[Disclaimer: I, Todd Stuart Phillips, am an avowed pickup hater. I am hypercritical of anything claiming to produce an acoustic guitar sound that is in fact an electronic device less sensitive than the best condenser microphones. I therefore approach each and every pickup, preamp or related item with a skepticism bordering on cynicism. At the same time I try to accept the realities and necessities of amplifying acoustic guitars. Now that has been said. . .]
With the popular success of his undersaddle and bridge plate sensor pickups, Lloyd Baggs has garnered the respect and patronage of touring pros and open mike pickers alike. His new M1 magnetic sound hole pickup therefore generated great expectations in the acoustic guitar-playing world. It has exceeded them in most every respect. The LR Baggs M1 is a serious contender in the highly competitive, sound hole pickup arena.
For many years the famous Sunrise
TM pickup has been the choice of concert artists like Leo Kottke, David Lindley, Shawn Colvin, and countless others. This new M1 may change all that. Everything from its shape and color to its patented TriAxial Dynamic Technology
TM suggests it is the "Anti-Sunrise", or at the very least a unique alternative to every other sound hole pickup on the market. Cosmetically it stands apart because the visible pickup spanning the sound hole is white, rather than the black used by most every other brand. Although some folks may be put off by this, I feel it is sleek and stylish while being reminiscent of the porcelain or ceramic housing found on electronics from a bygone, vintage era. But it's what's under the hood that really matters and the M1 has several exclusive features that help it stand apart in more important ways, while others are well thought out improvements upon its various predecessors.
I am no electrical engineer but it seems to me the M1 works this way: Its meat and potatoes consist of a humbucker pickup with adjustable pole pieces that amplify the strings and a patented double coil stack, which provides an innovative way to capture sound from the guitar itself. The first coil accepts the pole piece signals but also detects the vibrations from the guitar's top via the unpadded, plastic wings of the face plate and their corresponding tabs on the underside of the soundboard, which together hold the pickup in place. This presents great opportunities for guitarists who use percussive techniques or simply miss the various woody scrapes and warm thumps of an acoustic guitar once they plug in and play through an amp or PA.
The bottom coil is suspended from the rest of the pickup so it vibrates freely in all directions. This allows it to do more than just cancel feedback and hum; it actually works like a dual source, transmitting tone from the environment inside the guitar's body. It also picks up the strings and top via the first coil but from a slightly different point in time and space. The result is a three-dimentional sound that provides at least the illusion that one is hearing the strings, the wood and the tone filled "air" that makes acoustic guitars sound, well, like acoustic guitars. Or so the design of this new TriAxial Dynamic Technology seems to suggest and attempts to achieve.
The coils are separated by the passive electronics which run the show and blend the two signals into one. This means the player gets one coherent voice but could also use the M1 in a true dual source set up, say, in combination with an under saddle pickup or condenser mike.
How does all this translate into actual sound and how does the M1 compare to other options available in its price range? In hopes of answering that question I put my M1 in an Indian rosewood/Sitka spruce Martin OM-28V and a Brazilian rosewood/Adirondack spruce Martin OMC-28B. It sounds very good. It has clear, crisply defined notes with a fullness in the lower tones that is by no means thick or muddy. It also handles a wide variety of playing, from soft fingerstyle to robust strumming with a pick. It still sounds like a magnetic sound hole pickup to my ear, when compared to a mike or truly acoustic guitars. What I mean by that is such pickups often have an electric edge to them when one digs into the strings, so they end up with something similar to the sound of one of those archtop jazz guitars with the single, floating pickup on them. But the M1 seemed to me to be a major improvement in this area over the pleasant but artificial sound of the Sunrise.
I have always found the
Fishman Rare Earth sound hole pickup to have a pleasing, mellow tone. In fact I chose it after a direct comparison with the Sunrise They both may not offer much of the actual tone of the guitar but the Rare Earth still has a very nice sound. In a head to head comparison with the Rare Earth I found the M1 reminiscent of the Sunrise in terms of how bright it was while being full at the same time. It was not as warm or mellow as the Rare Earth. But the M1's new technology provides better clarity and dynamics with a much greater, three-dimensional placement of the bass, midrange and unwound treble strings in the tonal landscape than either of those other pickups. It also was surprisingly powerful for an unpowered pickup. The Sunrise is dead in the water without its external preamp and the Rare Earth really needs a lot of boosting. The M1 sounded full as is and with my
Fishman Platinum Pro II preamp it responded very well to the additional gain and equalization options. I was able to mellow out the "electrics" on the unwound strings so it sounded even less like that jazz guitar I mentioned. To borrow Maury's terminology, it is one versatile, little pup.
There is no denying the additional vibration sensing from the wooden top and inside the body makes it sound more like an acoustic guitar. At times I thought there must be a mike involved, it captured the depth of the sound chamber that well. But I have no idea how that would translate through a large PA to a broader audience. It might increase the 3-D acoustic guitar effect. But it might also be the source for feedback or sound too boxy. On the down side, the M1 did such a good job picking up every click, scrape, and bump on the top that I found myself having to be more careful as I played. Worst of all, my fingernails and pick kept hitting the M1 and its pole pieces, but that is a hazard inherent in all sound hole pickups. It would only take a little practice to avoid that sort of thing.
The two guitars have very different dynamics and the M1 allowed their personalities to come through my Trace Elliot amp loud and clear. Some minor adjustments to the tone controls were all that was needed to get rid of the most brittle "pickup sound" in the highs. In fact it required considerably less equalization to achieve "acoustic guitar sound" than the
Baggs iBeam bridge plate pickup I use in my OM-28V or the
Fishman Matrix Natural I pickup in my Brazilian rosewood OM. I like both of those pickups a great deal even if they have their own "pickup sound" to contend with. In fairness all three pickups are a major improvement in that department compared to what was on the market only a few years ago. But the M1 has the advantage of an installation and removal that does not require anything other than loosening the strings.
There will always be trade offs where pickups are concerned. At least magnetic sound hole pickups do not have the "quack" of under-saddles and they do not have the feedback problems of top or bridge plate sensors. However, even if they can often sound good, they are little different than an electric guitar pickup, EQ'd to sound as acoustic as possible. Just as the Baggs iBeam was suppose to bring more of the guitar body into the mix compared to under saddle pickups, the M1 is supposed to bring more body into the mix compared to other sound hole pickups. It is accurate to say it does exactly that. In my opinion the M1 sounds more like an acoustic guitar than any sound hole pickup I have come across, which did not also have a expensive blender microphone in its mix.
Installation of the M1 is easy enough and consists of fitting the plastic tabs under the edge of the sound hole so they sandwich the top between them and the corresponding wings of the face plate. When tightened they gently hold the pickup in place. However, they are made to fit a dreadnought size guitar. I have had people say they managed to squeeze them into an OM, but I did not want to risk chipping off the edge of my sound hole. The good folks at Baggs informed me that all that was needed was an emery board to file down the farthest edge of the tabs that fit inside the guitar. Only a tiny bit needs to be filed off, so if you try this at home don't over do it. The tabs contribute to the top vibration transfer, so just take a little bit off and keep doing so until the tab will slip under the edge of the top.
Another feature is the well-insulated Mogami cable that resists breaks and shorts (a serious drawback of the Rare Earth is its skinny, little cord). Even cooler is the fact the cable can unplug from the pickup itself. Unfortunately the location of the plug makes it impractical to unplug it when the pickup is in place. So its only real purpose is for ease of storage when the M1 is out of the guitar. I hope future versions will allow one to plug and unplug the chord while leaving the pickup installed in the sound hole. This would be welcomed by players of vintage instruments who will never wish to install an endpin jack but don't want to have to detune the strings and take the pickup out whenever they want that cord out of the way.
The box includes an array of accessories to aid in permanent installation and a small hex wrench for adjusting the poll pieces. This will allow a player to dial in the right amount of balance between the electric detection of the string tone and the vibration sensing of the guitar's top and body tone. They also come with extra poll pieces for people using nickel strings and any of the poll pieces may be removed and replaced should there be a problem with them.
The LR Baggs M1 is a well designed piece of equipment with a collection of features that improve upon the magnetic pickups that came before it while applying innovative technology that add in sonic dimensions previously missing in sound hole pickups. It provides players with a low maintenance, reasonably priced and professional quality option for amplifying their acoustic guitar. I did take issue with the fact I needed to shave down the tabs to get them in an OM size guitar and feel the placement of the cord plug could have been better thought out. I also wish it could be installed without having to detune the strings, as is the case with many other pickups. But the important thing is how it sounds and that is very good. To these jaded, picky ears it still sounds like an electrified pickup, but there is a lot more to the actual guitar in its sound than I ever expected to find in a magnetic sound hole pickup. Baggs has recently introduced an active version of the M1 that has a volume control wheel. I think both versions will prove very popular.
Of a possible 8 notes on the T Spoon Scale of Guitaracity I give the LR Baggs M1 pickup a magnetic 6 Notes.
TSP, NYC
