Just tested my new Baggs Lyric in church today

[silverspear]

Reporting in my findings and opinion about this pickup. I installed it my Furch GR and used it in church today.

I find that I have to EQ it quite alot at 200hz and 320hz to get it to sit nicely in the band. once that is done, the sound from the lyric is very nice and sweet.

however, during solo starts on slow songs, when I'm the only instrument playing, when plucking, I felt that the sound felt a little compressed overall, and it's really quite lacking the attack in the low end.

I conclude that it's nice for full band playing, with the EQ, but does lack the piezo attack when I want it during fingerplaying slow songs.

I'll probably go for an anthem for my next guitar..

comments or disagreements are welcome!

[Methos1979]

When I got my Martin 000-18GE Custom from the AGF classifieds, it already had a Baggs Lyric in it. This was fine since the although I generally prefer the K&K, I love trying out new pickup systems and the Lyric was one I'd always wanted to try.

I hated it. I could not get a good sound out of it at all now matter how much I tired. I will say that I didn't try all that long, though. I gave it a few days of tweaking and then just yanked it out and put in a Baggs M80 I'd gotten in a recent trade and was looking to audition.

That one was a little better but even that one came out fairly quick once I got an appointment to get a K&K installed by my guy. The only pickup system I've ever had I liked other than the K&K was the DTAR Wavelength Multi-Source. But I still love trying out new stuff.

Glad it works for you.

[SpruceTop]

I tried the Lyric in two large-bodied guitars, a Martin D-18 and a Taylor 528, and even bought the LR Baggs Venue to try to hammer the Lyric it in to submission. Net result was barely satisfactory amplified tone and the Lyric went Bye! Bye! I found I had to cut the center-point frequencies of 500 Hz and 1000 Hz by -6 dB and boost by 3 dB at 100 Hz to try to get rid of the hollow brashness in the amplified tone of the guitars but this still left an unpleasant tonal residue. I only installed the Lyric as per the original mounting position in the instructions. Other players have found they got better results when trying alternative mounting positions.

An interesting aside for me from trying to dial-in the Lyric was I could play with the Venue and hear what finally seemed like a decent amplified tone but after taking a break for 15 minutes or a day, when coming back to the setup it didn't sound good anymore. I found the Lyric quickly induced personal ear-fatigue.

[Petty1818]

I tried the Lyric in my Taylor and used it a few times live (on loud stages). Overall, I found it to be too thin sounding. With that said, when I listen back to recordings from those shows, I absolutely love the tone of my guitar. I also loved the feel of the Lyric. It didn't remind me of a pickup so I played the way I should play on acoustic. Oddly enough, I switched to the anthem thinking it would provide the missing low end and it really didn't.

[stevecuss]

Yep, that was my experience with the Lyric. With some judicial EQ cuts, the Lyric was surprisingly effective in a fun band situation, but solo, I always wanted more bass than it delivered and with its compressor system in the preamp, no matter how much bass we added, the preamp removed it to keep feedback at bay.

Its a brilliant piece of tech, but needs some low end assistance from another pickup to really make it juice.

[Br1ck]

Life is too short to have to EQ the hell out of a pickup to get it to sound sort of OK.

Get Dazzos and a SunnAudio DI and be happy.

[silverspear]

Originally Posted by Br1ck

Life is too short to have to EQ the hell out of a pickup to get it to sound sort of OK.

Get Dazzos and a SunnAudio DI and be happy.

In a sense, you're right. But a lyric can't be beat for preserving unplugged acoustic tone.

[martingitdave]

The Lyric is an enigma. I’ve been experimenting with it for some months now. My conclusion is that, despite our insistence otherwise, most of us don’t like the sound of a microphone when playing live.

I took to installing the Lyric behind the bridge pins. I did this initially because my guitars don’t have room for the Lyric under the saddle.

My theory is that the closer it is to the saddle line, the better feedback rejection from the preamp system, and the more immediate the sound. But, with that, comes a compressed bass response. Moving the mic allowed it to “breathe” a little more. But, it also allows the mic to pickup more body reflections since the saddle vibrations aren’t as intense. I had to EQ it with one cut around 700Hz. And, frankly, it sounds very natural. It has bass, but no more than the guitar produces naturally, which is a lot in the case of a Dreadnought.

I know some people who have installed the Lyric as recommended, plugged it in, and gotten amazing results. And, some have ripped it out after a few days of frustration. Putting a condenser microphone inside your guitar, with a “one size fits all” multiband analog compression preamp system, that doesn’t degrade the acoustic tone, and takes up little space, is amazing in itself.

As I stated in the first line, it’s an enigma.

[silverspear]

yes, I think the lyric, being as small and unobtrusive as it is, is already an achievement in itself!

the 200hz honk is another issue altogether though.. I wonder if all guitars installed with the lyric will exhibit this honk..

[Marty C]

Wonder why we always compare pickups to waterfowl? It’s either a quack or a honk.

Honk - 500 - 700hz
Quack - 700 - 900hz
Chirp - 900 - 1100hz

That about right?

Plugging in is just fowl!

That’s all I got.

[Br1ck]

I have a Shure SM 81 that sounds great. There is no comparison between it and a Lyric. I've unplugged the SM 81 in my studio and now run my Dazzo/SunnAudio instead. I get enough air with the bleed through from my large condenser vocal mic.

[GHS]

I installed the Lyric on two of my guitars...Martin 000-15 and a Yamaha FG730s. I have played live with each thru a mixer to a pa. My only complaint is the high e and B string have to be reeled in...too harsh. Bass is fine. My D-28 got a Fishman rare earth where the B and high E are too harsh too. Seems to be common among this systems. Yes, mics are better but you are held to one position and if you use a pedal like T C Helicon singer like I do and use a mic for guitar it distorts the voice something terrible. And forget about using a condenser mic out, they pick up mice walking on carpet!!! So until the companies hear us and tweak their systems we are stuck.

[martingitdave]

Originally Posted by GHS

I installed the Lyric on two of my guitars...Martin 000-15 and a Yamaha FG730s. I have played live with each thru a mixer to a pa. My only complaint is the high e and B string have to be reeled in...too harsh. Bass is fine. My D-28 got a Fishman rare earth where the B and high E are too harsh too. Seems to be common among this systems. Yes, mics are better but you are held to one position and if you use a pedal like T C Helicon singer like I do and use a mic for guitar it distorts the voice something terrible. And forget about using a condenser mic out, they pick up mice walking on carpet!!! So until the companies hear us and tweak their systems we are stuck.

If you haven’t dialed back the presence control, you might find that tames the unwound strings.

[GHS]

Originally Posted by martingitdave

If you haven’t dialed back the presence control, you might find that tames the unwound strings.

Will try that again thru the mixer this time, thanks for reminding me.

[rockabilly69]

I tried everything that I could to get the Lyric to sound good in my guitar, and of all the parametric EQ that I applied couldn't fix the weird mid bumps in this pickup, and by the time I removed the bumps, it was left with a thin hollow tone. And it always had an unsatisfactory compressed quality that absolutely drove me nuts! I couldn't rip that pickup out fast enough. I replaced it with a B-Band XOM 2.2 system 2 years ago that I'm still very happy with.