A local player was not digging the stock Expression System 2 pickup in his Taylor (pictured above) so he wanted to swap it out for a LR Baggs Anthem.

A common complaint of active acoustic pickups is having to change the battery, usually done through the soundhole.  Players know that everytime the sound guy is troubleshooting an issue with you, he's going to make you check your battery (or outright replace it).  It only makes sense in this situation to take advantage of the easily-accessed tail mounted battery box.  This also means modifying the Taylor jack to work with the new LR Baggs jack.

Above is the modified Taylor battery box / end jack with the new LR Baggs connections installed.  The right angle plug is the LR Baggs jack connection and the small white clip connection is spliced into the battery box.  Zip ties are used to keep the wiring clean.

Initially I thought of plugging the Taylor's bridge pickup holes but opted to just reinstall the original pickup, though disconnected.  I wanted to give the player the option to return to the stock pickup if he ever wanted to.  The LR Baggs Anthem has an undersaddle pickup and an internal microphone.  Normally the microphone is installed on the bridge plate underneath the saddle.  The original Taylor pickup however prevents this so I installed the Baggs mic between the bridge plate and the x brace.  Placement is not critical with this mic.

Note that I really dislike the idea of three 1/4" holes running clean through the bridge, top and bridge plate.

You can see the Baggs controls mounted in the soundhole.  The Taylor upper bout controls were left installed but disconnected (again to be able to easily return to stock).

Both the player and I found the Baggs Anthem to be a great improvement to the amplified tone.  Much warmer and dynamic than the stock pickup to our ears.

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