L.R. Baggs iBeam

Pickup features: Active transducer
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: LoPrinzi M20
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: Marley soundhole
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): flat-picking and fingerpicking
Reason for pickup change: Unsatisfied with flat sound, unresponsiveness, noise (hiss) and unreliability of soundhole pickup

Perceived output level: about three times as hot as the Markley
Tone: very sharp, well-balanced, "open"-sounding; required a little eq adjustment (downward) on the bass side to avoid resonant feedback and boominess
Sonic evaluation: Mackey 808S PA; also playing sometimes at home thru my Peavey Special 130 electric guitar amp

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: folk, country, bluegrass

Comments: I am writing as a representative of those of us out there not too electronically sophisticated, and not so much into the gear, and too scared to cut holes and fuss around too much with a guitar's innards. I just like to play acoustic guitar and want it to sound good. If I could, I would just prefer to use a mike for the best amplified acoustic sound, if only it weren't such a nuisance to stay next to it without banging into it or feeding back.
This pickup appealed to me based on some testimonies from salesmen, plus the fact that it didn't require any holes in the top. I was too impatient to wait for a pro installation and after reading the instructions I was convinced I could install it myself. I found it very easy. I was worried about cutting the tailpiece hole for the strap jack but even that worked out very well- I just drilled successively larger pilot holes with standard drill bits up to about 5/16; then drilled the remainder with a standard flat 1/2" bit. All drilling was done thru a piece of masking tape to minimize splintering- none occurred. The jig worked great, I think. I unfortunately misplaced the sticky tape for the jig and used some standard double-stick tape which I hope held the beam in place while I slipped it underneath the soundhole. If it stayed where I intended, it would have been exactly under the saddle.
The sound is terrific thru the PA. Just a joy to play. I compared it side by side with the old Markey soundhole pickup, which I know most here would say is the low end of pickups. The difference was like night and day, mud and lemonade. Just way brighter, more sensitive, an open, realistic sound. I am real happy with it. I can't wait to debut it in a live setting.
I also tried playing it thru my electric guitar amp and had to do massive adjustment cutting the lows to prevent the bass from getting too boomy. I suspect this is more an incompatibility in the amp than a flaw in the pickup, based on the excellent sound from the PA. I suppose if I was more ambitious I would try unsticking the i-beam and trying another location but I just prefer to leave well enough alone. I'd rather just adjust the EQ.

Pickup features: bridge plate transducer (active)
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: om Santa Cruz
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: none
Other pickups on guitar: none
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): blues, bluegrass,fingerstyle,
Reason for pickup change: Advice of the guys that sell lots of pickups. They have not personally heard one that had been installed yet. These guys know the sound I've been looking for in an acoustic pickup

Perceived output level: I have the active model and its as hot as most factory installed fishmans
Tone: I installed the pickup myself and though it has a mouting jig , I decided to use a mirror and experiment with different locations . The second try got it where it sounds the best . It has plenty of mids and highs without the piezo effect , very natural. It does have a tendency to get booomy if I had it centered on the saddle so I leaned towards sliding the whole ibeam towards the treble side of the saddle about 1/8-3/16 of an inch off center. That hit what I was looking for without too much boom. I have owned a lot of guitars with onboard pickups which are hard to beat. And I can honestly say this simple to install setup will compete with the best. I never thought I'd sell my alvarez wy1 I used exclusively for stage because it was so clean quiet and really sonic, but its no longer needed 'cause I got my most favoite guitar to sound just as good if not better.
Sonic evaluation: I use a California Blonde and also have a sans-amp,and a boss ge7 eq. depending on what instrument I play determines which preamp I use. With the boss eq and the enhancer on the blonde tweeked at 1/3rd I've got the most natural sounding acoustic guitar suitable to play about any style of music I know and with all the sonic punch needed to fill any noisy cafe or small bar.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable:

Comments: I'd rate this a 10 and would replace it in a heartbeat

Pickup features: under saddle transducer
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Yamaha LS-10
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: This guitar did not have a pickup
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup: Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne
You musical style(s): I play in a Gospel Rock band and also for Sunday morning worship
Reason for pickup change: no prior pickup ( I almost bought a dual source but waited for this one to come out after seeing the advertisement. )

Perceived output level:
Tone: Very natural acoustic tone, not too bright
Sonic evaluation: This is very good sounding pickup and I am well pleased so far. Very natural acoustic tone.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Great for close too true acoustic tone. If you are looking for a bright cut through the mix sound, this isn't it.

Comments: I am satisfied with the pickup and I feel that it performs as advertised. I have the active version and installed it myself. I had planned on having a shop do it but after reading the instructions it was fairly simple and the only tough part was drilling the hole for the end jack. The jig worked great and made it very straight foward. I wish it had the peanut volume control like on the dual source so I use my Boss GT-3 as preprocessor for eq and volume. My only complaint would be that it is very sensitive to any vibration of the guitar body. My LS-10 is a 00 sized hand made solid wood guitar is very resonant. When we practice in my band's studio, which is fairly small, I stand in front of one JBL's and it is plenty loud. When I am not playing, the acoustic sits on its stand, I have to shut the volume down on the GT-3 because the bass coming through the monitor mix causes the body to vibrant and start to hum back through the mix. The same thing happens at church when the organ is cranking. I guess this is the price you pay for having such a natural sound.

Pickup features: Active soundboard transducer in the form of a beam (hence the name) adhered to the bridge plate.
Impedence or other specs: The active iBeam is low impedance (around 600 ohms, for what that's worth) and comes with the beam, the battery holder and an endpin jack/preamp. Oh yes, they also include a nifty little jig to position the pickup on the bridge plate, using the enpin holes as a guide. Very clever, although guitars that have pinless bridges (ie: all the lucky Lowden owners...) have to do it the old fashioned way, with mirrors and guide holes.

Model of guitar or bass: Cort NTL 50 Jumbo.
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: None, this was an experiment (generally, I prefer the baggs dual source, or for altered reality, the sunrise or rare earth series)
Other pickups on guitar: None
Artists using this pickup: Particularly Jackson Browne, but also Danny Heines (outrageous!) Janis Ian, Bonnie Rait and other beta testers. Several luthiers Beta testing as well.
You musical style(s): Fingerstyle, with nails and alternate tunings (esp. DADGAD). Also a ton of vocal accompaniment, as I perform around 175 shows a year with my vocalist wife/songwriting partner.
Reason for pickup change: Baggs claimed that the pickup was more dynamic and natural than their stellar dual source. I wanted to see for myself. The early buzz was good and I'm always open to a better live sound, for sure...

Perceived output level: The iBeam that I have is the active version, with a pre eq'd preamp connected to an endpin jack. The pickup also comes in a passive version, designed to mate with various other baggs products. More on that later. Suffice to say that the output of the iBeam active is as hot as any active (battery powered) pickup, for example the Ribbon Transducer, the fishman copolymer and rare earth series and other makers 9 volt under the saddle systems. More than enough for any sane application. The output varies a bit, depending on where one sticks the thing, but again, I can plug right into any mixer, amp or recording deck using any length cable.
Tone: Freakishly microphonic. I had the opportunity to attend the release at this year's NAMM and Lloyd Baggs told me that he was done making pickups. Evidently, he feels that he can concentrate on electronics now that "natural" has been achieved. There is some sonic evidence that he may be right. The sound of the cort jumbo comes through almost exactly as the guitar sounds in the open air. Complete with finger squeaks on the fretboard, and all of the other idiosyncracies of the guitar. It's kind of unreal. As far as terms such as bassy, balanced, muddy or crisp; the answer is a question: What does your guitar really sound like?
Sonic evaluation: Right up front, I need to say that I like the folks at Baggs, and I may be biased. They seem to be pleasant people and I have used a lot of their product, both stage and studio (I'm not paid or anything, but I am a major fan because their stuff has made my life easier over the last several years). Also, please, please consider this a preliminary review -no one besides Danny Heines has had one of these things for long. I know that there must be some folks who have been waiting for an H-C review, so here I go. I may want to expand a bit on this submission in the future. So far I have used this guitar/pickup for a few wine bars, a few coffeehouses, a few solo guitar tracks with a Roland vs-1680 and one show at a mid size (750 seat) theatre. Remember when I said that the operative question is what does your guitar sound like? This pickup is a genuine alternative to a microphone (finally) which can lead us to some philosophical questions. First off, I have gotten a lot of comments on the sound of this pickup. My favorite luthiere/tech guy is buying one to put in his mega-expensive Goodall Claro Walnut/Englemann Concert guitar based on the response of my "Fluffy, the pet jumbo" el cheapo-try everything guitar. (He is, by the way a dealer for Baggs, Fishman, EMF <B-Band> and a bunch of other stuff. for more than half a decade, Rick has been watching and waiting for a pickup to soil his baby with...) "Natural" has finally arrived. The Buzz Feiten/John Bolin modified (every guitar should have this mod done) Cort that I am using to check this thing out is over 16 inches at the lower bout and over 5 inches deep at its widest point. Any time I put a condenser mic (ie: akg 414, AT 4033, or R?de NT-1) on it, I expect to cut at least 6db or so at around 300hz, 3db at 6khz and maybe dink a bit more. My first location was right under the bridge line. The first time I lit into the Roland disc recorder, I was pretty blown away by the sound. Guess what though? the iBeam needed about 6db down at 300 to clean it up and balance out. It was also really agressive in the high end. Interestingly, this guitar is a fairly new sruce top, and a cheap one at that, and can be a bit harsh when I first start playing. After a few hours, the iBeam's recorded sound was more pleasant, much less crisp. Easily noticeable when comparing tracks. This seems to confirm the legend that new guitars can "warm up" when first played every day for the first several months or a year or so. Obviously, at this point, I am beginning to feel that this pickup will faithfully amplify the sonic fingerprint of one's acoustic guitar. Next,

Comments: If this pickup were lost or stolen (aside from being grateful that it was my workhouse guitar that was removed from my life, and not my parker or something) I would get another for sure. Nothing sounds more natural and they are relatively inexpensive. In fact, if you already have a good preamp like the para DI, check out the passive ibeam, which will likely street for around a hundred bucks. That's a lot cheaper than a good condenser mic and easier to dial in live for sure. I have been at this over twenty years, despite my gen-x status, and I have played them all. (Except England's Headway, which Pierre Bensusan makes fabulous sounds with). I have compared this pickup to all of the "name" acoustic, at least in experience, if not back to back. I have a bad habit that way. Ask my wife/vocalist. (vocalists can pick one good high end stage condenser mic and sing through it until they die. In your dreams, guitarists...) I have done "back to back" a lot in the week since the iBeam arrived, however. I have recorded, or recorded with, all of the standard high end pickups from the big two (Baggs & Fishman), and I dig this pickup a lot. The dual source is a damn fine rig, but it is hard to install yourself and it costs way more for no more sound. The Fishman Rare Earth is great if you like the sound of a Jazz box in a flat top. The Sunrise is just plain cool, but nobody ever said it was "natural". I haven't even scratched the surface of the iBeam options, but if the beam alone was as cool as it got, it would be enough to warrant a look. I love the texture and microphonic sound. (If I am facing a bass heavy PA with "Fluffy" and no EQ, I hate the microphonic sound.) It is what you make of it. I forgot to ask Mr. Baggs if you could yank the mic off of the dual source and wire the iBeam to the preamp. THAT would be interesting...I will defininately get a Para DI and keep tweaking, because I think that this pickup might just be cable of the "holy grail" thing with enough TLC. I may as well skip the rating, since every new pickup is a "10", I mean, no one spends their hard earned money on crap if they can help it. That said, this might just be a ten for now...I am thus far impressed.