Volume differences between 2 guitars, both with Anthem pickups

[scotty-burford]

Hi there.
My Martin D18 has had an Anthem in it for some time. Fantastic results. I decided to put an Anthem into a Taylor. The output between the two guitars is significantly different even when the level is set to full on both.
I have a Session DI, and with the Taylor set to full the meter is hardly going above the green. The Martin makes it clip very easily.
What would cause this? I had assumed the gain would be fairly similar coming from the pickups.
Thank you.

[Caleb_Elling]

Hey Scotty,
A lot of what you're experiencing comes down to the guitar itself (body size, bracing, etc.), but more specifically, the saddle material can play a big part in the overall output level of the Anthem. This is something that happens with lots of different types of pickup, but the Anthem does seem to be especially sensitive to some of these differences.

If you really need the two guitars to be closer in output level to each other, you may need to experiment with saddle materials to get both guitars to more of a "mid" level. It sounds like the Taylor is exceptionally quiet and the Martin is louder than you would usually see.

[scotty-burford]

Hi Caleb.
Thank you. The Taylor actually isn't that much different than the Martin in terms of volume when played as an acoustic instrument. The luthier who installed the Anthem has checked the Taylor's output against two other guitars with Anthem's and has determined there is an issue with the unit. He's been running some tests to determine which component on the system is at fault.
All the best.