The NC-1 is specifically voiced and EQ’d like a microphone to emphasize your guitar’s pure, natural acoustic tone. The two CR2032 batteries have up to 1,000 hours of life in them and with two bright LED indicator lights, you’ll never get caught off guard with a dead battery. It’s got a 6V active preamp that supplies the necessary power to suppress any extra noise and feedback, so it’s great for live work as well as for use in the studio. The Quiet Coil NC-1 is, as the name suggests, noise cancelling. Mojotone has apparently “solved the soundhole pickup problem”, and we think they’ve got quite a persuasive argument. Mojotone’s Quiet Coil NC-1 is a fantastic option for anyone who’s sick of acoustic pickups changing the personality of their instrument. There is also a battery check feature, too, so you know you’ve got enough juice to get through a show.
The soundhole preamp is discretely mounted and gives you control over volume, phase inversion, mic trim and mix, the latter letting you dial in the right amount of low-end from the element pickup.
It is noise-cancelling and has a flatter frequency response that is responsive to your instrument. The mic performs just as a studio mic would. The Anthem system positions a piezo-style Element pickup under the saddle and combines it with a condenser mic that’s mounted 3mm from the underside of the bridge plate. There is none of that thwacky artificiality that you sometimes get with acoustic pickups. It’s not cheap, but nor is it prohibitively expensive, and if you are serious about your tone and need a pickup option for the stage or studio, this is it. It is used by the likes of Jake Bugg and Marcus King, and perhaps should be considered the industry standard. Once again, when it comes to the best acoustic guitar pickups it’s nigh-on impossible to see past LR Baggs Anthem pickup and microphone setup.