L R Baggs Acoustic: The Universe of Acoustic Amplification

The music world has many kinds of situations, and the same goes if we focus specifically on the guitar. We can split it into two clearly distinct universes: electric and acoustic. In the latter, one of the most common circumstances is finding yourself onstage unable to hear yourself, because you aren't getting the right signal from your guitar to your monitor, or because you have to keep signaling the monitor engineer to turn your acoustic up, down, or whatever.

For cases like these, L R Baggs offers a solution in amplifier form, which not only gives us a way to solve this problem but also lets us use its preamps, compressor, and more. I should point out that the “acoustic” world isn't a field where much has been done on the signal-processing side, so I think any contribution will be welcome. In other words, we generally limit ourselves to having the acoustic guitar that best suits our needs and leave everything else to the venue's gear or the sound engineer. But there are many options between the guitar and the engineer's final sound, and I think it's an area where we can do a lot of work.

L R Baggs is a Los Angeles company that started out building guitar pickups, which enjoy a very good reputation. Users have included James Taylor, Kathy Mattea, Ryan Adams, Jackson Browne, Lacuna Coil, Lenny Kravitz, Keith Urban, and others. Today they make pickups, preamps, amplifiers, and more.

But focusing on the product we have in hand, the look is very attractive, and as soon as you unbox it you see an amp with a modern air that doesn't lose its credibility. Also, at a quick glance you can see it has two channels, which is very interesting for an acoustic amp, plus EQ, compressors, and so on. In short, good expectations before plugging it in.

Construction
Looking at the amp's cabinet, we can see it was built with design in mind as well as sound. Without straying far from a conventional amp, that is, a speaker, the amplifier itself, and the cabinet, we can see that although the speaker sits on the front, as you'd expect on a conventional amp, the preamp and access to all the controls are on the top rather than the front, which would be the typical case. The design also forms a handle, a perfect tool for carrying, and above all it gives the impression that the controls aren't so exposed, which keeps them much better protected against falls or rough handling in transit.

To start understanding how it works and what it brings, we first need to mention something we've already said: the amp has two channels, so the controls are very similar on each. We can now start describing each of the amp's controls, inputs, knobs, and so on, to get a better idea of how it works. So let's begin with the front panel:

• PHANTOM: This control lets us switch on +48 V phantom power for the XLR input and 9 V for the jack input.

• Guitar input (Jack / XLR): The input accepts either a jack or an XLR connector, and with a guitar it works with both passive and active systems.

• GAIN: This is the amount of gain the amp lets in from the guitar itself. It's a really important control that you have to play with until you reach the tone you want.

• VU METER: A visual aid that lets us see how much input level we have on each channel.

• MUTE: This control gives us the option to silence the channel, but not the tuner output or the speaker itself. This is very useful if we want to use the Tuner output to tune.

• NOTCH: A concept L R Baggs introduced earlier to control feedback. We all know how unpleasant feedback can be, and the acoustic guitar is a prime candidate for it. This control largely solves that problem. If you'd rather not use it, you can simply switch it off.

• PHASE (INVERT): This function lets you control the phase of the guitar relative to the speaker; in other words, it controls the polarity of the signal. When the switch is up, the speaker is in phase with the input signal, and vice versa when we press it.

• BASS: Amount of boost in the lowest frequencies.

• LOW MID LEVEL AND FREQUENCY: This knob is notable for being dual-function, as both the inner and the upper controls work. It focuses on the low-mid frequencies. It's great that they give us all these options in the midrange, since that's where we'll do most of our work shaping the acoustic guitar.

• HIGH MID LEVEL AND FREQUENCY: Same as the previous one, but for the high-mid frequencies. I have to say this knob is especially sensitive, particularly toward the higher frequencies, considering it's a midrange control.

• TREBLE: As the name suggests, it focuses on the high frequencies. I should mention that it tends to give a sense of boost. Keep that in mind, because some of the more saturated sounds may come from a control like this.

• REVERB: The type of reverb this amp uses is a spring reverb, which, it should be noted, does not affect the effects loop.

• MASTER VOLUME: With this control we manage the amp's overall volume. There is also a clip indicator, an LED that lights up when the signal exceeds the input. This knob also controls the headphone volume, and plugging in headphones disconnects the speaker.

• AUX VOLUME: This control sets how much volume comes into the amp from the aux input. In other words, if you're connecting a sequencer, an iPod, or any external source to play along with, this is the control that manages that source's input volume. It also has an LED that tells you when the input signal clips.

Now let's move on to the rear panel:
• DI PRE/POST: This control determines whether the EQ is applied before or after the signal is sent to the DI. That is, we can send the completely unprocessed signal to the console, or we can send it just as it sounds from our amp, after the preamp and the reverb. This is important to keep in mind so you don't add reverb twice, EQ the guitar twice, and so on.

• DI OUT: DI output, a balanced XLR output, so we can send it straight to the mixing desk.

• DI GROUND LIFT: Control that lets us lift the ground.

• LINE OUT: This is a jack output, essentially a pre-master, post-EQ, post-reverb output. It can also be used to control several monitors with a single volume knob.

• LINE OUT PRE/POST SWITCH: This switch gives us the option to send the signal through the line out before or after the master.

• HEADPHONES: Standard headphone output. When plugged in, the speaker stops working.

• CH1 SEND/RETURN: Send and return for channel 1's loop, which are not balanced outputs. Basically it's a conventional effects loop.

• CH2 SEND/RETURN: Exactly the same as above, but for channel 2.

• AUX IN: Stereo input that lets us bring a CD, an iPod, a sequencer, or even a third instrument into the system. Keep in mind that the signal isn't processed by the preamp; all we can control is that source's input volume, with the front-panel control mentioned earlier.

• AUX IN RCA: This RCA input is simply one more option for bringing another source into the system. Using both inputs doesn't cancel out either one, so you can use two inputs simultaneously.

• TUNER OUT: Output for the tuner. Note that the tuner out does not mute the speaker, so we need to remember to mute the speaker if we don't want all our strings ringing out every time we tune.

• FOOTSWITCH: Input for the switching pedal.

• VOLTAGE SELECTOR: This is a switch I consider very important, since we can play this amp in many places where the mains isn't 220 V without needing an extra transformer, which is usually a hassle because you have to carry it with you and they tend to add noise.

Sound
After going over all the amp's details and what each one does and what we'll use it for, it's time to find out what it sounds like. In general, the times I've worked with an acoustic guitar monitor or amp, it was either very neutral and made my guitar sound close to how it sounds naturally, or just the opposite, completely altering my guitar's sound; they also tend to compress the signal.

Focusing on the amp we have in hand, we can break the description down by channel:

CHANNEL 1: As soon as you plug the guitar in, you notice the amp has a lot of midrange. That was predictable too: just looking at the input panel and all the midrange options it offers suggests the amp has been heavily worked in those frequencies. It's therefore really sensitive in that range, and the moment we push those knobs further than we should, it starts acting like a boost and saturates easily. The same effect occurs, to a lesser degree, with the treble controls. The reverb is smooth and blends in perfectly; it's also not very dynamic and doesn't give us much range, but sometimes I personally prefer that, as I don't usually use very exaggerated reverbs. The Notch control is frankly very good, as long as we're okay with that extra compression on top of the guitar itself and the 8" speaker. Compared with channel 2, they're very similar. One of the things that may stand out most between them is that channel 1 has more low-end boost; otherwise they're quite alike.

CHANNEL 2: Channel 2 is similar to channel 1, as we said earlier, but with even more midrange boost, which may make the signal a little thinner, but even so we still get very round lows.

On the other hand, regarding the 8" speaker this amp comes with, beyond thinking its size is appropriate, you quickly realize that one of its main features is its wide dispersion, which lets us hear the amp across the whole stage.

Conclusion
L R Baggs is a company that delivers high-quality products, and this one is no exception. The acoustic amp is a highly efficient product, very useful for live playing, practicing, home use, and more. It has a great design and is conceived to bring out the most important qualities of the acoustic guitar. On the other hand, price has to be taken into account, so it will depend on how much you play your acoustic and what use you can get out of it.