L.R.Baggs M1 Soundhole Pickup

I tried many under 100 bucks, some were not at all suitable, with 1st & second string being so very loud because they are both all "steel" strings, the other strings are bronze wound, bronze is "NOT" magnetic & magnetic pick ups cannot "fully" see the small steel wire inside the bronze windings. So 1st & 2nd strings really boom out and are awkward to use in chord shapes, with most p'ups under ?100.

The Baggs p'up has adjustable separate pickup poles for each string & is the perfect answer to this problem. It is like a separate volume control for each string. Guitar sounds natural & is far easier to play with this p'up. Do read the enclosed instructions & experiment swapping pole pieces & pole heights.

I assemble my own valve guitar amplifiers. I made a special acoustic valve amp for this reason. I find that valve amps & magnetic pickups go together like a horse & cart, or peaches & cream.

I have, at last, a great sound from acoustic guitar + valve amplifier combination.

I must thank Thomann for helping me find the correct pickup for my acoustic/valve application.

This is great if you have feedback issues when playing live (if you have like me an active pickup like a LR Baggs Lyric), especially if you play loud music like rock or pop.

The sound is very sharp, very metallic (I use it on my folk guitar): so for loud music it will cut through very easily and if you tell the sound engineer to put a decent amount of reverb on it and even possibly a little bit of chorus or flanger, then it will sound really great!

For acoustic or quiet music I would suggest to stick to something warmer like the lyric or anthem.

And for recording unless you want a very specific sound that this pickup gives you, I would suggest mic'ing the guitar (generally a lot more "real sound" than an internal mic).

M1 is easy to temporarily put on or off the guitar when needed. The description says that the pickup fits soundholes that are 90mm or wider, which is not really true. I could not fit the pickup on Martin 000-18, whose soundhole is a bit more than 9,5cm.

One other disadvantage is that the input place for the cable is located at the side of a pickup that is not really accessible without loosening the strings. Not particularly practical for those who do not want to permanently install the pickup.

M1 is a pretty sensitive magnetic pickup but not in the sense of being prone to feedback. It is sensitive in a way that it picks up a bit more than just strings next to it. It will pick up occasional noises caused by plectrum and if you hit the pickup accidentally while playing, you will hear that as well. For some players this might be a deal but for some others, having a sensitive pickup might be a plus.

M1 has six pins that can be individually adjusted to fit many guitars and it does deliver certain acoustical characteristics of an instrument and it sounds less “electric” than many other magnetic pickups. Since it is a passive pickup, it requires a good preamplifier in order to get a good and clean signal. I have tried M1 on a couple of guitars and I must state that I did not get good results with every guitar. In combination with certain guitars, M1 delivered unpleasant resonances that made it unusable so, at the end, I kept it on one of my guitars and took another brand for other guitars.

I had looked up this pickup and other LR bags pickups on YouTube and was very impressed. Especially when I heard that the studio guitarist for Dierks Bentley was using one of the LR bags sound hole pickups. I bought this pickup to be used on my Martin D 28. I installed the pickup per instructions, and boy I got a sound that was different from what I was expecting. It started to give off a really static like hissing, sound and it always sounded like something was loose inside the guitar. So I took the pickup out and checked everything. I checgked the pickup polePieces… checked absolutely everything. Butt nothing was wrong. I even went so far is putting the old bridge pins that I had for my Martin back into the Guitar when I went to go put the pickup back in and connect the endpin jack Cable in that’s when I discovered that it would not connect anymore as the Jack connector for the pickup had receded into the pickup housing. Now what to do next… We’ll see. I may try another LR bags pick up, but I’m very sure I will be thinking twice.