L.R. Baggs Para Acoustic DI

Received it several weeks ago. I had a $100 gift card from Sam Ash, so it only cost me $59.99. I'm still tweaking the sound between my 4 acoustic guitars, and trying to find a happy medium so I'm not changing pre-amp and amp settings everytime I swap out guitars. The manual is brief, but gives good basic controls descriptions in layman's terms. Like some other reviewers, I'm not totally adept at all the technical nomenclature, and couldn't tell you the differences in Hz's. I just know what sounds good to me. Hell, I haven't ever found an electrical engineer or licensed electrician that is able to explain the difference between 110 and 120 volts AC!

The 4 acoustic/electrics I use are:
1) Takamine EF341SC 6 string A/E, CT-4BII preamp, palathetic PU
2) Ovation CS245 12 String A/E, OP24+ preamp, piezo PU
3) Cort MR-710 6 string A/E, Fishman Classic4 preamp, piezo PU
4) Ovation '74 Balladeer A/E, no onboard preamp, piezo PU

I run them through a Fender Acoustasonic Junior DSP amp (channel 1-guitar-uses a 1/4" jack. I use channel 2 (XLR) for an SM58 vocal mic). This is basically my amp/PA setup when I play small to mid-sized venues, and is definitely loud and full sounding, without using an actual PA system.

Between the onboard preamps of 3 of the guitars (the Balladeer doesn't have one), the Baggs pedal, and the numerous DSP settings on the Acoustasonic, I'm not too proud to admit that it can be somewhat confusing and time consuming setting the levels to get the right sound without feedback. Both the Para DI and the Acoustasonic amp have invert/polarity switches for feedback control, along with the Baggs notch. 3 of the 4 guitars have standard single soundholes, and I use FeedBack busters when plugged in, to control FB. The CS245 12 string has those weird different sized soundholes on either side of the base of the neck (who was the stoner engineer at Ovation that decided to do that, as well as make the rounded back?...however, they both produce great tone...as long as I sit down, and those damn roundbacks aren't rolling off my gut when I stand up).

As far as quietness, it seems very quiet. My entire acoustic setup is quiet. However, my electric set up is a different story (Gibson Les Paul, Jr, Amer. Std Strat (without lace sensors), Gibson Sonex 180 Custom, plugged into a '78 Fender all-tube 90+ lb. monster Super Twin Reverb (you could fry eggs on this thing) and my backup Rivera-era Super Champ (schweet). Playing acoustics through electric tube amps is not an option, and just not kosher. That's what PA's and acoustic amps are for. Only effects are a reissue TS8 Tubescreamer and DOD Stereo Chorus, that's it. I actually use the Tubescreamer with my accoustic setup on a few tunes. Sounds weird, but it works for certain songs.

One thing that people neglect are their strings. I prefer Elixir Nanowebs (lights on both the 6 & 12 string). I always wipe off my crud (oil, sweat, dead skin, beer, and smoky venues) from the strings when I'm done for the night. There is nothing less inspiring than dead sounding strings. A crisp, resonant sound does wonders. I've also recently switched from plastic end pins to Tusq and Bone pins. Fossilized walrus is best, but very $. The sustain is longer and clearer than standard ABS plastic, and when strings do break, it's not due to the bridge pins. But I prefer the straight-thru setup of the Ovations.

I usually use the Tak 6 string and Ovation 12 string live, so I don't have to tweak everything too much. I've put small white-out ticks on all 3 sets of controls (guitar/Para preamps and amp) to remind me where my semi-"sweet spot". I'm sure that time will reveal the holy grail of settings that work for me. My main issue has always been volume. If anyone here can help with that, please let me know. In other words, of the 3 different volume settings (onboard preamp, Para DI, and amp settings), which should be higher and which lower? This never seems to be covered anywhere.

That being said, until I find my actual "sweet spot", if this pedal was lost or broken, I'm not so sure I would rush to shell out the $160 for a new one. Granted, it's so much cheaper than rack mounts, and there definitely is a difference in tonal quality without it, but as of yet, I still haven't noticed the amazing difference that others swear by. The main difference I can tell is with the old Balladeer, which has no onboard preamp, so the Para real does shape and accentuate the positives of that incredible sounding guitar.

The few times I haven't used the Para DI (when I plug into a house PA for open mics) I do notice the difference without it (lows, mids, and highs aren't nearly as defined as with the Baggs pedal), but who brings acoustic pedals to open mics? There would only be more adjustments to conform to the house board for maybe 6 songs. Not worth it, plus I'm usually inebriated at open mics, so I'd probably forget the pedal and the extra cord I'd bring.

Haven't had to contact Baggs directly, but the website seems to have a decent support section, as well as online manuals in .pdf format.

Acoustically, I play a mixture of classic and alternative country and rock. Having played in electric bands for years, I approach acoustic shows in the same manner. A mixture of hard strumming/picking along with softer finger picking, but faster than most acoustic players. There is nothing more boring than listening to some lame acoustic player ramble on about the story of his/her song, and play rythym during where the lead licks. I say $hit or get off the pot. On the 122 string, you can add cool lead runs and fake it since they sound so cool (or use a harmonica for leads). It's fun to put your own spin on other's songs. Solo acoustic allows you to make more $ (sorry, I'm a capitalist), but focuses all attention on the individual. In other words, hit a wrong note or sing flat, and all eyes are upon you. I've been playing many years, but with breaks between, when I didn't even pick up a guitar.

Bottom line, for the $, this seems like a good shaping pedal, and definitely changes the tonal quality of my semi-decent acoustics. Once I've mastered the settings, I'll post another review. Thanks, for the great state of mind, known as Texas.

My Baggs box arrived today. I read the instruction sheet, plugged it in and within half an hour had a sound that I would plug into any PA or amp with confidence. GREAT instruction sheet.

The Para DI gives you a lot of control to fine-tune your sound. I use a soundhole plug and have never had feedback problems; this lets me use the feedback notch as another means of EQ. I'm fiddle with the Presence control and the Phase Invert switch. This box is excellent (quiet too).

Over half the instruction sheet deals with finding the right gain for your axe, and while I doubt I have the perfect Sweet Spot quite yet, it's light years ahead of the sound I was getting with just the amp.

No idea yet, but it feels extremely sturdy.

No contact yet.

I've been performing for forty years on drums, keys and guitar. I've been gigging acoustic solo or in duos and trios for three years now.

I play fingerstyle folk/country/pop on a Taylor 110E through wither a PA or a Fender Acoustasonic Junior. Working with the Junior tonight, I finally feel that I can present the Taylor sound live without relying on the sound tech du jour.

I had bought a cheapo in-line preamp, which blew. I've played through Fishman preamps that I was not permitted to reset (understandable). I was not anxious to spend more on a preamp than I paid for my guitar, and bought the Baggs untested after researching and checking the reviews here.

The Para Acoustic DI is a fairly straight forward pre-amp. The only knobs that get a little confusing is the Notch and Mid knobs. The notch is used to eliminate feedback and it eliminates it at relative frequencies related to guitar strings. It's easy enough to sweep the frequencies and find the one that is causing the issue, so it's not the end of the world. The Mid know can cut-out or boost a certain frequency depending on the one you select. This gets tricky if you have no idea of which frequency is causing problems or is lacking. Again, sweeping the range can help dial in the sound--it's just not easy to turn and go.

My K & K Pure Mini Western pickup sounded awful before I bought this pre-amp. Muddy, plastic, artificial. I was about to wring the neck of my local guitar guy. Luckily, he got to the guitar cable first and plugged me into the Para Acoustic DI. I was amazed. My guitar sounded like... my guitar. I use it primarily through a PA system but it works equally as well through my Fender Ultimate Chorus amp.

This DI box is built extremely well with an all-metal housing that is solid. Everything feels tight and secure. I wouldn't (haven't) need a back up when using this box.

I have had no reason to contact the company, and I assume I never will.

I play music from all sorts of styles--country blues, rock, finger-picking. I find this DI works for all of those styles and in a host of situations. I have been playing for 15 years, and I would say this is the best tone I have heard out of my acoustic set up. I love that I can pull a specific frequency out to make my sound natural. I also like the effects send and return so I can have a volume pedal or a tuner while playing acoustic. That is a great feature that does not accompany all DI boxes.
I played through an Avalon U5 shortly before purchasing this DI. I couldn't get the right sound after tweaking for several hours. With this, it took all of 10 minutes to have a sound I could live with and maybe 30 minutes to get I sound I loved. This is a great product.

I have an average knowledge of sound mixing, so this took me less than an hour of playing around before I had the perfect sound. This is NOT and effects pedal folks. This is much like plugging into one channel of a very good quality mixer, except it's at your feet which is great when you're on stage. If you don't have mixing experience, then follow the directions step by step. The single most important step is getting the input gain set properly, if you don't bother to do that right the rest will not sound as good. You basically keep turning it up and strumming your guitar hard until you hear it start to break-up (or overdrive) then just back it off a hair until it's clean again...voila, you have the perfect input volume. That gives you the best sound to noise ratio, from there it's easy to tweak. Oh yeah, the phase inverter is important as well, this should be set properly right away, you'll know how to set it because one way gives you feedback and one way doesn't depending on your gear. Anyway, fool around with it for a while, it's not going to sound perfect right out of the box, because you have to tweak it for your setup...that's the whole point anyway isn't it?

Sound Quality is the sole purpose I bought this. I can reproduce very accurately the sound of my Martin Custom Acoustic guitar through ANY P.A. system, and even through my Fender Amp if you can believe that!!! Go in any room, with any setup, plug your guitar into the Para (assuming you have a good quality pickup) and within a few minutes you can tweak your sound so it is extremely transparent and believable. I play many shows with my Martin (equipped with an I-Beam Active system) plugged into the Para DI, and into my Fender Amp. I don't know how many people came up to me and said "that sounds great through the P.A." and I tell them "It's not through the P.A., it's through my Fender" and I watch their jaws drop. It's funny actually.... The only down side I can even think of is that I would like perhaps one more level of e.q. for the bass frequencies, but it still gives me tons of room for tweaking.

I can totally depend on it. I always use it at all my gigs without a backup. The only issue is that according to the manual a 9 volt battery should give you 1000 hours, but I use it every week for gigging, and I find it gives me 100 hours before the light starts to fade. Oh well, at least it's super easy to change the battery, just slip it in. And I can always use phantom power if I'm going through a PA, in which case I don't need a battery at all.

Never had it repaired. I'm sure they are fine to deal with.

I have the best acoustic sound in my city PERIOD. I'm not sure if it's because I play a Martin Custom, or if it's the I-Beam Active pickup, or the Para DI, but I know that without the Para it doesn't sound nearly as good and it feeds back like a bitch. So this saved my sound!!! I don't worry about feedback at all, my sound is balanced from string to string, and I can walk into any bar with any P.A. system and tweak the settings on the Para to sound fantastic. This thing is noisless as well by the way. I use George L's for cables which are highly shielded. I think anybody with noise problems has to look either at their cables, pickup, amp, PA, or a million other things, but not the Para. I would buy another in a heartbeat. It Kills anything that Fishman makes.

If you plug in, the sound is immediately warmer than before.
It's not easy though to make it perfect.
The two notch-knobs make it a bit more difficult to get it just right.

violin- para di- boss dd-20 gigadelay - mixing desk
Lr baggs claims the para di is the least noisy one of the bunch.
Sound is good.

I guess I can trust it totally.

I play violin.
a sometimes athmospheric kind of jazz/pop/rock.
Anything I wish it had? Presets!

You need batteries or 48V phantom power.
I wish it had an adapter.

After reading the instructions (or see manual at lrbaggs.com) I don't know how it could be simpler to operate. It gives the player full control over sound shapes as well as feedback.

Super quite, super sweet. Along with a quality pickup (baggs or fishman) it sounds superb and very much like a condenser mike on recordings. Adds everything to a live PA mix. Used it in dozens of applications. Would not play acoustic without it!

After much use and knocking it around a short in the xlr jack developed. Contacted LR Baggs and they took care of it in a flash!

On a 1 to 10 scale, a definite 10. Much intergity and lightening speed. They know you are depending on it for you next gig. In an age of sorry customer support, they outshine the rest!

If it was stolen or damaged, I would not even shop around. I'd get another ASAP. Has every feature I could want. Makes my music sparkle and gives me tons of tone options as well as feedback control. An enthusiastic two thumbs up!

Within 5 minutes of plugging in the Para DI, I was getting a much-improved sound out of my Martin SP00016TR. Within fifteen minutes, I was dialing in some excellent acoustic tone. Within a half an hour, I had totally forgotten about the thing as was just digging the sound my guitar was making. And this was out of a tiny Marshall
G15R practice amp. I really didn't have to tweak this thing much to get it sounding great; most of my time was spent just fiddling with the knobs to see what they each did. The manual does a good job of explaining how it operates, but I'm more of a hands-on learner. Even if you don't understand the technicalities of parametric EQ, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know when his guitar sounds good. The notation of individual notes on the notch filter is interesting and useful for isolating feedback, but I never got any feedback, so I used it to shape some of the low mids. Be sure to read the manual regarding the gain and volume relationship befoe you plug into a PA.

My Martin was retrofitted with a Fishman under-saddle piezo pickup. It has no onboard tone or volume controls whatsoever. Just an endpin jack. So I run it through a Morley volume pedal and then into the Para DI. Having gone from NO tone-shaping ability beyond what's on the PA to having total control at my feet has been remarkable. You can set the PA channel EQ utterly flat, and then dial up whatever you like. I wanted a more resonant bass and a little less *sparkle* at the very high end, and this was a no-brainer. It seems that just plugging into the Para DI rids the guitar of the annoying plastic sound of the piezo. Mind you, it still doesn't sound like a Martin played though an AKG condenser mike placed at the 14th fret, exactly five inches from the strings. But it sounds a hell of a lot better than any raw piezo-straight-thru-the-board. It's quiet as can be (again, read the manual regarding gain and volume), and gives you TOTAL flexibility of tone, as long as you're willing/able to fuss with it until you get something you like. But honestly, unless I purposefully crank one of the knobs all the way up or down, I can't get a "bad" sound out of this thing. Subtlety is the key with EQ. Start with everything at 12 o'clock, and then go from there. You'll be impressed. I used this to record an acoustic backing track, and while I still prefer a mic for that application, for recording a rough mix or getting down a sudden inspiration, it's hard to beat the plug-and-play simplicity.

Seems rugged. I don't plan to carry a spare.

n/a

For my situation, which is a very nice acoustic with a pickup and NO onboard controls, this is the only way to go. I play in an acoustic singer/somgwriter duo, and I record a lot in my project studio. This tool will be indispensible for both applications. I also plan to try running a mic and my electric through it for recording, just to see what happens. With a tube pre and this much EQ control, I think I can overcome some of the ultra-high-end hissiness that my condenser mic produces when recording vocals. But even if I only use it live with the Martin through the PA, it will be money well spent, as it takes the tone-shaping out of the hands of the soundman and puts it back where it belongs.

I'm submitting this review a matter of hours since first plugging in because I'm absolutely stunned by what this thing did to my upright. Without having 2 change the controls at all it immediately brought my acoustic sound to life. Added clarity and presence when flat and gives good toneshaping. The real benefit however is the feedback reduction. Just to test I played my amp on full volume right behind my bass with the notch filter, then with phase inversion, then with both. I actually tried to get feedback and couldn't. Make sure you go easy on the gain though, this thing is HOT!

I bought this box second hand off ebay. It's quite a simple unit, input, output, DI out. No on/off switch, but why would you ever want to turn it off? Killer gain, really added some volume and depth to my piezo. The EQ has low, sweepable mid, and high, and also features a notch filter and presence control - both very useful. Also features phase inversion in case the notch filter doesn't get your feedback completely. Also has an effects loop, but this is by way of stereo jack rather than input-output.

Haven't had it long enough to know. Seems solid though.

Again, N/A.

I've been playing upright jazz for about 4 years and have had hellish feedback problems. This really sorted my tone out. I'd recommend it to anyone. I play: Bass - K+K Bass Max Pickup - Para Acoustic DI - Warwick CL 112. Have to say it's a great little set up. I just hope it's as reliable as it is great sounding!

Ok... As others noted, signal is really hot and easy to overload. So careful set up is really important. Other than that It is pretty easy.

With either a Martin/Fishman, A Yari Dy-62, or a Gibson Electric Classical the sound is VERY piezo and easily distorted. I found it was somewhat useful for reducing feedback but little else. Really poor low Q response.

Company has a good reputation but I am not keeping it so I have no opinion.

See Above

I play Country, R & B, Jazz, Blues and Folk live and in the studio. I am selling the Para DI to a bass player I know as several other acoustic bassists we know highly recommend it fir that use. I am going to go for the Sans-Anp Acoustic DI.

Bought it, not bad.. returned it and bought a platinum from Fishman.
Much better unit. More professional quality and features

Too hot DI... that's my main reason for buying it. returned it
two days later.

built well. Your standard metal case you can buy from
radio shack. what's up with that.

didn't bother.

not something I would buy. My guitarist shared it with me and I
thought it was not up to the rigors of touring and playing 4 gigs a
week. Bought a Fishman Platinum EQ, which I'm really happy with
as are most of the soundpeople I deal with.