LR Baggs Para DI User Manual

L.R. BAGGS PREAMPS

PARA ACOUSTIC D.I.

USER'S GUIDE

483 N. FRONTAGE RD.

NIPOMO, CA 93444

WWW.LRBAGGS.COM

1.CONTROLS

A. Low EQ band control (85 Hz ): Very low bass, almost felt a s mu ch as he ard.

B. Notc h control an d tun e knob (98 to 2 47Hz ): Designed pr imar il y to hel p

wi th feedback pro ble ms. For exa mpl e, i f a pa r tic ula r st rin g is s tar tin g to
feedback or pr od uce a bo om ing so un d, you can use th e notch to cut out th e
pr obl em f requen cy. Th e tu ne k nob is ma rke d wit h fo ur posit ions, each
represe nting a no te on th e scal e, to help find the pro blem fre que ncy. Try
boosti ng the notc h c ontrol (tur n c ompletely cloc kwise ) and sweeping th e t une
kn ob un til the fee dba ck is at it's wors t. Then turn the not ch cont rol b ack
towards "cut " (counter -c lock wise ). Cut on ly eno ug h to ki ll the f ee dback.

The notch co nt rol ca n also be u sed as an EQ knob. A slight c ut b et ween D a nd B
(around 200Hz) can clarify a boo my or muddy to ne, and slight boosts in this
range wi ll g ive a t hi n-soun ding gu it ar m ore body and acoust ic sou nd. (s ee a lso:
Inv er t Sw itch)

C. Midr ange contro l (4 00Hz to 1 .6kHz) an d tune kn ob: Sweeps fro m the
upper warmth frequenci es to the nas al range of sound. Boost at 400 for more
warmth, cu t at .8k-1.6 k for less nasal quality. M any a cousti c guit ar s have an
exc ess 1kHz wh en a mp lified. A 3 to 6 dB cu t is of te n good he re.

D. Pre se nce cont rol (5kHz): Affects "sss" sounds, c ymba l s iz zle, br ig htness. C ut
here to re mo ve PA horn "g la re" or b oost t o add life to a dull speaker.

E. Tre ble control (10k Hz): The very high est frequen ci es, "air" or "f rostin g" .

F: Battery stat us LED: Stays on when uni t is on an d the n flashe s when the

batter y is low. The LED will start flashing when the batter y reache s 6 volts.
When it re aches 5 vol ts, it wi ll stop fl ashing.

G. Volu me con trol: Unlike gain, who se adju st ment will a ffect t he ch ar ac ter and
person al ity of the sound, the vol ume simply cont ro ls the amount of si gn al that
gets out of the box. The Para Acou st ic D.I. will li kely be the quiete st thing in
your signal chain. So for the bes t system signa l to noise rati o, we recommend
that you r un the vol um e as h igh as you can wi th out ca using the PA to d is tort.

H. Extern al b attery acc ess comp artment: For qui ck and easy b attery chan ge s.

I. Balanced XLR output: A standa rd, post EQ/effects, balanced low impe da nce

output . Pl ug it into the board wi th a microp ho ne cabl e or stage/stu di o snake. If your boa rd prov ides 48V phan to m po we r on th e XL R cable, the
Par a Ac ou stic D.I . will ru n on it i ns tead o f the ba tt ery. It 's a goo d idea to k eep a batter y in the u nit as a ba ckup e ven when using ph an to m power. I f
phantom po we r drops, the preamp will autom at ically sw it ch to the b at tery and ru n withou t interrupt io n.

J. Phantom power LED: Aler ts you to the p re sence of 48 V phanto m power wi th a gre en light .

K. 1/4" output: This is a regula r unbal anced outp ut for a st an dard mo no ca ble. The output signal is the sa me as on the XLR, allowing you to use

the 1/ 4" out and th e XL R simultane ou sly for some creati ve s ignal routi ng.

L. Inve rt swi tc h: Change s th e pola ri ty of the signal. Wh en the button is up, the outp ut will be in phase wit h the inp ut signal. Phase affects the
way that t he guit ar top is p ressur ized by t he loud s peakers. When t he t wo are o ut o f phase w ith ea ch o ther, lo w end feedback will b e mini mi zed. I f
inv er ting ph ase alone does not kill the feedback, use th e notch filter. Ph as e will also affe ct the way the gu it ar signal mixes live an d on tape
(espec ia lly when overdu bb ing) w ith ot her instr um ents.

M. Effects lo op: This jack provides a send -retur n on a stereo jack for out board ef fect s tha t allo w you to blen d rever b, chor us or other effect s in
with a dry signal. Use an inser t c able (stere o plu g wit h a Y cabl e to two mo no pl ugs) to co nn ect the effect . The tip is the "s en d" an d g oes to th e
input of y ou r effec t. The ring is the "retur n" and comes from the ou tput of your e ff ec t, and the slee ve is the ground. You may ad just the am ount of

effect in the signal by usi ng the control s of the outboard effect . Th e send (tip) of this connect or comes direc tly from the pure cla ss A discrete
input stag e of the Para D. I., before the EQ, vol um e co ntrol, invert sw it ch and outp ut dr iv er. T he refore i t can be u sed as an i mm aculate, unbalance d
direct output. It will not be affect ed by any of the panel co nt ro ls (wit h the except io n of th e gain co nt ro l). Use a regula r mon o c able. The effects
loop interrupts the signal path. Ther efor e, it may al so be used a s an insert point for a co mpressor, volume peda l, or t uner if t he tu ne r ha s a bypas s
switch.

N. Gain con tr ol: Se e se ction 2 : Set ting the Gain.

O. Ins tr ument inpu t: Wh en you plu g in, the preamp t urns o n.

Note: If you plu g or unpl ug your guit ar with the powe r amp on, you wil l h ear a loud "pop" fr om the sp eakers. Our prop rietary "Soft Star t" mute

circuit re du ces th is , but i t is stil l wise t o turn d own th e power am p when p lugging a nd unp lu gging.

2 . S E T T I N G T H E G A I N

Settin g the gai n: For op timum per formance it is imp or tant to set the ga in correc tly to ac co mmodate the output of your pi ckup, mic or oth er
device.

Gain is not vol um e. Gain is the amount of amplifica ti on that is appl ied to an input signal to boo st it to a useful level. To accommo da te a wide
range of pi ckup s, acti ve devices and such, the Para D.I. h as adju st able ga in . For in st ance, i f you are usin g a low-output pa ssive pickup su ch as the
Ribb on Transdu ce r, and you fail to turn the gain all the way up, you wil l need to tur n the PA up so loud to hear the pickup that ther e will be a
signif ic ant amount of his s.

Convers ely, i f yo u plug a hi gh-o ut put act ive pickup in to the Para D.I. a nd do not t urn down th e gain , you w il l he ar a g re at deal of di stor tion .

The key is to adju st the gain to find a window between hiss and distort ion. The Para D.I. is so quiet that this wi nd ow is pretty wide, b ut there is a
smalle r "sweet spot " with in that wi ndow.

With your pick up or mi c plu gged into the Para D.I., a nd with the Para D.I. plug ge d into your PA or amp, play your inst ru ment very hard. Turn the
gain trim up (cloc kwise) slowly whi le p layi ng u nt il you begin to hear some distor tion , then back the gain off (counter-c lockwis e) u nt il the
distor tion jus t disappears. This setting will provi de b ot h the richest and cle anest sound. Once you have determin ed you r pr efer re d setting, we
recommend th at you l eave t he gain con tr ol alone.

Do not u se t he gai n co ntrol as a volume contr ol . Using i t in t hi s manner wi ll var y th e charact er of yo ur sound as y ou adj us t it up a nd down.

Gain con trol settin gs : This c har t shows the ap prox imat e re co mmen ded gain co ntro l set ti ng w hen using L.R . Bag gs pick ups and s ystems.
However, on ly exper imentation wi th t hi s sett ing can g ua rantee i de al res ul ts.

Pickup

Ribbon Transducer

LB6 Series

Hex Pickups

X-Bridge (passive)

X-Bridge (Ctrl-X)

Ribbon Transducer System

Dual Source System

Double Barrel

* A sta nd ard guitar cabl e will attenuate our passive pick ups by approximately 1dB per foot . The 12' cord used for this test al ready attenuates the
signal by 1 2d B, co mp ared to an o nboard pr eamp. I f you u se a sh or ter or long er cor d, adju st the gain a cc or dingly. Our acti ve pickup s will dr iv e any
length o f cord with n o attenuati on .

Cord Length *

12'

12'

12'

15' Y cable

Any

Any

Any

Any

Sett in g