LR Baggs iBeam Active Acoustic Guitar Pickup System

I put one of these in my 45-year-old Gurian Jumbo Rosewood shortly after this product was introduced. The early review that convinced me was from a session player who used to arrange five SM57 mics around the body and neck to get his sound; he tried the I-Beam and put his mics away. I have subsequently installed these in four of my own guitars and several for friends. They are in the Gurian, a Taylor 355 12-string, and a mahogany Taylor GS Mini. The Mini is my Open Mic workhorse and house guitar, and it gets raves frequently. Feedback control has never been a serious issue, as I played through a Baggs Para Acoustic DI before moving to a digital mixer with feedback suppression. Only the Gurian fed back, and that only a resonance on the A string that was easy to notch out. I use the 355 and the Gurian in a sixties cover band with pretty high stage volume and floor wedges. Installation is not daunting if one has any skill at all and works carefully. Use a step drill to enlarge the endpin hole to avoid a twist drill grabbing and splitting the wood. Mount the battery bag on the heel block of the neck where it won't affect body resonance. I check my batteries every time I change strings and replace as soon as the voltage starts to deteriorate. I upgraded the Gurian setup to the soundhole volume control after about ten years. As usual, the simple Baggs instructions were clear and sufficient to accomplish the re-soldering required. I like this thing so much that I plan to try one on my cajon, which I made out of sepele, a guitar tonewood. There are several top-flight aftermarket pickups for acoustic guitars, and this is one of them.

I really don't understand these raving reviews unless they're coming from beginners who are just strumming. The pickup does indeed sound like a mic but a very poor sounding one. That is, it has none of the quack associated with piezo pickups, but it simply does not sound like a good microphone. There's no depth of sound. It's very constrained. I even combined it with a Sunrise and later an M1 magnetic pickup, but still did not get a usable tone nor feel. This pickup just doesn't have any meat to the sound. And yes, I tried moving it around quite a bit. Nothing helped.

Pickup does well. Installed in Yairi DY-85. I'm not really blown back with quality of the sound but has very clear treble and bass. I think that my next acoustic pickup will be a saddle one.

I needed a pickup for my 12 string and after scouring all the different products, settled on the iBeam Active. My biggest concern at first was "would this work well on a 12 string?". I called LRBaggs and spoke with a guy there and felt like I got an honest response about this product and decided to give it a go. The installation was a piece of cake - just take your time and it is so easy. My 12 string sounds absolutely amazing now. Thank you LR Baggs!!!!!

I put one of these in my Taylor GS mini and it sounds fantastic. Very lively on the string attack, excellent reproduction of taps on the top and sides of the body. It has a very warm sound to it, similar to the sound of my 816, but obviously not on the same level. I initially strung the mini with Martin 80/20 bronze 12's, as I don't keep 80/20 Elixirs on hand...it didn't sound quite right to me, I replaced them with Elixir nanoweb phosphor 12's after playing an open mic with the martins and the sound is perfect. Installation took me about 20 minutes from taking the guitar out of the case to plugging it in to test. It's extremely easy, I'm no guitar tech.

I recently bought a used Martin D16GT that had a basic under the saddle pick-up and it sounded awful. After shopping and reading all the reviews I decided to buy the L R Baggs I Beam. It was also recommended by a local luthier. It sounds great and was a piece of cake to install. Check the "how to" videos on Youtube. Even without the videos, the directions are very clear from the manufacturer. Note that self installation voids the warranty.