L.R.Baggs Anthem

I have been playing acoustic guitar for 45 years as professional in clubs. As such I have been through almost every system that has been available since that time, always searching for "the acoustic sound of the guitar". In the 1970's I started with the Barcus Berry hot dots and up to the Fishman Blender System, and everything else in between.
The L. R. Baggs Anthem system is the latest in the search and, in my opinion, the best yet.
One nice thing about the Anthem is that, apart from the hole for the end pin jack, no cutting is necessary for preamps in the sides of the guitar. The preamp fits perfectly inside the sound hole with access to the controls at the upper edge of the sound hole.

The controls:
Master volume, a phase switch, which is a great option, a blend switch which can give you the condenser mic alone or a personal mix with the under saddle pickup. The under-saddle pickup takes care of the bottom end lower frequencies, which I believe has a crossover at 250Hz. There is a battery test button where there are 5 green lights that show how much life is left in the battery. Finally there is a trim control for the adjusting the optimal mic volume for the particular guitar. All of the above functions give meaning and all work to satisfaction. I have had no problems at all.

The Anthem is definitely a great system and by far the best acoustic system that I have tried. There is great depth in the sound where you have the clear sound of the condenser mic, which I sometimes use for direct recording, and the mix with the under-saddle for live playing inhibiting mic feedback and insuring proper volume and bottom end.

While the optimal onboard system has not been built yet the L. R. Baggs Anthem for acoustic guitar will definitely be the one to beat for those involved in creating optimal acoustic guitar amplification in the future.

I always thought acoustic guitars sound bad live and there's little to do about it, until I discovered LR Baggs. I use this mic/piezo combo system on 3 acoustic guitars (a Cort dreadnought, a Norman 12 string, and a small craft-made old guitar), and I looooooove the sound and I've never encountered any problem.
If you're looking for something that makes your guitar amplified sound close to its actual sound, then the Anthem is what you want.

note: I used to play with Fishman and Shadow piezo pickups before...now they belong to the bin. If only I had tried LR Baggs before, I would have saved lots of money and been more relaxed onstage.

I replaced the original L.R. Baggs undersaddle acoustic pickup on the Gibson songwriter deluxe studio with L.R. Baggs ANTHEM acoustic guitar pickup & microphone.
Before replacing the guitar was only useful for live performances, for direct recording via cable, the pickup does not work very well. ANTHEM pickup & microphone me solve this problem as accurately as possible balance between the microphone and pickup. Pickup gives better bass, microphone is better tomidle and treble and a more natural sound of the guitar. Guitar sound is now much better and more natural live and in the studio.

These are great pick ups, a little bit more expensive than a lot of pickups out there, but having messed around for years trying different ones, money well spent. Easy to fit, easy to use, I put this pickup on one of my Blueridge acoustics, and it is stupendous. Sensible easy to use volume and tone controls, rich even sound quality and wonderful 'true' tones, this is a great pickup. I have also the same pick up on one of my 12 strings and it just sounds amazing. Highly recommended, especially if you have a half decent guitar, this pickup will enhance whatever style or guitar that you play and make you sound better 5***** !!!!

The best pickup system for steel acoustic guitars, I've tried. Very natural sounding. This unit has a little bit lower gain compared to the Fishmann active systems. But its sound quality is more natural and that's really not an issue with a quality acoustic amp (AER, Schertler) Using it with a mixer, or with multiFX sounds also good, but something is missing. Yeah, there are some other magic within those amps. I found that magic in the L.R. Baggs Session pedal, which is a multi-band compressor unit especially for acoustic guitar. With that pedal the L.R. Baggs Anthem sounds amazing. Really studio quality sound without microphones at stage.
I can't be happier!

Actually this is my first review (as far as I can remember) but this pickup is worth it. I received birthday present for my birthday a coupon of 300€ - too little for a new guitar and too much to buy couple packs of strings or picks. So I searched how can I upgrade my existing gear and stumbled upon pickups, because on the stage my acoustic guitar sounded mediocre.

After hundreds of youtube videos I chose LR Baggs Anthem and was amazed how it transformed my sound. No more squeaky piezo sound! LR Baggs could pay me for being their ambassador, all I do is just perform live and after every other concert musicians/sound engineers ask me what pickup I use, few of them already changed their pickups to LR Baggs.

The main reason for this pickup sounding great is microphone. Usually I use it on 80% and about 20% piezo sound. Feedback isnt an issue, it starts to feedback only if I come really close to wedge monitors.

So I highly recommend L.R.Baggs Anthem because its really worth it.