LR Baggs Double Barrel - Manual (Page 3)

2. Attach the U-shaped portion of the tool to the foam and position the mic on
the back of the inside of the guitar. If you haven't attached a battery yet, do so
now.
3. Plug the guitar into a sound system with a stereo Y cable. The mic signal is
on the ring contact of the stereo plug. To find the best location for the mic, it
is best to have the pickup volume completely off, and listen to the mic signal
through headphones. Lay the guitar on its back and strum the open strings
while you move the mic around inside the guitar with the wire tool.
A quicker way to determine the best mic placement is to run the mic signal
through an EQ such as our Para Acoustic D.I., boosting the midrange around
700 Hz by approximately 9dB before listening to the mic. Boosting the
midrange frequencies will highlight the tones that are responsible for the
midrange "honk" that internal mics can produce.
Increasing the midrange frequencies will likely result in an unsatisfactory
tone, but this temporary EQ setting is only for testing purposes. As you move
the mic around the the inside of the guitar, you will discover that there are
small midrange nulls where the honk is minimized. The best placement will
have the greatest minimizing effect on this sound.
4. Once the best position has been selected, look inside the guitar, carefully
note the position of the microphone, and unstring the guitar. Remove the
microphone from the guitar and stick the microphone to the velcro piece.
Clean the area of any dust or debris, peel the backing from the velcro, and
carefully adhere the mic precisely on the sweet spot. On some guitars, this
area will be very small, and a half-inch movement in any direction can make a
significant difference.
Alternative microphones:
The preamp in the Double Barrel will work well with and power most popular
mini-mic capsules that use two-wire connections. When using an alternative
microphone, use the manufacturer's recommendations for wiring and
placement. To connect an alternative mic to the preamp, unscrew the shielding
cap from the preamp and carefully de-solder the microphone. Solder the
positive wire from the new mic across both mic input pads. Bridging these two
solder pads as shown in figure 9 will defeat the contour for the L.R. Baggs
mini-mic and provide a flat input for the alternative mic.
Caution: Use a pencil type soldering iron only. Do not use a soldering gun. Be careful when soldering -- excessive heat can permanently damage
the solder pads.
Be sure to thread the mic wire through the shielding cap before soldering. Make sure all of the wires are secured with the wire clips provided,
restring the guitar, and the installation is complete.
Be sure to test the Double Barrel in both mono and stereo modes. Plug in a standard mono cable and you should hear the pickup signal only. Then
use a stereo Y cable to test the split stereo function. The pickup signal will be on the tip contact and the mic signal will be on the ring contact.
7 . U S E R ' S G U I D E
The Double Barrel is a two-channel microphone/pickup system that pairs our Ribbon Transducer with our proprietary internal FET condenser
mini-mic. It has independent buffered outputs for both the pickup and the microphone, which preserve these components' fidelity and eliminates
crosstalk. The preamp powers the mic, making phantom power unnecessary. The preamp is built into our Strapjack Plus, making it possible to have
mono, stereo and on/off switching all in one jack.
Battery Life: The Double Barrel provides roughly 500 hours of use between battery changes. Alternative microphones can affect battery life. The
jack acts as the switch for the preamp, so whenever the system is plugged in, the battery is in use. Change the battery when you begin to notice
distortion in your signal during hard strumming. The weaker the battery becomes, the more noticeable this distortion will be.
The system can be used in either mono or stereo mode:
Mono: By plugging in a standard mono cable, you will automatically have the pickup signal by itself. This is ideal for live situations when you
don't have the time or resources to set up a stereo blend, or when you simply want to plug and play. The Double Barrel is engineered to get the
best performance out of the Ribbon Transducer, and should not require additional outboard equalization when used with a high-quality PA. The
EQ available at the mixing board should be adequate to fine tune your guitar to the room's acoustics.
Stereo: Access the stereo feature simply by plugging in a stereo Y cable. The pickup signal will be found on the tip contact and the mic signal on
the ring. This mode provides pristine, all-discrete class A buffered outputs for both the microphone and the pickup. It is useful for quality
recording and for achieving the optimum live sound. You can use individual outboard EQ and effects for each channel. For live work, this will
allow you to send just the pickup signal to the feedback-prone stage monitors and allow more of the microphone in the main speakers for the
ideal house mix.
Summed to mono: This is an exclusive Double Barrel feature that will mix the pickup and mic together into a mono signal. When used with our
mini-mic, the summed mix will be approximately 2/3 pickup and 1/3 mic. When using alternative mics, the blend ratio and phase relationship
between the two will change, possibly causing the mix to be unusable.
Pickup
Alternative mic connection:
Bridge both solder pads with
positive wire
Pickup
Stock microphone
fig. 9
to battery bag
mic
fig. 8