Lloyd Baggs on developing a revolutionary new acoustic pickup with Gibson, and why it’s the fulfillment of a lifetime of searching for better acoustic sound
There are few individuals who can definitively say that they have redefined the guitar industry, but Lloyd Baggs is one of them. Baggs has played a huge part in the evolution of amplified acoustic guitar sound over the last four decades. In fact, you can make a very strong case that, were it not for the innovation that Baggs and his counterpart Larry Fishman a few years earlier brought to the industry, the state of our live acoustic guitar sound might be a horribly unsatisfactory one.
READ MORE: LR Baggs AEG-1 – is this the new best-sounding electro-acoustic on the market?
Since Baggs first transitioned from making carbon fibre guitars to designing his first pickup in his California garage in the mid-80s, Baggs has been on a quest to improve the sound we hear when we plug in an acoustic – whether that’s via the pickup, preamp, all the way through to building a game-changing instrument of his own, the AEG-1 in 2024.
Things are changing at LR Baggs, however. Earlier this month, the company announced that it would drop Lloyd’s initials from the company name and just be known as “Baggs” going forward. And then came the announcement of a partnership with Gibson on the new HiFi DNA pickup system that the man himself described as “a big leap forward” for acoustic pickups. So, what’s going on…?
Lloyd Baggs crafting an AEG-1 prototype. Image: Press
First up, why did you decide to change the company name after such a long time?
“That’s some news! We just rolled out our new website, and it is LR free, except for the history and friendships. It’s Baggs moving forward mostly to honor the team. Our daughter joining the company as creative director is huge. She’s been working on this for about a year to really tell the story of who we are.”
Most companies would be nervous about changing their name with such a long legacy and brand value…
“The change in name is not a change in philosophy. I think it’s more externalising the philosophy that the Baggs company already had. Jenny [Lloyd’s daughter] is just telling our story better. And the last thing I ever wanted us to be doing is relaunching and rebranding. It’s like, the three Rs brand management are: rebrand, relaunch, and resign! [laughs]. It’s funny, a lot of people have been calling us Baggs forever and we started it when we brought out the AEG guitars. We’ve been wanting to do this for about 10 years.”
The partnership with Gibson is a really exciting one, how did that all come about?
“Well, Gibson is our longest abiding vendor. They’ve been with us longer than any other OEM customer we’ve ever had. We started back in ‘87 with the just steel-string, and we just kind of rolled it forward through all the various iterations of the company.
“They became our biggest customers during the Henry [Juszkiewicz, Gibson CEO until 2019] years. And with the new administration, Cesar really opened it up and empowered the great people at Gibson. So, fast-forward to today and Cesar was giving us credit for being in their guitars and talking about it. I guess about three years or so ago, we introduced the first HiFis.
“It took Gibson a while to figure out how good the original HiFis was, and they started loving it, and their artists were asking for them. It made its way onto some models, and Cesar [Gueikian, former Gibson CEO and current board member] fell in love with it. And I asked Gibson if they would have any interest in expanding our business relationship with the HiFis on an exclusive level. But unfortunately, the horse was already out of the barn and, and several other Gibson competitors were already adopting the HiFi on their guitars. So, Gibson threw it back over the fence and said, ‘Well, how’d you like to create something for us that we could have on our own for a while and it might even be better?’”
Image: Press
When the original HiFi pickups were launched, there was a real buzz around the industry because of both the design of it, but also sounds and the affordability of the system, but this is something a little different right?
“Well it’s still a bridgeplate transducer, and let me back up here a tiny bit into what a bridgeplate transducer offers. Placing a transducer on the bridgeplate puts it further from the strings and from the saddle. It’s got more body in it, and it just sounds better to me. Plus the bridgeplate’s just a nicer place to pick up energy from than right directly underneath the string.
“There have been many bridgeplate pickups in the market over the years, of course. Some of them were more successful than others, but some were really feedback prone. But this new HiFi DNA is something brand new.”
Image: Press
How so?
“It’s got an upgraded, lighter, more flexible transducer, and it’s more sensitive. The first thing we wanted to see was if we could improve the sound of the pickups themselves. And I believe we’ve made a big improvement there. The sensor is 25 per cent of the mass and about 20 per cent of the thickness of the original sensor.
“But I think the most significant part that really puts it over the top is that the original HiFi sensor A and sensor B are summed together and then sent into the preamp. Now think about two nice big mic diaphragms sitting next to each other for a vocalist, you’re recording in stereo, only instead of each mic diaphragm having its own preamp, you wire them together and you put them into one preamp.
“The HiFi DNA system treats it as though each microphone diaphragm has its own preamp built into the microphone. We created an individual, all discrete, class A, studio quality preamp for each pickup, and we voiced it for that specific location.
“They don’t share an EQ; they’re not quite the same in gain. Basically, each one is doing its job maintaining the purity of the signal from that voice on that side of the guitar versus the other. Each preamp is maintaining the purity of each signal and conditioning each signal to be more ideal before they’re summed together actively after the preamps. You’re able to mix those independently instead of as the original HiFi where both were summed into one.”
Image: Press
And this is going to roll out to the whole Gibson range?
“They’re putting them in a lot of guitars right now – the Hummingbird, Dove and J-45 from the Modern Collection, and the SJ-200, Songwriter, L-00 and LG-2 in the Original Collection. It’s going to be a Gibson exclusive for three years.”
Hearing it in action, it seems to offer a very natural sound without the muddy bass or high-end brittleness that acoustic pickups can deliver.
“I believe this is the best thing that we have ever done, and what I’ve been trying to do since my experience of Ry Cooder swearing at his rack in the early days. Those were painful days of acoustic amplification, and the goal was to make the process of playing an acoustic guitar rewarding and enjoyable. It’s been our career goal to make that a reality. And I believe that the HiFi DNA is the closest that we have come to that goal.”
The LR Baggs HiFi DNA pickup system is available exclusively from Gibson, and can be bought as an upgrade kit for $299. Find out more at gibson.com.
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