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I just recently installed an
LR Baggs Anthem Internal True Mic Pickup
in my Martin D18 acoustic. I was researching different acoustic guitar pickups as I was looking to have that full round warm miced studio sound when playing live.
I was looking for a pickup that would allow me to blend in a microphone with the undersaddle pickup. With the built-in microphone, I would have a much fuller tone when finger picking and could play percussive taps on the body of the guitar.
After many years of indecisive action, I found what I was looking for with the
LR Baggs Anthem Internal True Mic Pickup
system! As it has a built in microphone the soft nuances of percussive playing and finger picking come through my amp perfectly clear.

Features of the LR Baggs Anthem Internal True Mic Acoustic Guitar Pickup

Anthem Tru-Mic carries the majority of the guitars’ frequency range. This gives you the full round tone of the guitar body
The mic is highly feedback-resistant
Noise cancellation eliminates any annoying honky or boxy qualities inside the guitar
The Element Pickup carries only the lowest frequencies
One size fits most common string spacings and saddle widths
Even string-to-string balance
Soundhole preamp includes mix wheel, volume control, battery check, phase inversion and mic trim controls
Discrete class A preamp with preset crossover
Comes with Battery Bag for secure and unobtrusive battery retention

Why I had to have a microphone.

I wanted a true studio sound when playing live. No microphone modeling, no preamp modeling. No “it sounds like your guitar but it’s really not.” I wanted a real live microphone!

I have never been impressed with the sound of undersaddle pickups played by themselves. Without a microphone, they only pick up the vibrations from the strings. An electric guitar does this well but for an acoustic you lose the tone that the body adds.

This is not to say that I don’t use the undersaddle pickup. I always use it with the built in microphone to get the full spectrum of the guitar. But having a microphone built in to the pickup system was a must.

Why I chose to install the LR Baggs Anthem Internal True Mic Pickup over other pickups

The
LR Baggs Anthem Internal True Mic Pickup
was recommended highly by my local guitar tech. But can you really trust the guitar tech? He doesn’t play your style, right? And I mean he is in it just to sell you something right? 🙂

I had heard of the LR Bags Anthem but I really didn’t know much about it. This was not a pickup that came up during my research so I had not considered it.
I decided to have it installed after I discovered it required no mods to my vintage guitar’s body for installation.

After getting my guitar back, I am very impressed and will be keeping this pickup system. For my needs and my gear, it works perfectly.

So, lets discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this pickup system and you can decide for yourself if it is right for you.

No mods to your guitar

No mods have to be done to install the pickup. No drilling, routing or ruining the value of your expensive guitar. Hard to reverse a giant hole drilled in to your guitar’s body for the preamp with other systems!

Everything is reversible! This means the pickup can be installed in to any acoustic guitar you own! As many high-end acoustics do not come with pickup systems built in this is a great option.

All the components of the pickup can be securely mounted using double sided tape. They are mounted inside the guitar body out of the way of finger plucking and body slapping. This includes the connection for the 9-volt battery and preamp controller.

The pickup controls are mounted above the sound hole. It is easy to change the volume because it’s close to your picking hand. But even with it being close you won’t hit it with your fingers as it is under the strings.

Price range compared to other pickups

The
LR Baggs Anthem Internal True Mic Pickup
is up there in price range with other popular pickup systems. Most systems run anywhere from $200-300 without installation.

Since this pickup doesn’t require mods to the guitar you could install it yourself if you are handy. Although this will not be covered under there warranty. You can find the installation directions on the LR Bags website in a PDF form.

Two different versions of the same pickup

There are two different versions of the
LR Baggs Anthem Internal True Mic Pickup
One version requires you to use a screw driver to change the mic pickup blend. I wish I had gone with the version that had a knob for the blend control. I play with the blend knob a lot. Having to change the blend with a small screw driver is a pain!

The pickup that I link to on this page has a knob on its preamp controller dedicated for mix wheel, volume control, battery check, phase inversion and mic trim control. No annoying screw driver to keep up with!

Changing the 9V battery

I was a bit confused on where the 9V battery was to go… that is until I took off my strings. The holder for the battery is mounted in the far-left side of the guitar.

Being on the inside it is clean an unintrusive. The battery bag is small and holds the battery securely in place.

This does mean that you will have to lower tension on your strings to install a new battery. But as long as you buy a good battery such as Duracell or Energizer it should last you a long time.

How does the Lr Baggs Anthem Internal True Mic Pickup sound

I can’t say enough about the sound of the
LR Baggs Anthem Internal True Mic Pickup
From finger picking to full on strumming it really lets your guitars natural tone shine through.

Check out this demo from Acoustic guitar

If you enjoy playing a percussive style such as Andy Mchee or Eric Montrain the slaps taps and wraps will come through perfectly.
Just add your favorite reverb to the mix and you are ready to go.

I use a Neunaber Wet reverb pedal and it sounds amazing. Quite different than other pedals. If you haven’t heard of this pedal, then your life will never be complete until you own one! Without it you will always be missing a piece of your guitar soul. 😛

What about feedback?

With many miced acoustic systems you can run in to feedback problems at higher volumes. I had very little feedback problems even with my Fender Acoustic Pro turned up loud and standing in front of it.

However, if you are in a position where you get a lot of feedback, you can buy sound hole covers. This will greatly decrease the chances of any feedback issues. So don’t let the fear of feedback problems stop you from looking at this pickup system!

No E-q built in

I love this pickup system, but it does have one minor drawback. This is no big deal but something that you should be aware of before purchasing.

Since no mods are done to your guitar this means that you will not have an EQ built in like you would with other pickup systems. I run my acoustic through a Fender Acoustic pro that has a 3 band EQ built in, so this was no problem for me. But it might be an issue if you run through an amp that does not have an EQ.

To solve this problem, you could get an EQ pedal to go in front of your amp. These pedals are cheap and would probably be a far better EQ than the one on your amp anyway.

I wish I had installed the LR Baggs Anthem Internal True Mic Pickup years ago!

I wish I had this pickup system installed years ago! You can check out and purchase the pickup at zZounds. And if you don’t like it return it within 45 days!
Check it out

What are your thoughts on the LR Baggs Anthem Internal True Mic Pickup?

So, what are your thoughts on this pickup system? I think the coolest thing is that your guitar does not have to have mods in any way!
If you have used other pickup systems what were they? Let us know in the comments. 🙂