L.R Baggs M1 active

[mikko]

I bought the m1a in last week. Is the para-acoustic di preampbox good companion with m1a? Does it improve the sound much? Players, do you have firsthand experience? Thanks!

[Michael Newsom]

Hi mikko. Im mike, the marketing director for baggs. Thanks for joining. The m1a has preamp built into it, but it will benefit significantly from the para or venue di. First, the m1a is a 3 volt system that will benefit from boost of a para di. Also, magnetic pickups sound a lot smoother if you cut some mids between 1.5-2 k. There is also a balanced signal output that will allow a strong signal to the board. Let me know if this helps.

[ChristianD]

Hi Mikko,
I am using the M1 in my acoustic guitar (dreadnought) and in my Weissenborn in combi with the Venue. I agree with Michael and like to add, that it is important to adjust the pole pieces of the M1 to achieve the best results. This is depending on the guitar and the strings you are using.

[Adrian Dooley]

A quick semi related question.
I use m1a into para - lead out the sound hole .
i also use fishman saddle thru another para DI and some join the outputs sometimes crudely blend these in a mini mixer.
I ofter add pair of condensors at 12th fret for live , i know quite OTT but the sound can be gorgeous from martin 12 guage.

The question : simply joining 2 paras outputs and back into a single AER acousticube chanel may not be good practice ????
I use the m1's gain to balance the 2 on board transducer.
I do all this to avoid drilling a second hole in my guitat , a steroe lead if the battery wasnt using part of the conector would have ben easier.

Adrian

[Jwood1]

Using the M1a without modifying your guitar for the strapjack

For anyone who would like to use the M1a in a guitar without modifying it by drilling a hole for the strapjack:

I loaned my M1a to a friend to use in his Martin without any strapjack. I bought the necessary adapter plugs at Radioshack for $10.00. 1. an 8', 1/8" stereo male to 1/8" stereo female headphone extension cord. 2. a 1/8" mono male to 1/4" mono female adapter plug. Plug the 1/8" stereo male into the pickup and mount into the guitar with the cord hanging out of the soundhole. Plug the 1/8" mono male to 1/4" mono female adapter into the other end. Plug any regular 1/4" guitar cord into the 1/4" female and into your amp and you're done. Works perfectly. The headphone extension cord is small diameter and hangs down pretty unobtrusively from the soundhole.

I also confirmed with Tech support at LR Baggs that this is a perfectly fine setup. Furthermore, they confirmed that you can turn off the pickup by unplugging the 1/8" mono male to 1/4" mono female adapter from the headphone extension cord. You don't have to get inside the guitar to unplug it from the pickup. Pretty cool!

I searched for this information on the web and couldn't find anything on it. I am surprised Baggs doesn't make this option more widely known. There are a lot of people who would like to use the M1a without drilling a hole in their guitar. Furthermore, they could probably sell a lot more of them if people could try them out in their guitars before buying.

Jerry