Suggestions for acoustic pickups

[Alastair]

Hi All,

An appeal to the collective wisdom out there.

My son is imminently replacing the entry-level Yamaha he has been playing for the last 5 years. This has an under-saddle pickup.

ATM he is very impressed with a G45 from Gilet, which he has tried.

He wants to include a pickup in the package, and have Gilet fit it for him as part of the deal.

What suggestions do the experts have for him?

[ozwood]

I think most votes on here will be for K&K's I've fitted a few now , All of my Customers are stoked with them , Particularly the guy with the Nylon I recently completed , he uses it for at least one Gig a week and say's it the best accoustic pick up he's used , they just don't have the normal Preamp setup that others have ,which is the only draw back for some, I like the natural sound and feedback resistance . But Others may have differing Opinions !!

Cheers,

[Kim]

Hi Alastair,

Could you let us know what your son will be mainly using the pickup for..in a band situation with acoustic drums, smaller more intimate venues, solo duo at parties etc.?

Cheers

Kim

[Alastair]

Apologies for this going quiet, I'm now back online after a break on leave.

Thanks for that Paul. We are having a look at the specs. Main advantage I see is that you don't mess with the saddle.

Kim, had a chat with him, and in the immediate future, he would not see the band-type situation as high priority, so really looking at the smaller venue, intimate, solo/duo guitar/vocal type of application.

His current instrument has a Fishman saddle pickup (level control only), which he runs through an acoustic amp. (I'll get details if relevant.). One thought has been to go the next spec Fishman, with mike pickup as well. Soundhole access important, as he doesn't want to be cutting holes etc.

[Kim]

Alastair if he's not needing to cut through a drum kit and is after warm full sound repo without cutting any holes, I would highly recommend a K&K Pure and Western Mini. Many of us use them here on the forum and they are the roo's shoes. Installation is quite straight forward but placement must be precise so you do need to follow the fitting instructions carefully to ensure the buds sit directly below the saddle, in alignment between their respective bridge pins. Get that right and you get the balance of output right and they're a great pickup.

http://www.kksound.com/jig.html

Cheers

Kim

[ozziebluesman]

Another vote for the k&k western mini system in a solo, duo environment. I have just finished a 018 style acoustic and fitted the k&k system. Beautiful, warm, natural sound with plenty of output. My personal 000 acoustic and weissenborn guitar have the same system fitted and I feel both guitars sound great plugged through my Yamaha PA system. Both sound great also through my Fender Blues Junior 15 watt valve amp. I don't use an external preamp as I feel there is no need but you can achieve a better sound with one in your chain.

Cheers

Alan

[Dominic]

Who was it that posted the home made version of the popular K&K pickup last year for less than 10 bucks ? I wonder how they worked out and compare to more expensive units. Did anyone else get around to ordering the parts and make a set for testing?
I looked into making under-saddle transducers as well using piezo strips but it seemed difficult to source. But once you do it justs needs a wire connected at one end and you have a pickup.
Dom

[Dave Anderson]

I've installed a number of the K&K mini/western and I have the Trinity System-2 channel in my
own L-OO. They are an excellent pickup system for acoustic guitar IMO.

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[Alastair]

Many thanks for all the feedback, guys.

I think we agree that the ayes for the K&K's have it.

One of the big attractions is that there is no change to the instrument's basic structure; no cut down saddle, battery etc, and the minimum amount of cr@p floating around .

With that, Keith will probably go with the external pre-amp as well.

Trawling back, I found previous threads here with much the same conclusions. They mentioned that Bob was an agent for these. Is this still the case? Haven't seen him around on here for a bit, so not sure if he's away.

If he still is, we'll look to source from him.

Gilet covers fitting to their instruments for free......... I would imagine they wouldn't have a problem with these?

[kiwigeo]

Trawling back, I found previous threads here with much the same conclusions. They mentioned that Bob was an agent for these. Is this still the case? Haven't seen him around on here for a bit, so not sure if he's away.

I get mine here:

http://stores.ebay.com.au/sonicwavefactory

[slowlearner]

Ehrlund Linear Mic. It's stick on contact mic that gives you the real sound of the instrument. I use one for upright bass, but they are also very good for acoustic guitar, mandolin and violin. They also work out cheaper than a good piezo and preamp.

http://www.ehrlund.se/

[Kim]

With that, Keith will probably go with the external pre-amp as well.

Alastair,

For solo/duo work I really can't see where Keith would need a preamp. He's probably better off just running the K&K's passive, they have 'plenty' of output and any eq can be done at the amp if required.

I do have a K&K belt clip preamp but only use it to allow duel source on those rare occasions these days when playing alongs side an acoustic drum kit and fit an LR Baggs M1 soundhole pickup to allow the guitar to cut through. With that setup the signals from the Baggs M1 and the K&K's run independently to the stereo output jack of the guitar. From there the separate signals are carried to the K&K Dual Source Pro Preamp via a stereo cable which splits to a "Y" junction just before the preamp's two inputs. Each input has three internal screw adjustable tone pots B/M/T to EQ each signal. There are two external pots controlling gain to mix the single mono output to the amp. Must say that when it's hooked up, it sounds bloody marvellous cause the the Baggs M1 is no slouch in the tone dept either and the output is plenty enough at app x10...but...for most every occasion its simply the passive K&K signal direct into the amp and it lacks nothing.

Cheers

Kim

[Alastair]

Thanks Kim,

I read your detail in the older thread, and it's an elegant solution.

Keith will go the passive-only as the initial install, and the preamp will be an add-on, if he needs something like your setup down he track.

The choice is instead of the K&K active system, which was one of the alternatives we considered. He definitely prefers the absence of battery etc, and the extra wiring, cf his current LR Baggs under saddle active, on his Yamaha.

That said, he's a happy little vegemite ATM, as we put deposit down on his new blackwood Gilet OOO today. Dealer is sending it back to Gilet for a truss-rod adjust, (bloody Sydney weather, I think) so he should have it in a couple of days. Pity I hadn't finished my current build early enough to look at doing an acoustic for him, but I don't think he has enough confidence in my ability yet. (For that matter, neither have I). Still have that in my plans, but it will be a hard act to follow; even to my non-musicians ear, he's chosen a lovely instrument.

He's going to play it for a while as-is, then take it in to Gerard, with the K&K's. Gilet offer free fitting to their guitars, and prefer that they do it.

Thanks again for the help, all.