Brand Spotlight: L.R. Baggs Acoustic Guitar Pickups

If you’re an acoustic guitar player then you've more than likely heard about the great pieces of gear made by the guys over at L.R. Baggs. While they are no strangers to the world of electric guitars, the bulk of their products revolve around acoustics. From acoustic pickups to DI boxes, preamps, and more, L.R. Baggs has dedicated themselves to giving players the very best tone and sound shaping tools possible. Today, we take a look at a few of their standout acoustic guitar pickups that we feel deserve a closer look.

If you’re not familiar with the various type of acoustic pickup systems, check out our article Acoustic Guitar Pickup Types to get yourself acquainted with the various amplification methods available.

M80 Magnetic Soundhole Pickup

The secret behind the clear, full response and natural tone of the M80 comes from its unique design, featuring a secondary coil that acts as both a noise canceling humbucking pickup and a three-dimensional body sensor. While it might not sound like much besides another bullet on the spec sheet, this unique design was made to bring out your guitar's full tonal frequency range while adding enhanced complexity and richness. L.R. Baggs also made sure the M80 keeps the natural character of you acoustic intact by adding just the right amount of body signal to pickup's response. It also works in both active and passive mode, meaning you won't lose your amplification ability just because the battery ran dry. Hey, it's one of the company's best sellers for a reason!

iBeam Bridge Plate Transducer Pickup

While most under saddle piezo transducer pickups tend to be a pain to install, L.R. Baggs has designed the iBeam to be ready go in minutes. With the included placement jig, finding the right spot is as easy as it gets. As far as sound reproduction goes, the iBeam is just as excellent. Not only does it give your acoustic guitar rich yet uncolored sound reproduction, but it also does so while fighting off feedback and without any of annoying piezo quack typical in these type of systems. For added control, we highly recommend the iBeam Active System, featuring the same natural sound reproduction of the original but with the added versatility and power of active electronics. Available in iBeam Steel String, iBeam Nylon String, and iBeam Active.

Lyric Microphone Pickup

Like the iBeam above, the Lyric microphone pickup was designed to be a plug-and-play solution to amplifying your acoustic guitar. The pickup works by mounting on the underside of the bridge plate with the help of a simple peel and stick adhesive that holds a firm grip without ruining the integrity of your acoustic. By placing the Lyric just 3mm from the soundhole, the capsule can capture the entire sound of your instrument, delivering an impressively even and balanced tone. And for good measure, L.R. Baggs equipped the Lyric with their noise-canceling technology, able to eliminate the annoying "boxy" reflections that sometimes plagues other internal acoustic mics. Even if you weren't impressed with other internal acoustic mics in the past, we bet hearing the Lyric in action will change your mind!

Anthem Tru-Mic Multi-Source Pickup

While the products above are each excellent and easy to setup solutions to acoustic guitar amplification, if you want a system that kicks things up a notch, we highly recommend Anthem Tru-Mic mic/transducer multi-source pickup. Featuring an L.R. Baggs "Tru-Mic" microphone, an Element series under-saddle transducer pickup, and a preamp with controls for volume, mic/pickup source blend, phase inversion (for feedback control), added mic gain and battery check, the Anthem Tru-Mic system is for players who take their acoustic guitar tone seriously. Easily one of the best muti-source pickups around, not to mention at a very accessible price, the Anthem Tru-Mic raises the bar for what players should expect from a multi-source pickup system.