Compatibility of I-mix with Miratone?

[David Brown]

Hurrah for LR Baggs! My only complaint about your equipment is how it's the first sound item to get stolen when I leave stuff behind at a gig

So, I've got a Tacoma Baritone guitar, and it came equipped with an LR Baggs Miratone pickup that leaves a bit to be desired, so I just ordered and received an Onboard Imix system to replace it. I'm wondering though, is there any difference between the Element pickup and the Miratone? If there's not one, could I save a few steps and just plug the Miratone into the Imix preamp, instead of the Element?

Thanks for your response!

-David

[Justin Rucker]

Hi David,

I just did some more research on the Miratone system. There is a slight difference between the under saddle pickup that came with later models of the Miratone system and the Element pickup. Some of the later models came with a coating on the pickup braid that hardened the pickup. This made the pickup sound a bit more punchy in the midrange.
If you have one of these pickups, it will sound different than an Element pickup with the iMix system. I would recommend replacing the under saddle pickup with the element.

[David Brown]

Re: I-mix and Miratone

Hey there Justin,

I really appreciate your response about the Miratone vs. Element pick up. If you are recommending the Element, I'll take your word for it, but it seems like keeping the under-the-saddle that was designed for the guitar might make sense. By the way, I was a little bit disappointed to see that the imix onboard is larger than the preamp for the miratone, but not a big problem. I noticed in the box that it said "IBEAM ONBOARD LARGE PREAMP CUTTING TEMPLATE" - does that mean that there's a smaller version of the onboard preamp, by chance?

Thanks again,
David

[Justin Rucker]

The under saddle pickup in that is currently in your guitar was optimized for both the Tacoma guitar and the Miratone preamp together, not just for the guitar. There is a different EQ for the pickup in the iMix preamp than there was in the Miratone preamp. While the Miratone preamp caters specifically to the pickup in your guitar, the iMix caters specifically to a standard Element pickup.

It might be a worthwhile experiment to see how your current under saddle pickup sounds going through the iMix. Though the iMix is not tuned for that pickup, you may find that you dig the tone you get out of it. However, we can only guarantee that you will get the L.R Baggs quality tone with the iMix if you use the Element pickup.

In regards to your other question, the onboard iMix preamp comes in only one size. We do offer two different versions of the iMix preamp. There is an "Onboard" version as well as an "Internal" version. The internal version of the iMix preamp is smaller and installed inside the guitar. For the internal system, the preamp is installed inside the guitar, so the EQ is typically preset during installation then left alone. It comes with a volume and mix control that mounts in the sound hole for easy fingertip access. (http://www.lrbaggs.com/imix.htm)