LR Baggs M1 in my Taylor

DMZ · #1 03-20-2004, 07:33 PM

Well after much waiting, my M1 pickup arrived today by express mail from John over at ShorlineAcousic! Installed it in my 410MA. I kept the PUTW#27 that I have in place, so I could try out the M1 temporarily and compare the sounds of either pickup. Just loosened the strings and capo'd em back installed the M1 and retightened everything, taped the 12 foot wire out the soundhole and plugged it into my acoustasonic jr.

1st impression was a little electric sounding, but as I started to adjust the pole pieces and it really settled down. I tried it in both sides of the amp, with and without a di (fishman platinnum pro) with and without reverb, chorus etc. I finally settled on pretty dry effect, no preamp. So pretty much plug it in. Very warm, pretty natural sounding pickup, yet dynamic enough to drive. My style is more of a heavy percussive strum and it does that well. Fingerstyle sounds really nice too though because of the indivdual string definition. My Dad was visiting for the day and plays all the orchestra chord stuff and lead style. It sounded great on that as well. I think this will be a great sound for a lot of people. The ivory soap bar look may take some getting used to and mine may get a coat of satin black someday like the sunrise I once had. Well, gotta go play!

ky224 · #2 03-21-2004, 01:30 AM

How difficult was it to find the right sound with the pole pieces?

LittleBrother · #3 03-21-2004, 06:28 AM

I just barely adjusted the high E up a turn with the little allen wrench and the B string down one turn and it's perfect. I might do some more tweaking later but it's nice to control the levels since I play blues fingerpicking with no fingerpicks but I do use a thumbpick. The adjustable pole pieces helped me dial in the balance between my bass notes and the melody.

I wish it had a tiny volume wheel built on to it but otherwise it rocks. I like the location of it in the sound hole too.

It sounds a little trebly more like an acoustic pickup so I had to dial the trebles down a little but leave just enough in there to get the acoustic sound. Then the warmth emerges more.

It also sounds amazing through a fender deluxe tube amp (22 watts). Very warm too. I could play with a band it is so loud and ZERO feedback from this thing.

It also looks fantastic with my all mahogany blues guitar with ivoroid binding. They match like they were made together.

DMZ · #4 03-21-2004, 06:30 AM

It's easy. Baggs sends a hex wrench with the pickup and you just turn them closer or further away from the string to adjust dynamic.

DMZ · #5 03-21-2004, 06:35 AM

LittleBrother, you beat me to the punch while I was writing! I adjusted mine similar to yours. The EADG pieces were set pretty high on mine right away so I took them down. I think it depends on a guitars indidual action/string height as well.

guitaniac · #6 03-21-2004, 02:14 PM

DMZ,

Even if you find that you absolutely love gigging with the M1, don't pull that #27 out until you've experimented a bit with an M1/#27 blend. I've gotten excellent results from blending the M1's "phatter", more feedback-resistant bass end with an iMix signal.

Gary

DMZ · #7 03-21-2004, 07:47 PM

Aughhhh! Tooo late! I liked it so much after I dialed it in, I thought what the heck and yanked it. The PUTW goes in so easy. Actually I thought about trying that blend-thing down the line.