Official Luthiers Forum!

I've joined the ranks of Tim McKnight and Bruce Dickey and have become a K & K pickup dealer. The only one in my state! Of course, there will be discounts to OLFer's if you ever need one.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Way to go Don, I knew you could do it !

Everyone out there looking for a pickup. You deserve the best for your hand made guitar. Please consider a K&K when you are in the market for one. They are awesome! Right Bruce?

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

I'll jump in before Bruce on that one....

I've been a Fishmann guy for years now, that is until I heard a K & K. It is a much more natural sounding pickup, and this without any electronics. I'm sold, and will be installing these as a stock pickup on all my spec guitars.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

That is great Don!
Hey, do you think one of those will work in a Mandolele?

Wade

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Wade
Nashua, NH
http://www.wadefx.com

Good for you Don!!
Are they really that much better than some of the others???
In what way?
Thanks,
Walter

     K&K pickups are great. That is true. Like all pickups however
they have their strengths and weaknesses. I'd guess I've installed
about two hundred K&Ks in all different manner of fretted
instruments - mostly guitars, mostly the Pure Western Standard.
Small room, small body guitar, solo, quiet audience, the K&K is an
excellent choice. It does have a very natural acoustic sound, it's
passive with a very strong signal, and it's pretty easy to install.
     Big room, big body guitar, band, loud audience, Fishman Matrix
Natural is the way to go. The K&K runs too much risk of feeding
back. There are other excellent choicse too like the BBand A2.2 with
AST/UST transducers. Sometimes combos work great - like wiring
the K&K stereo with a Fishman Rare Earth or Sunrise soundhole
pickup, or even with the Fishman Matrix series. And, Fishman has
just released their Aura system which is fantastic and may be the
new standard for all acoustic guitar pickups - 'til next year that is.
     My two cents.
     

I like 'em. Wade, check the website and look at the various pickups they offer for acoustic stringed instruments. They not only have the standard and mini tranducer systems which are passive, but also have the undersaddle FantaStick and the Trinity system which includes the internal microphone.

They have onboard controls or external preamps making the systems very versatile.

Some folk don't care for all the wiring of the onboard preamps, but it sure is nice to have control on the instrument.

So, with the belt clip preamp systems, all that stuff is removed from the guitar, but still available to the player.

Congratulations Don, long live simple sound systems.

I thought twice about posting this, but I have two piezo discs glued inside the top of my acoustic with silicon sealant. One is on the bridge, and the other is on the bass side. Sounds great to me and everyone else that's heard it. Total investment: whatever the end-pin jack cost + $1.00

I'd like to do an a-b test sometime.

Congrats Don!

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Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

Don,
Congratulations. Always nice to be a dealer for a quality product.
I have read many good things about the K&K on the Forum.
Could you please compare for me the K&K and the Baggs M-1? Can anybody else compare?

Bob,

     These are very different pickups meant for diifferent
applications and thus hard to compare. This might explain the lack
of response to your question. The M1 does have a capacity to pick
up body vibration which is unlike other soundhole pickups. In that
way it shares some similarity to the Pure Western, but the similarity
ends there. Once a customer described to me his intended use for a
pickup I might lead him toward a sound board/bridgeplate
transducer or toward a humbucking soundhole pickup, or even a
combination of the two wired into a stereo jack. But I would never
really be wavering between the two types. Their strengths follow
opposite forks down the old amplification road.

[QUOTE=yukonarizona] But I would never
really be wavering between the two types. Their strengths follow opposite forks down the old amplification road.[/QUOTE]

Yukon, okay, I've got a few minutes to go down both forks of the road. Educate us, and thanks, Bruce