Triple Threat Review from an acoustic amplification neophyte's perspective

Hi guys,

so I've entered the acoustic amplification fray recently and would like to offer a neophyte's review of the gear I'm using now.

Background:
I've been playing for 30 years with last 15 solely acoustic. I bare-fingerpick Piedmont-style blues, ragtime and gospel. No strumming. In 2012 I grabbed a Gibson J-45 Standard with the stock L.R. Baggs Element Active System. I didn't have an amp until earlier this year when I picked up a Fender Acoustic SFX amp. Last week I grabbed a L.R. Baggs Para Acoustic D.I.

Signal Chain:
Gibson J-45 Standard with L.R. Element Active System -> 10 foot cable -> L.R. Baggs Para Acoustic D.I. -> 10 foot cable -> Fender Acoustic SFX Amp

Review:
I'm going to review the signal chain as a whole since I don't have other A/E guitars, preamps or amps to A/B with. In 2012, my purchase of the J-45 was based purely on the guitar's acoustic tone and feel. I did try the pickup to make sure it worked. Fast forward to 2016. I suddenly felt the need to amplify on occasion for some bizarre reason. I did some research and eventually tried the SFX amp at a store with my J-45 long enough and loud enough to realize I liked it well enough. Admittedly the aesthetics with the bent wood cabinet sucked me in too. But honestly up to that point I had very little acoustic amplification experience other than trying out some Fishman Loudboxes. Nothing extensive by a long shot. I brought the amp home and over the past months I have been experimenting with guitar and amp settings at full volume (prior to purchasing the preamp) with the Stereo SFX control turned up to max and the reverb set at 9 o'clock (no other effects).

With the amp 8'-10' directly behind me while sitting facing out of our 15' X 20' X 9' hardwood-floored family room (which is open to our similarly sized kitchen), I was not too happy with the J-45/SFX combo at full volume. I found I had to cut all of the treble out, most of the mids and all of the bass at the amp and lower the volume on the guitar to half mast to get a pleasing sound. Otherwise it was too bright, spitty and clanging and way too prone to feedback. I found the phase switch inadequate for taming the howling feedback which centered around the low G note. Turning the amp down obviously tamed some of this but I was really trying to see how the combo would perform at stage volume. After turning down the tone controls and the guitar I felt the volume was compromised.

Enter the wisdom of the forum. I was encouraged to try a preamp so I did more research and decided on the Baggs Para DI based on flexibility and price. Using the same room and positioning I turned the amp up to full volume with the tone controls at 12 o'clock. I started with the guitar at full volume and the PADI's EQ set flat with the gain and volume at zero. Following the guidance of the manual I set the gain at 10:30/11:00 for the Element. Slowly I turned the PADI volume up until the G note feedback appeared. I set the notch to full cut and dialed in the notch freq until the feedback disappeared (at the G setting). Voila! After that I turned the PADI volume up more until I found the point where distortion and out-of-control multi-frequency feedback took over so I dialed back the volume just shy of that point (about 2 o'clock). I tried the phase switch when the volume was too high but I did not find the tone pleasing with it engaged. Hiss was at an acceptable level.

At this point I still found the the tone too bright, spitty and clanging. Enter the tone controls. After much twiddling, I settled on bass at 9 o'clock, notch zeroed out at G, mids flat, presence at 8 o'clock and treble at 9 o'clock. I was very pleased with the tone at this point. Full trebles and the right about of bass for Piedmont picking. The amp was very loud but pleasing at this point and you could hear the stereo imaging nicely.

Obviously I'll continue to experiment with this setup but I have to say I am quite happy with the gear now.

Any questions or comments?