From Music Trades Magazine – February 2005

It’s fitting that Lloyd Baggs is into extreme sports. Hang gliding, sports car “canyon racing,” and, currently, competitive downhill mountain bike racing mirror a career that has been defined, at least outwardly, by the risks he took. With ingenuity, remarkable resilience, nearly indiscriminate curiosity, and, above all, the tendency to fearlessly forge into disciplines he knew little or nothing about, Baggs handled every sharp turn to transform his name into a brand that’s synonymous with world class guitar pickups and accessories. “I’ve made a career out of saying yes—” he admits, “and then figuring out how to do it.”

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About Lloyd Baggs

A long time ago when our founder, Lloyd Baggs was a hippie and a young college graduate, having abandoned his career as a classical cellist, he turned his attention to the guitar. His friend and fellow fly fisherman, Christopher Parkening, was playing the classical guitar and that looked like a whole lot more fun.

In 1973, Lloyd began his guitar making endeavors by buying, modifying, refinishing, retuning and then returning old Gibsons and Washburns (these were in the days when you could still afford to buy them). After noodling around with some fine old instruments, the L.R. Baggs fine-handmade-guitar-and-guitar-repair business was launched. After Lloyd finished his first guitar in a Berkeley, California garage, he took it to his guitar idol, Ry Cooder, and received his first commission. Lloyd's list of fantastic guitar player customers for his L.R. Baggs Handmade Guitar included Jackson Browne, Janis Ian, Graham Nash and two instruments went to Ry Cooder. The guitar featured on Ry's "Jazz" album is an L.R. Baggs Handmade Guitar.

It was during the recording of Ry Cooder's "Bop Till You Drop" album that the L.R. Baggs transducer pickup was inspired. There in the recording studio was an exact Takamine copy of the guitar Lloyd had built for Ry, with a transducer pickup system. After recovering from the shock of seeing an exact copy of his instrument (as an aside, the current Takamine headstock is the headstock that Lloyd designed for his handmade instruments), Lloyd became intrigued with the wonderful possibilities of the piezo ceramic transducer pickup for the acoustic guitar.

L.R. Baggs History

We started this in a loft in downtown Los Angeles, California, with a hope and a dream, and no business sense whatsoever. The first L.R. Baggs product was our LB6 Series Pickup. We would like to thank Leo Kottke for his early support. Stores would call us and say, "Leo Kottke said he was using your pickup." We could literally track his touring route as the stores would order in his wake. Early endorsers were Steven Sheehan of the Judds, James Taylor and Kathy Mattea. These endorsers gave us the encouragement and support that sustained us when we had more enthusiasm than business sense. They spread the word and gradually our business grew.

We've come a long way from those old "mom-and-pop days." Every year we have designed new and exciting products. We have endeavored to use our God given talents to offer the cutting edge in guitar amplification. We hope that we have created products that will encourage, motivate and inspire you, our customer. We would like to take this opportunity to say, "Thank You." We hope that we have been able to enhance your musical talents in some way and we very much appreciate all of you who have chosen L.R. Baggs.

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