LR Baggs Anthem

Mozzeroth

Hello! I wonder if someone could help me with this, I'm keen to install the LR Baggs Anthem SL on a Selmer style guitar with the small oval sound hole. I'm just wondering how this will work, as not only will it be incredibly difficult to get everything inside the guitar but also there is a gap under the ebony bridge that sits on the guitar body so I can't see how the pickup wire would work in this situation. Has anyone else tried this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. M

Twang

I may well have got this wrong but doesnt that system use a soundhole magnetic pickup? If so, those pickups don’t work with gypsy guitar strings cos of the different metal content. Apologies if I’ve got the wrong pickup.

Buco

Usually not a pickup of choice for a Selmer style guitar. They say SL model is using a mic and is voiced for nylon string and regular model is using under the saddle piezzo element ,in addition to condenser mic, which these guitars normally don't use in the the bridge. So you'd have to start with a custom bridge that's using the saddle under which the pickup element is installed. To get everything mounted inside unless you have extremely small hands you'd have to use a contraption of some sort to stick stuff inside the guitar. I've heard people have used wire coat hangers and bend them into custom tongues to sneak stuff inside and install it.

Mozzeroth

Thanks for the replies. Buco, it sounds like you are familiar with this setup, when you talk about a custom bridge do you mean having one specially made up to accommodate the piezo or do you think I could modify the existing bridge? Perhaps with a bone bridge taken off a regular acoustic that I could somehow slot underneath the one that's currently on there. I've read some rave reviews on this pickup and listened to some impressive recordings with it installed on steel string guitars, so if I can somehow figure out a way to rig it up, it could be the solution I'm after.

jared

I have installed these. Nice on dreadnought or OM style (etc) guitar. This is a system carefully designed for a completely different sort of instrument with a different method of sound production and radically different internal geometry from a Selmer style guitar.

There is a normally nice flat wide spot just behind the bridge pin holes in an x-braced flat-top guitar. The cool part of this pickup, the "tru-mic", is designed to stick there on that piece of hardwood that runs perpendicular to the grain. It is a sturdy, open, spot with a nice surface for sticking things and lots of strong vibration from the bridge. There is a some room in a Selmer-style guitar where you could put it. It would likely go either in front of or behind the central pair of perpendicular braces as it is not likely you could get it between them in the little "box" of bracing that sits under the bridge. If you were to do that it will end up being much further away from the bridge than on a flat top AND you'd be sticking right to a very thin spruce top rather than a robust piece of hardwood. All this would have to be accomplished with specialized tools for working inside the guitar though that tiny sound hole.

The other tricky element is the under-saddle transducer. Most Sel-Macc guitars don't have a separate bone saddle, though you could have one made as Buco suggests. A piece of bone is going to really change the acoustic sound of the guitar and likely not for the better.

Then the real problem - and this would be the real deal breaker for me - is that you have to find a place for the darn battery pack. You'd basically have to have a very tiny-handed and clever person nearby every time you changed the battery. Or else have that little battery pack hanging somewhere outside on the guitar waiting to get yanked off somehow.

Having installed this and many similar systems on dreadnoughts, my advice is don't do it on a Sel-Macc There are so many other ways to amplify these instruments - many available from this fine website. If you want a nice mic sound, get a mic that clips on and a little preamp.

Mozzeroth

Jared, thanks very much for your detailed reply. It all sounds like way too much of a headache to attempt to do so I will find an alternative. Having a mic sound would be very nice but I worry about the feedback. I will have a look to see what else is available, what a shame that this won't work. Thanks again.