT Phantom
RainSong BI-DR1000N2
Emerald X20
Yamaha FGX5
Republic Duolian/Schatten NR-2

Last edited by SpruceTop; 05-14-2023 at 06:10 AM.
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  #8  
Old 05-13-2023, 05:42 PM
martingitdave martingitdave is offline
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On no! Not only is it not glued in, but you might like it! How the heck am I going to avoid it now!? [emoji23]
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  #9  
Old 05-13-2023, 06:16 PM
Joe.Manganese Joe.Manganese is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SpruceTop View Post
In case you missed its addition to my OP, The First Demo has arrived:

Here's my heavy-handed rhythm guitar demo of the beginning of The Small Faces hit "Itchycoo Park" from 1967. The strings are moving in 1/32nd-inch arcs on either side of zero (at rest). DIRECT-TO-COMPUTER, ALL FLAT EQ (LR Baggs HiFi Tone Wheel at its middle-position Detent), NO EFFECTS, NO MICROPHONES, NO SLEIGHT-Of-HAND ANYWHERE IN RECORDING! Your Comments Are Welcome!


The sound to me is muddy. Any 30 years old fishman equipped guitar can sound better than that. Eventually adding a Bodyrez. On the lr baggs website there is the explanation why you are experiencing lack of high frequencies, see the troubleshooting.
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  #10  
Old 05-14-2023, 06:03 AM
SpruceTop SpruceTop is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe.Manganese View Post
The sound to me is muddy. Any 30 years old fishman equipped guitar can sound better than that. Eventually adding a Bodyrez. On the lr baggs website there is the explanation why you are experiencing lack of high frequencies, see the troubleshooting.
Thanks, Joe. I'll check out the HiFi troubleshooting section on LR Baggs's website.

The Tone Wheel is in its Detent position which rolls off some of the treble content in the signal. This is similar to Trance's Tone Wheel which does the same thing but may even have a bit of a treble boost in its circuit when the Tone Wheel is all the way to the treble-end of its range. Both systems pick up that typical steel-string-ring brashness in their content which can be heard when playing the guitars acoustically. The Trance system when wide-open at its treble end greatly demos the steel-string-ring and that's why I want to make some more Trance/Martin HD-28 demos with the Trance's Tone Wheel more toward the bass end where all frequencies fall into place and that steel-string-ring would be lessened as opposed to what you'll hear in the current Trance demos of this rig.

Please be aware that I'm playing the LR Baggs HiFi/Larrivee D-40R Blue Grass JCL Special rig very aggressively and much more so than likely 90% of players would play. The strings are a blur as I'm hitting them back-and-forth with the flatpick. My first demo was an aggressive one so as to bring out any possible weaknesses in the Hifi's tone. I'm kinda liking the system and will post more demos in various levels of aggressiveness, both flatpicking and fingerpicking.
__________________
Martin HD-28 Sunburst/Trance M-VT Phantom
Martin D-18/UltraTonic
Adamas I 2087GT-8
Ovation Custom Legend LX
Guild F-212XL STD
Huss & Dalton TD-R
Taylor 717e
Taylor 618e
Taylor 614ce
Larrivee D-50M/HiFi
Larrivee D-40R Blue Grass Special/HiFi
Larrivee D-40R Sunburst
Larrivee C-03R TE/Trance M-VT Phantom
RainSong BI-DR1000N2
Emerald X20
Yamaha FGX5
Republic Duolian/Schatten NR-2
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  #11  
Old 05-14-2023, 06:07 AM
SpruceTop SpruceTop is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by martingitdave View Post
On no! Not only is it not glued in, but you might like it! How the heck am I going to avoid it now!? [emoji23]
Ya Gotta Do It, Bro, Ya Just Gotta Do It And Get You One!
__________________
Martin HD-28 Sunburst/Trance M-VT Phantom
Martin D-18/UltraTonic
Adamas I 2087GT-8
Ovation Custom Legend LX
Guild F-212XL STD
Huss & Dalton TD-R
Taylor 717e
Taylor 618e
Taylor 614ce
Larrivee D-50M/HiFi
Larrivee D-40R Blue Grass Special/HiFi
Larrivee D-40R Sunburst
Larrivee C-03R TE/Trance M-VT Phantom
RainSong BI-DR1000N2
Emerald X20
Yamaha FGX5
Republic Duolian/Schatten NR-2

Last edited by SpruceTop; 05-14-2023 at 02:22 PM.
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  #12  
Old 05-14-2023, 06:38 AM
SpruceTop SpruceTop is offline
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Location: Rochester, New York
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Default SpruceTop's Sunday Morning Mind Blower!

So, a year ago I bought a new Ibanez ADD300CE for $800. It's a decent acoustic-sounding guitar but its coolest feature is a magnetic pickup and a three-sensor K&K-like SBT. The pickups have separate Volume controls and can be combined and mixed together onboard by using one of the two output jacks or by using both jacks and two separate instrument cords or a stereo Y-cord the pickup signals can be delivered to a mixer for separate processing. My Full Review Thread This stage-ready guitar kind of changed my mind on the thinking behind endless after-market pickup experimentation and putting them in $3000+ guitars! Here are a couple of demos I made with the system:

"April Come She Will" FINGERPICKED Blended Pickups:



"Who Do You Love?" FLATPICKED Blended Pickups:



Ibanez AAD300CE Grand Dreadnought with Advanced Access Cutaway body https://www.ibanez.com/usa/products/...0ce_1x_03.html







__________________
Martin HD-28 Sunburst/Trance M-VT Phantom
Martin D-18/UltraTonic
Adamas I 2087GT-8
Ovation Custom Legend LX
Guild F-212XL STD
Huss & Dalton TD-R
Taylor 717e
Taylor 618e
Taylor 614ce
Larrivee D-50M/HiFi
Larrivee D-40R Blue Grass Special/HiFi
Larrivee D-40R Sunburst
Larrivee C-03R TE/Trance M-VT Phantom
RainSong BI-DR1000N2
Emerald X20
Yamaha FGX5
Republic Duolian/Schatten NR-2

Last edited by SpruceTop; 05-14-2023 at 06:44 AM.
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  #13  
Old 05-14-2023, 10:01 AM
jricc jricc is offline
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Thanks for the demo Ken!

Since you are playing aggressively, I think that's a pretty good tone. There is a little mud in the lower mids to my ears, but overall it's a good tone with very good string to string balance. For me, a little eq would help in those low mids.

As an aside, I've gotten used to a mag tone with my Mojotone NC-1, so I dig the tone you got out of that dual source Ibanez pickup. I like the immediacy of a mag.

Thanks again for HiFi demo.
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-Joe

Martin 000-1
Rainsong CH-OM
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  #14  
Old 05-14-2023, 10:02 AM
fedexnman fedexnman is offline
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Nice to see everyone having FUN with the new pickup. I like the tape install idea , I like an idea of a passive version we will see ? No , offense but I have NOT been blown away by any of the demos and I understand they are meant to be vanilla ... Now Aaron made it sound decent when adding some eq in one of his demos , but I'm NOT ready to go buy it . Thanks a bunch for the demo an review. K&Ks are still ok at the end of the day ... I'll be trying the Schatten HFN passive next and if doesn't jive then it's back to K&K lolz .
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  #15  
Old 05-14-2023, 10:13 AM
necrome necrome is offline
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Thanks for the demo! It sounds like any other piezo to me.
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