Getting Great Acoustic Tone Live: An Onboard Acoustic Guitar Preamp User Guide
Our Stage Pro onboard acoustic guitar preamps take everything guitarists love about LR Baggs acoustic guitar pickups and make them even better. Their Anthem and Element systems - which you can read about in our blog Acoustic Guitar Pickup Options: Your Guide to What We Use - are already industry standards, and we swear by them. But we wanted to give our carbon fiber guitars some added control and convenience.
That's where the Stage Pro designation comes in. While LR Baggs' standard Element and Anthem feature a great, low-profile design, our Stage Pro versions give you easy access to EQ controls, volume, and an onboard tuner. You even get a feedback-fighting notch filter. All of this is right onboard your guitar.
Let's take a closer look at both of these onboard acoustic guitar preamps. From the Stage Pro Anthem's mic/piezo blend to the Stage Pro Element's ability to efficiently handle loud stages, you'll learn how to get the most out of each. We'll even discuss the popular K&K Sound Pure Mini and why, when it comes to acoustic guitar pickups, it's an entirely different animal.
L.R. Baggs Stagepro Element piezo under-saddle pickup system
L.R. Baggs Stagepro Anthem TRU•MIC/piezo blending system
K&K Sound Pure Mini passive transducer pickup system
L.R. Baggs Stagepro Element piezo under-saddle pickup system
The Stage Pro Element is a favorite around RainSong. We think it's the best-sounding under-saddle piezo pickup available. That's why we install it in most of our guitars. Even without the Stage Pro's added control, the LR Baggs Element delivers a full-sounding, feedback-resistant performance without the dreaded piezo pickup "quack,” which is why it’s the pickup and preamp system we recommend for players on loud stages.
That doesn't mean you can't dial your tone into perfection. On the side-mounted Stage Pro preamp, you'll find a set of intuitive controls to shape your sound without needing additional outboard gear.
Controls:
Treble - Boosts and cuts high frequencies
Mid - Boosts and cuts midrange frequencies
Bass - Boosts and cuts low frequencies
Phase - Flips the phase of the pickup's frequencies to fight feedback caused by amplification and monitoring
Notch - Variable control that "notches" out a narrow band of frequencies allowing you to find feedback and remove it from your signal
Volume - Controls the guitar's output level
Tuner on/off - Engages the onboard tuner while muting the guitar's output
L.R. Baggs Stagepro Anthem TRU•MIC/piezo blending system
LR Baggs' Anthem is one of today's most popular acoustic guitar pickup/microphone combination systems. The company's TRU•MIC technology integrates a miniature condenser microphone with an under-saddle piezo pickup to give you the best of both worlds.
Along with similar controls for EQ and feedback correction as the Stage Pro Element, the Anthem preamp lets you blend the mic and pickup systems to taste. Though it’s tempting to push the slider all the way to the mic side, you may not love the results. The mic is intended to support what the piezo pickup is doing.
We recommend starting in the full piezo setting and blending in the mic until you have a full, natural tone that retains the detail and clarity of the under-saddle pickup. Then shape it to perfection with the other onboard controls.
Controls:
Treble - Boosts and cuts high frequencies
Bass - Boosts and cuts low frequencies
Mix - Slider adjusts the mix between the Anthem's TRU•MIC condenser and under saddle piezo pickup
Phase - Flips the phase of the pickup's frequencies to fight feedback caused by amplification and monitoring
Notch - Variable control that "notches" out a narrow band of frequencies allowing you to find feedback and remove it from your signal
Volume - Controls the guitar's output level
Tuner on/off - Engages the onboard tuner while muting the guitar's output
K&K Sound Pure Mini passive transducer pickup system
The K&K Sound Pure Mini pickup system is totally different than the LR Baggs offerings. Yet, it still delivers a natural acoustic tone that fingerstyle guitarists and singer-songwriters love. Its passive design - meaning it doesn't require a battery - consists of three transducers attached to the underside of the guitar's top. When the top vibrates, these transducer pickups create a small electrical signal and send it out your output jack.
This signal is a much lower output than the active Stage Pro preamps. Because of this, you'll want to find an outboard preamp or at least an active DI box to send the proper signal to any mixer or recording interface. And again, we recommend LR Baggs for the job.