LR Baggs Para Acoustic DI

NukeDOC

Retired Mod
Joined
Nov 29, 2007
Messages
2,254
Reaction score
92
Location
San Diseasey
so i mentioned this in another post. but i wanted to see if some of the people here knew anything or had any experience with these.

ive read nothing but good reviews on this unit bringing out the true acoustic sound of your instrument when plugged in.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/LR-Baggs-Para-Acoustic-DI?sku=307160

for $160, its not bad. i wouldnt mind paying that much if its going to give me the performance that im looking for. some of the problems i have with onboard pre-amps and active pickups are:

*most are designed for guitar. so when plugged in, your uke sounds like a guitar.
*many have that tinny twangy sound to them. im looking for a warmer mellower tone, much closer to what is heard when the uke is played acoustically
*when i run my fingers up and down the strings, or even just tap on the strings accidentally, some pickups actually pick that up and i comes out of the amp. i dont want that to happen. i just want good clean quality sound. basically, if im not playing it, you dont hear it.

i have two main ukes that i plan to use during performances...
-my kala "koa" with shadow active pickup and volume/bass/treble controls. the original transducer bareley picked up the A string when plugged in. so i switched out the transducer with a bushman one. this helped, but its still not even all the way, even when i mess with the EQ settings on my amp.
-my pono mahogany with ko'olau passive pickup. nice pickup, but because of the lack of any onboard controls, it sounds tinny and wiry. almost like a guitar. and i had to really mess with the EQ on my amp to get it to sound mehh... ok.

will the LR Baggs Para Acoustic DI pre-amp give me what i am looking for?
 
I dunno if you've heard of "Kanalo" but I used to play with one of their singers named "Zeysha" she used one of these on stage. She was telling me that it was one of the best DI's around. I used it on my ukulele and it produced a pretty good tone; also considering that it had an EQ on it.

The DI is basically like a mic for your ukulele. This "mic" can be contoured to however you want it sound like. Not necessarily just for "acoustic" stuff. I say go for it.

The DI that I use is a BBE-DI 1000 :D good stuff too.

http://www.bbesound.com/news/features/2003/2003_08_GP_review_DI/index.asp
 
thanks for the input! ive been leaning more toward this one because of the optional XLR output. matter of fact, it can still use the regular stereo phone out at the same time, which can add even more effect to the sound. well i think ill be ordering it tomorrow, depending on how much its going to cost me to get my car outa the shop.

so aldrine, i dont know if any of your ukes had the same problems, but does your DI box alleviate the finger rubbing and other unwanted sounds? basically, the response im looking for is closer to that of the magnetic pickups on a steel string electric, as compared to the vibration grabbing undersaddles that come on acoustic instruments that pick up more than what you are actually playing sometimes.

anyone else out there have any input on these units? would love to get more feedback on them.
 
I was looking at the LR Baggs Gig Pro. I like the one you are looking to buy also. Not sure what the difference is other than size??
 
I was looking at the LR Baggs Gig Pro. I like the one you are looking to buy also. Not sure what the difference is other than size??

the one im looking at has more options for finer tuning i guess. plus it has an XLR output which is a nice plus for me.
 
preliminary review:

so i came home with this guy from guitar center last night. i know i could have save a few bux by going to MF and not paying tax, but im an impulse buyer. and they told me i could just go and buy it and if i dont like it, bring it back in two weeks.

plugged my pono into it and immediately started to get feedback. im still not quite understanding how to adjust the notch control, but somehow i was able to do away with any feedback booming whatsoever. i could even turn the volume all the way up on the amp, and hold the uke in front of it and no feedback.

the alignment on the undersaddle transdeucer for the pickup isnt quite on point in this uke. so the A string is usually a little weak. i was able to tweak it to where all four strings were being amplified evenly. thats pretty damn awesome.

then i started messing with the presence control and was able to get a warm full tone coming out of the speaker that was almost as sweet as hearing the uke played acoustically.

the settings i used on my little 15w peavy amp cheapy were:
voice: clean
EQ: low-all the way up, mid-midway, hi-all the way down
reverb: off

i then used the DI pretty much as an EQ also, but with the bass about mid way, mid cut all the way down, and the hi about 3/4 boost, and presence almost cut all the way.

ill be messing around with this thing more and more, and once i find that sweetspot for all the settings, im writing it down, and working on finding the settings for the other ukes.

ease of use: 6... this thing is not just a plug and play and its not easy to get it tweaked just right.
value: 8... basically just a really fine tuneable EQ. but for $160, not sure if i think it was worth it. i will be keeping it though since i already have it and it does make my uke sound pretty nice. makes her actually sound like a uke.

i tried my guitar on it and it sounded weird. almost like a chorus sound effect. maybe because there is already a pre amp on my guitar's pickup? i dunno. i tried fiddling with the settings, but it still just sounded funky. but then again, i have no complaints about how my guitar sounds when plugged in.
 
Top Bottom