L.R. Baggs Anthem-SL Acoustic Guitar Pickup and Microphone

Sounds phenomenal on my Martin D-35. I had it installed so can’t comment on ease of installation. 9v Battery lasted 1 year with moderate use. Able to change bettery by just loosening strings.

Sounds like a dream

I installed this myself in my early 2000's Martin D-15 almost a year ago. While I was not in love with the guitar's un-amplified sound (as compared to a spruce top), I had an urgent need to deploy a guitar with a pickup pretty quickly. After quite a bit of online research and my personal experience with the K&K pure mini, I settled for this unit, as this checked the most boxes for me. Budget was a huge factor.Installation was straight forward and simple. I think it was about 45 minutes, including trimming up the bridge saddle. I'm not too squeemish about tinkering with guitars, but I think anyone with a basic skill level and familiarity with their guitar's construction and setup methods can get the job done.I mostly run direct to a pa with a little help from a BBE Acoustimax pre-amp. It took about 1 minute to adjust the blend to my preference and I don't think I have touched to onboard controls since the initial setup. Battery life is good as I have yet to swap out the original. I had some concern that there might be some feedback issues, given the internal microphone, but it has never been an issue, unless I get parked on stage a little too close to the sub (like 10 feet away). I had experienced a bit more feedback with the K&K and, therefore utilized a rubber soundhole cover/plug. One thing to consider is that I couldn't really utilize a soundhole cover with this setup unless I notched it to accomodate the onboard controls. Whatever- not an issue.The setting I typically play in is a church worship team. I can say that my rig can hold its own with any other guitar I have heard in this type of setting. It is a refreshing contrast to all the Taylors and Breedloves so common in a worship setting. It helps having one of the best live sound engineers in the industry, but even with other pa's and amateur sound guys, I am always happy with the way my guitar sounds. I have wondered what a different pickup system or pre-amp might sound like, but then again, my guitar sounds awesome! If it sounded incrementally better, nobody would notice.Long story short- this pickup worked for me. My specific guitar, my specific rig, and my specific use. It is affordable and not too difficult to install. In my view, it is a winner.

It was fairly easy to install for the most part. I installed it on a 1997 Epiphone PR200 replacing the original passive electronics. The battery bag, volume control were simple, stick and go (see pic). The piezo was easy too as the guitar already had a hole from the existing one. The mic placement was trial and error. The 'typical placement' parallel to the bridge pins in front or behind the bridge pins just sounded bad, real high mid-tones, almost annoying high's, my EQ pedal sliders looked like a V to make it playable. I finally repositioned the mic diagonally perpendicular to the low E pin (see pic) and that balanced it out some, still need a bit of a cut around 300 Hz but good otherwise. The mic level adjustment screw had to be adjusted with every mic placement attempt obviously. The mic does have very strong high's (3000+ Hz range) so moving the mic toward the deeper strings cut that a little and allowed me to turn it up more giving it more of a balanced tone and volume. But, even with that, when using this guitar compared to one of my acoustic-electric Martins with the Fishman electronics, and the fact this is a great sounding guitar but definitely not a Martin, I still need to boost the gain at the pedal or PA level. I am taking in to consideration it is designed for universal applications vs a guitar that comes with electronics matched at the factory and already set to work and sound good. It did make an otherwise unplayable (electronically) instrument very playable. I've used it at several gigs and it does just fine.Summary - easy to install, yes, plug and play, no, not and sound good. Can sound good with some patience and experimenting. Better than cheap electronics, more than likely. For 200$ I now have a solid good sounding backup to bring to gigs vs purchasing another one and I can leave my more expensive guitars at the house. No regrets at all.

Relatively low volume compared to other products when connected to an amplifier. I can't confirm what the problem is, but... Once the product is installed, it is difficult to remove and return the product... I think it is necessary to make the product better.