Which is best DI for Anthem SL pickup?

[doublescale1]

I have tried to search the forum for this specific question and not found much of an answer. Can someone with an Anthem SL pickup installed share what they believe to be the best solution to a DI box for that pickup - I'm not sure that something like the Fishman Spectrum DI Imaging pedal would be a good pairing to the Anthem given it's mic feature. Would the Baggs Para DI or Venue DI be a better match, any of the Radial DI boxes? To me the tricky part is the Anthem SL's hybrid makeup of the body sensor and mic. If you have found a good DI box solution please share. Thanks.

[sdelsolray]

Originally Posted by doublescale1

I have tried to search the forum for this specific question and not found much of an answer. Can someone with an Anthem SL pickup installed share what they believe to be the best solution to a DI box for that pickup - I'm not sure that something like the Fishman Spectrum DI Imaging pedal would be a good pairing to the Anthem given it's mic feature. Would the Baggs Para DI or Venue DI be a better match, any of the Radial DI boxes? To me the tricky part is the Anthem SL's hybrid makeup of the body sensor and mic. If you have found a good DI box solution please share. Thanks.

What is the remainder of your signal chain (i.e., what will exist post-DI)?

[TaylorCocobolo]

My friend used the venue DI with it and has fantastic results.

[Doug Young]

There isn't really as much a need to match DI (and I assume you really mean preamp here) to pickup as you might think. You have an active pickup, so it's already handling any "matching" between the raw pickup element and the 1st stage of onboard electronics as well as blending the 2 internal sources, and from a preamp/DI standpoint, the Anthem is no different than any other active UST-based system.

What you plug into next is a matter of what you need, and as sdelsolrey is asking, a matter of your entire signal chain. You may not even need anything at all. Do you need just balanced to unbalanced XLR to plug into a mixer? Do you need EQ? Do you need multiple outputs to feed a stage amp and a mixer? Do you need a mute switch? Tuner? What about size? Rack mount vs floor? Clip on your belt for easy access? Battery powered or not? These are the things I'd consider. As far as sound, any good preamp *should* be transparent and just pass the signal onto the next stage, so there's nothing to think about as far as matching your pickup. Of course, not all preamps achieve that goal of transparency, so you may find some sound different than others, but it won't have much to do with your pickup choice.

[Tomm Williams]

Let me speak to the Para DI as I have some comments about it that could apply to others. I occasionally work with an acoustic Alt-Celtic duo comprised of fiddle and guitar. The fiddle player was complaining that she could not obtain a satisfactory tone from the Para. Looking at the unit, it had some neat features like a notch filter, polarity flip and limited EQ. After working with it for a bit I found she preferred the polarity switched and we found an EQ setting that worked OK.

My concern with the unit was that the EQ was so limited that (to me) it was useless. I did a bit of searching on GC Used and found her a used 31 band EQ for cheap that gives her much greater adjustment.

I think sometimes the goal of jamming a bunch of features into a DI results in a unit with a bunch of knobs but not truly a bunch of features. When shopping for a DI I would be more inclined to look at Countryman or Radial and then look for my EQ elsewhere.

[guitaniac]

I can't speak for the "best" preamp/DI as I haven't tried them all. I can say that my old Fishman Platinum Pro EQ does what I need done. Its sweepable midrange control covers a pretty wide frequency range, and that's been helpful to me with a variety of rigs. In the case of the Anthem SL, I've set my Anthem SL's UST/mic balance to be slightly in favor of the mic. I use the Platinum to EQ down the high-mids and the treble just a tad to balance my sound. The Platinum also helps me control the bass end (with a phase inversion and/or notching and/or a bass roll-off) when I'm at high volume and the guitar top is interacting strongly with speaker sound.

As Doug mentioned, the Anthem SL is an active system. You don't really need a outboard preamp with it, if you're completely happy with the tonal balance and need no EQ adjustment. You can plug directly into one of the mixer's unbalanced inputs (if you're close enough), or into a direct box on the stage. I use the Platinum for needed EQ tweaks, notching (if needed), phase inversions (if needed) and because its volume control is smoother and more fine-tunable than the Anthem SL's volume wheel.

[doublescale1]

I am looking for something that I might use when I am not taking my acoustic amp to a gig - just using the stage provided DI box direct, like at an open mic night. I have a Roland AC 90 and an Ultrasound DS4 as a smaller grab/go amp. My Anthem SL straight into those sounds fine and any additional tone tweaking can be done at the amp. I also use a small pedal board that has a Boss Tu2 tuner for quiet tuning and a chorus pedal on it. For those open mic things I suppose I might just go ahead, plug in and forget about it - let the guy out front dial in the room sound. Like Frank Zappa said, "shut up and play your guitar." I have found that the Anthem SL needs very little tweaking - It seems that getting the right balance between the pickup and mic is the best thing you can dial in. Thanks for all the input.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by doublescale1

I am looking for something that I might use when I am not taking my acoustic amp to a gig - just using the stage provided DI box direct, like at an open mic night. I have a Roland AC 90 and an Ultrasound DS4 as a smaller grab/go amp. My Anthem SL straight into those sounds fine and any additional tone tweaking can be done at the amp. I also use a small pedal board that has a Boss Tu2 tuner for quiet tuning and a chorus pedal on it. For those open mic things I suppose I might just go ahead, plug in and forget about it - let the guy out front dial in the room sound. Like Frank Zappa said, "shut up and play your guitar." I have found that the Anthem SL needs very little tweaking - It seems that getting the right balance between the pickup and mic is the best thing you can dial in. Thanks for all the input.

OK, so you really mean a DI, like a passive Radial JDI, or the Whirlwind IMP-2, I think?. Any of those should be fine, and you can spend from $25 (or less) to several hundred $$. None of them would be Anthem-specific, it really doesn't matter what pickup you use with them. But since the open mics already have them, why do you need one? If you just want something for a spare or backup, something like the IMP-2 is cheap and will fit in your case or gig bag, so you can just forget about it unless you discover you need one.

[dberkowitz]

If you're already bringing a pedal board to the gig, adding a JDI is probably the right answer. It's a fantastic DI. Now, unlike all the preamp-DI's, i.e., ParaDI, Venue, etc., it does not have any controls other than a ground lift and a pad, so it won't help you with EQ. It has a nice feature where if you have split signals you can "Merge" them with the DI into a mono output through the XLR. This is done by engaging the merge switch and using the "Thru" jack for a second input.

[JackB1]

Also wondering what pedals you Anthem SL users are adding to your rig to enhance the sound of the Anthem SL pickup?

[EZYPIKINS]

For my money the radial JDI is the best passive DI on the market.

[JackB1]

The Anthem puts out a very low signal even though it is active. I would think something with a preamp to boost the signal some more might be better?

Originally Posted by EZYPIKINS

For my money the radial JDI is the best passive DI on the market.

[EWman]

Originally Posted by JackB1

Also wondering what pedals you Anthem SL users are adding to your rig to enhance the sound of the Anthem SL pickup?

My primary guitar is a Gibson Songwriter Deluxe with the LR Baggs Anthem SL. I absolutely love it! Up until recently, I played it through a Radial JDI and into a Soundcraft EFX8 mixer (with built in lexicon FX) typically adding a little reverb and through a pair of EV ZXA1's (previously played through a pair of JBL PRX512M's). I always loved the simple sound.

Not long ago, I bought a new toy....TC Helicon Play Acoustic. While I bought this as something to tinker with and experiment with the harmony function, I found that I like a lot of the other effects built into it. I'm still learning how to tweak everything to my liking though. When I play through this, there is no longer a need for my Radial JDI, as i have the outputs set up as two separate, mono XLR outputs, one for guitar and one for vocals.

I have toyed with the idea of going into my Radial JDI and using the parallel bypass to go into the Play Acoustic (guitar input is typically used for key when using harmony), and then use the XLR out of the JDI as my primary guitar output to my mixer......and not utilize the guitar out of the Play Acoustic.

I always liked the natural sound of my guitar/pickup combination through the JDI with a little bit of reverb from the mixer. I'm still undecided if I prefer that instead of the sound of my guitar through the Play Acoustic with all of the extras (bodyrez, compression, etc).

I don't think either route offers a bad sound by any means. But would love to hear thoughts on this.

[leew3]

If as Doug has surmised you're only talking about a DI to transform the high Z signal to low Z for a long cable run, an inexpensive DI box will work. I use a $20 Berringer DI with my Anthem SL equipped Larrivee L03. I just run this straight to the board when leading worship for an evening service at church and it works great.