LR Baggs Mandolin Pickup with external Jack Mount

The. Lamp wasn't deep enough for my mandolin

I installed this on a tenor guitar (a converted Octave Mandolin restrung as a four-stringer tuned GDAE), the sound is what I hoped for, with a little EQ to take out a bit at around 250 hz (remove some of the bass).I find not all mandolin pickups work well with the lower frequencies of mandola or octave mandolin, bit this one works very well.Since this is not a piezo, it doesn't have the quacky tinny sound that piezo's suffer from and gets very close (with a little EQ help) to the acoustic sound of the instrument. That's the holy grail for me.I used an internal install, not the clip on (which FYI is essentially violin chin-rest mount converted to hold a jack). The hardware provided can be used for either internal or external mount.I love the simplicity of the Radius M, a single pickup (as opposed to two or three), no preamp or battery required, and it isn't picky about where on the soundboard it goes. I used blu-tack putty for a removable install.Given it works for tenor guitar, it would work well on a regular acoustic guitar too. Again, the simplicity is what would make me choose it over say the anthem or lyric, but not everyone has that priority.

I bought this to amplify my Eastman MD-815V mandolin. So far so good. I expected it to warm up the tone of the mandolin and it does exactly that, without significantly changing the acoustic properties of the instrument. I use it with a Tonebone PZ_PRE, but any high quality instrument pre-amp should do the trick. As others have reported, one must use a two-handed approach when unplugging from the external jack bracket or it will come flying off the instrument. That said, it does stay snuggly in place during performance, so long as I don't trip on the cable. I will probably have it mounted internally at some point, but for now it does the job nicely. Delivery was prompt. The price, at that moment in history, was about the same as every other vendor...so what's not to love?

Excellent micro

I've used the LR Baggs Radius Mandolin pickup at numerous gigs, and venues and am very happy with the results. Comparing the Radius pickup to previous pickups and mics, the unit is very sensitive, picking up not only the slightest of pick movements and sounds, but the wood tones as well. The overall result is amplified mandolin music which sounds full on acoustic with no exaggerated, tiny highs, or hollow bottom tones. I've received lost of positive comments from other musicians and patrons after they've heard this in action. At Amazon's price, this pickup is an exceptional value.

Bad sound :(