Acoustic Guitars

[Alt-me]

Hey guys,

Do any of you gig with either the Fishman Rare Earth Blend or LR Baggs Anthem (or both?)?

I'm considering these two units for my Alvarez Jumbo. I play a mix of fingerstyle with bits of percussion and strummed stuff, so I need the pickup system to be very versatile.

Thoughts?

Much appreciated
Bill

[Alt-me]

Does anybody play percussive stuff with an LR Baggs Anthem? Does the percussion sound ok with it being augmented by the undersaddle?

[bransonb]

You don't say which, if any, pickup you're using already, or what kind of performing you're doing, but here's my own experience. I've got the Anthem, the M1, and the Element in various guitars. I've heard the Rare Earth Blend in a concert situation and, of course, my own Anthem and they both sound good. If you have no pickup and and are willing to invest Anthem/RE Blend kind of cash, either of these would be a good choice.

I must say that for me, on a live stage, for the money, my Anthem doesn't outperform the Element or the M1. And I seriously doubt my audiences can tell the difference between any of them. For my part, I'm honestly most happy with the bang for the buck of my M1 passive into a PARA DI.

The Rare Earth Blend would be much easier to reverse install than the Anthem if you just wanted to try it out. Maybe start there? If you can afford to install an Anthem with a worse case result that it performs much like an Element at more than twice the cost, you'll have a pickup that is also not sitting across your soundhole and is quite feedback resistant.

Of course if your purpose is recording, that would be a whole other conversation . . .

[C70man]

I use an M1 in my F30, which is close to a jumbo, and I have a K&K in my jumbo 12. I have a very good friend who swears by the Anthem and doesn't perform on stage without one installed.

Personally, I feel the K&K has a more natural sound...I use a Baggs Gigapro to boost the signal. Very happy with it for a lot less money.

My other guitars have, Guild D-tar and fishman/ fishman matrix systems.

[Seorie]

I use the Rare Earth Blend on one guitar and the K & K Mini on an other - both are good, the REB is safest for big venues (loud) and pretty much fool proof the can feed back and can produce a lot of 'handling noise' if you hit the top or play percussively.
Neither give the dreaded Piezo nasal quack - that's mainly why I chose them, to avoid that.

I cant speak of the Anthem but it sounds good - just with the Mic but seems to introduce the 'quack' when the UST is rolled in - listen here -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNJwDq3OV6o

[jono55]

I've been using the Fishman REB for about a year and LOVE IT. 

I JUST got then Anthem installed in my Collings D2H and played it live this past weekend. Maybe I just don't quite know what i'm doing yet (settings?) but it sounded only slightly better than a piezo... which i HATE!

With the Fishman, I blend all the way to the microphone (AND have no feeback issues)... it sounds perfect. Like an acoustic guitar instead of the God-awful sound that pretty much any transducer sounds like... magnetic or piezo. 

I was very dissapointed in the Anthem, but I'm gonna work with it tonight at home through a JBL EON to see if I was just doing something wrong... i'm hoping that's the case. 

[jono55]

Followup.

I just did a side by side comparison between the anthem and the fishman blend... fishman BLOWS THE BAGGS AWAY.

Even my wife could hear the difference. Gonna try and sell the anthem.

[Howie22]

I have the Anthem (the more expensive one) in my Larrivee D-03R. 

My other Larrivee has a K&K, but I really wanted a dual source system in this one, as I'm getting into doing some bigger gigs with louder volume that might cause feedback issues with the K&K.

I've not been terribly happy with it. The mic setting has a fantastic natural sound, but I think it sounds "distant," for lack of a better word. It just doesn't have much punch or attack. Kind of an airy sound. You can blend in the Element, which helps, but then it just sounds like a UST, which I despise (can you say "quack?"). Part of the quack issue was a severe string balance issue, which I recently had the luthier who installed it adjust.

Anyway, I find myself wishing I would have gone with the Baggs Dual Source with the I-Beam and M1. Any guitar I've ever heard live with a K&K or I-Beam have always sounded phenomenal to me. Too late now, the money's already spent. For now, my regular D-03 with the K&K still gets more use.

[koiwoi]

I use the Fishman premium blend (mic + ust) and I have a Rare Earth with a completely separate output. I love that config.