LR Baggs M80 Acoustic Guitar Soundhole Pickup

Absolutely blown away. I now have the full bodied percussive, acoustic sound from my Taylor guitars that I dreamed about. Received the pickup after about 10 days, opened the box, slotted it into the sound hole and plugged it in. Set all my amp EQ’s to neutral and started to strum…simple as that. It not only sounds fantastic, but the build quality and finish are also superb. Yes it a bit on the pricey side, but you only get what you pay for and it is covered by a 3 year guarantee. It works perfectly in either active or passive mode however the toggle switch to change between active and passive is difficult to reach without removing the pickup…a minor niggle. I’ve not tinkered with the pole positions but if necessary there is a good tutorial on YouTube on how to manage this and even configure the pickup for a left hand guitar. The only thing I’d like to leave this review with relates to the choice of M80 or M1. From the various reviews, I can see that the M80 is said to be a little more percussive than the M1 and can sense more body resonance which is why I chose it over the M1. In hindsight I probably don’t need all this and the less expensive M1 would have been adequate for my requirements. I’m also unlikely to use the passive mode as I don’t gig, so this function is unnecessary for me. So in summary, it’s a top quality product, the performance is exceptional and priced accordingly. My advice to any prospective buyers would be to find an outlet that has both M1 and M80 and try them out on your guitar in the shop. It will probably give you more things to ponder over, but at least you might be able to make a better selection decision. Drawback might be you buy both ! Finally, I’ve considered fitting the jack permanently to my Taylor guitar (it can be done by discarding the supplied jack and internally wiring up the fitted Taylor jack), but this seems impractical unless all guitars are modified and several pickups are purchased.