I recently purchased an L-03bw. i need to know what is a good pickup to install on it and get the natural sound of my guitar. I have heard about the Lr Baggs and the K&K. i read about the lr baggs picking up a lot of feedback and a few problems with K&K. i am not sure which is the best company or model to get but i could really use some advice on this. Oh ya and i also have an D-03R which has a cheaper passive under the saddle pickup that gives a plasticy tone, can anyone help me with a pickup for this guitar also?
Which L.R. Baggs pickup is it? You can get feedback with almost any pickup that uses a microphone or transducer. An UST(Undersaddle Transducer) like the Element is a little more feedback prone than the AST(Acoustic Soundboard Transducer) I-Beam.
If you dont want to worry about feeback get the L.R. Baggs M1 soundhole pickup. It is a magnetic pickup and it sounds very natural sounding, but it is a soundhole pickup and some peope dont like the looks of them.
I have an L.R. Baggs Imix which has both the Element UST and I-Beam AST. I run at about ~70% UST and ~30% AST. I find that the AST takes softens up the harshness a UST.
I have never used a K&K pickup, but I have heard good things about them. I'll let someone else talk about their pickups.
If you go buy a Feedback Buster you really shouldn't have a problem with feedback even in the loudest situations
is the imix fairly simple to switch b/w the element and ibeam? is this the one that has a volume controll which mounts on the side of your sound hole and has the knob that blends the two pickups together?
Yep it has two dials that are inside the soundhole on the side. One controls your volume and the other controls the mix of the two pickups. You can go from 100% Ibeam to 100% Element.
On the preamp box inside the guitar you can adjust your mid gain for the element. For the element you can adjust your low cut, mid gain, and overall pickup gain.
I really like the K&K Pure Western! :GRN>
i used a Baggs M1 passive and PADI with my L-03bw... it sounded GREAT. same pickup didn't fare too well with my martin d-16rgt though...
I installed the I Beam active on my Cort NTL20 sounds clean but sometime gets little humming but overall easy to install(thanked god for jig). Sound pretty natural too. try it you'll know.
I have an active iBeam in my L05 and love it. I've never had feedback problems (unless I'm sitting right in front of my Acoustasonic with the volume at 5). However, I do not play onstage with other instruments. If you are in a PA situation, I would assume you would use a feedback buster. Slip it in the soundhole and you have the same fine iBeam acoustic sound without feedback.