better off with a Baggs Lyric?

Hi guys,

I'd like your input here. I'm a bare finger fingerpicker of rags and blues. I have a J-45 that came stock with a Baggs Element. I love the guitar acoustically but I am not fond of Element so I'm slowly gathering information about replacements.

I really like the sound of the Anthem on Doug Young's pickup page through good headphones. But one thing I noticed is that the Anthem is bass rich. I find with the Element that I'm cutting out almost all of the bass on my ParaDI to reduce woofiness and feedback. Since the Anthem uses the Element UST for the bass frequencies I assume I'd wind up doing the same with the Anthem, right?

So I've been looking at the Lyric because it is a lot more "bass light" compared to the Anthem while still in the same tonal ballpark.

Am I thinking about this the right way?

[OneThing]

My experience with the Lyric concurs with what you are thinking. In my case, and from what I’ve read from others, the bass is often lacking. I was able to dial it back in with a good eq pedal. Once I dialed and tweaked everything in, I really like the Lyric. I don’t like to work that hard though, so I don’t know if I would do it again. In your case, you might really like it.

[BluesKing777]

Logistics.....

To install the Lyric, you will remove the Element undersaddle and works? Replace the saddle?

I would go the full Anthem, Doug. I have it in my recent Dove purchase and it is fab! You will have more options, full TruMic, 90% TruMic - both are really nice for fingerpicking (on mine). You will have to pull the Element and put in the new Element that is part of the Anthem, seems silly but that is how it is... (I found the Element on its own to be horrid for fingerpicking, ok for strumming.)

I experimented with running the Anthem on full undersaddle (TruMic off) to my Tonedexter and got a great result, so that is an option, or an Aura.

BluesKing777.

Thanks for the input guys!

BK, yes if I was going for the Lyric I would have my luthier pull the existing Element UST and works, add the Lyric, add a new full height bone saddle and give it a setup. I have a new Colosi saddle for the J-45 sitting unused in my toolkit right now that could be used. Having a direct saddle to bridge contact is one advantage of the Lyric IMHO.

Re full Anthem: sure seems like a LOT of hardware hanging off the top!

[BluesKing777]

Originally Posted by J-Doug

Thanks for the input guys!

BK, yes if I was going for the Lyric I would have my luthier pull the existing Element UST and works, add the Lyric, add a new full height bone saddle and give it a setup. I have a new Colosi saddle for the J-45 sitting unused in my toolkit right now that could be used. Having a direct saddle to bridge contact is one advantage of the Lyric IMHO.

Re full Anthem: sure seems like a LOT of hardware hanging off the top!

Looking at the Baggs page, the Lyric has almost as much stuff as the Anthem except the undersaddle strip and wire to it....the Lyric has the works bit, the soundhole control, preamp guitar plug combo plus battery bag.

You just have to try this stuff - a friend has the Anthem SL in his Gibson L-00 and I have to say I didn’t like it much. It may be the way he has it set up, ot it may be that the system suits a bigger guitar like my Dove more?

[lkingston]

I like the Lyric mic in a dual system with another pickup.

[guitaniac]

Originally Posted by J-Doug

Hi guys,

I'd like your input here. I'm a bare finger fingerpicker of rags and blues. I have a J-45 that came stock with a Baggs Element. I love the guitar acoustically but I am not fond of Element so I'm slowly gathering information about replacements.

I really like the sound of the Anthem on Doug Young's pickup page through good headphones. But one thing I noticed is that the Anthem is bass rich. I find with the Element that I'm cutting out almost all of the bass on my ParaDI to reduce woofiness and feedback. Since the Anthem uses the Element UST for the bass frequencies I assume I'd wind up doing the same with the Anthem, right?

So I've been looking at the Lyric because it is a lot more "bass light" compared to the Anthem while still in the same tonal ballpark.

Am I thinking about this the right way?

In the case of my own Anthem rig, I've found that its especially boomy around the crossover frequency of 250Hz. You'd probably find the PADI's notch to be helpful with that issue. In my own case, I also cut a bit of the low bass, but most of the problem is around 250Hz.

I believe that you'd probably like the Anthem/PADI combo better than a Lyric/PADI combo, but I'll be glad to sell you my Lyric for half price if you want to experiment with the Lyric. Its not a bad pickup, but its a little too feedback prone for my current needs.

[GuitarLuva]

I can vouch for Guitaniac. I bought a used pickup from him before and he gave me a great price and the pickup was in perfect condition when I received it. Sounds like a great opportunity to grab a cheap lyric.

[RogerPease]

I have a J45 that had the same boomy sound with the Element pick up.
I upgraded to the Anthem SL. It was as close to a drop in as possible.
Same saddle, same wiring holder, even same Velcro for the battery bag.

The SL is very touchy to adjust the balance but once set hardly ever needs tweaking.
I am *way* happier with the sound.
Only downside is you can’t use it with a Tonedexter, if you care about that.

Hope this helps, cheers, _Roger

[Mbroady]

Originally Posted by RogerPease

The SL is very touchy to adjust the balance but once set hardly ever needs tweaking.
I am *way* happier with the sound.
......

Hope this helps, cheers, _Roger

I found this to be my experience as well. The smallest turn of the adjustment screw changes the balance dramatically. And since the screw is so small it’s hard to get a feel for how much you are actually turning it. It took a while to find the right balance but once I got it dialed in the Anthem SL sounded great. I would say I have it at around the 85% mark. The Adjustment set at 100% true mic was way to hollow.

Thanks again guys! Sounds like the Anthem SL should be back on my radar.

[BluesKing777]

Another option is to leave the Element in and buy a Tonedexter to improve the tone. You could use it with other guitars as well - it works well with a number of different pickups.

BluesKing777.

That's true BK.