Hi all. I have a '06 CJ EIR/Sitka. I just had a strap button and K&K Pure Western Mini installed. I'm playing it through an Acoustic Image Clarus 2R (Hi-Fi) amp. A couple questions.

1. I'm not going through a preamp, just straight into the amp, it sounds good but the high B & E strings seem a little thin, the rest of the strings sound good. Should I go through a preamp then into my amp?

2. Does anyone have problems with the strap staying on the K&K input? It doesn't look like there's enough of a notch for the strap to stay on and be secure.

3. I have an opportunity to have a custom made leather strap made for me. I'm not really sure what to ask for, length, width, hard leather, soft leather. I'd love to hear your experiences.

Thanks!
Eric

Eric: I've played nothing but K&K equipped guitars at gigs for over three years now. I have a soft wide leather strap, and have no slippage problems. Of course, I don't do a lot of T-Bone Walker or early Chuck Berry gymnastics on stage at my age. I do run the pickup through a Baggs Para DI (although I'm thinking of getting the K&K preamp and selling the Baggs), unless I"m going straight to an acoustic amp. I've not noticed any string balance problems (could be an installation glitch), but the preamp does give you more options in shaping your sound. My preference is for the shortest, simplest signal chain. Unfortunately, none of the places I play are quiet enough for a mic, which is the simplest of all. thanks tom

I have a K&K pup in my OM3 and it sounds fine through my Acoustasonic amp or a PA head with no pre-amp. But, K&K does make a pre-amp if you need one.

My Collings strap is soft and fits over the K&K jack with no problems. You may have to enlarge the strap hole for a better fit.

DJ

In an ideal world, there is a lot to be said for the shortest, simplest signal chain. But mixers and amplifiers have many different ways of achieving the same end i.e., making you sound louder. Slight differences in input impedance, capacitance, reactance, inductance, and any other number of electrical characteristics mean that the same pickup can sound very different through different inputs. The K&K Pure Western pickups should be used in conjunction with a Pure Pre-amp in ALL cases, since the pre-amp is as much a buffer box that presents better loading to the average input as it is a device to alter gain and tone, and a DI to boot. Sonoman, I guarantee that your guitars will sound even more gobsmacking if you get rid of the crap Para DI and use a Pure XLR pre-amp instead. In fact, I will go so far as to say that you haven't even heard the real sound of the pickup if you're using it without a Pure pre-amp/buffer box (which it should be called).
Just like a Sunrise pickup sounds ordinary until you use one of Kaufman's pre-amp/buffer boxes, so it is with the K&K. Just plugging into the Pure XLR pre-amp without tweaking the tone controls at all makes ANY pickup sound fuller and more present and immediate. I repeat, if you are using a K&K pickup without its pre-amp, you are only getting half the story. It's only one half of the equation. Sure, the pickup by itself has enough level to drive any input, but there's a lot more to sound quality than level alone. A popular saying in the turntable era of high fidelity was "Shit in, shit out," and there's a certain parallel in this instance. If I plug my 00-42 ESB with K&K mini's straight into a Vox AC-15, it feeds back and wants to take off like a wild stallion - the same thing with a Pure XLR pre-amp in the signal chain is a perfectly behaved approximation of the guitar's acoustic sound, without even touching the tone controls. This is because the pre-amp presents a more stable load to the input of the amp than just the pickup by itself.
It is therefore self-evident that LESS is not always MORE (or better, or whatever), any more than saying a Neumann U-87 is the best microphone for recording your guitar and voice, if you have one.
And I'm not even going to start discussing Zaolla Silverline cables!!!
Seriously, though, get the Pure pre-amp and use it as part of a pick-up SYSTEM - the discs themselves are just the triggers for the rest.
Peace and love,

John.

Per the sage advice I received on the forum here recently, I've also just had a K&K Pure Western Mini installed (most acoustic-sounding pickup I've tried) & find the end-pin jack strap notch to be the same as the UST pickups I've used previously.
I have used the Fishman Aura OM box with Fishman & Baggs UST's, but having recently tried the K&K, I'm now looking at the Pure pre-amp.

My question to those in the know, is what's the difference between the K&K Pure Preamp and the K&K Pure XLR Preamp - in terms of function & ease of use, etc...

Thanks

Dave

jr: thanks. I've been mulling over getting a K&K preamp for some time. Re Sunrise: for large venues, they're fine, but they do not transmit the character of the individual guitar, which is why we go through all this nonsense to begin with. It makes any guitar sound like a guitar with a Sunrise. NOt bad, just homogenized. But I think I'll try to foist off the Para DI and go with a K&K preamp. I'd only need one for the three guitars I have that are K&K equipped. For the CJ varnish yet to come, I'm thinking about going the whole route with the mini mic (not the Power deal with the undersaddle. Nope.). Any opinion about the mini mic upgrade. Thanks mate, and good on ya. tom

There was a post on AGF by someone who also posts on this forum...who lives out by Dieter and K&K, that said that K&K will be coming out with a tube preamp sometime around summer. Price won't be cheap, but I can't wait...This sounds like it might be the best system for the money--just a K&K pure mini with the tube happening. Again, it will push another price point up from the remarkably reasonable pickup price (the posted retail would be around 550, although that won't be the real street price, I'm sure), but I'm just betting it will be terrific...or it wouldn't be coming out.

Ah, tubes! Just replaced the tube sets in my pre-amp and my CD player with JJ Electronic E 88 CC's that I had been stocking since I believe the mid-90s. Burned em in, cranked up "The Rockin Record" from Vince Gill's "These Days", and presto, beautiful sounding music. Love the sound of music with tubes in the path.

sonoman: I'm a newcomer to this forum after lurking (as they say) for a few months, but I have been a professional musician messing around with guitars and drums etc.,etc., for almost all of my 58 years. The first K&K pickup I bought was a Big Shot for my Pohaku concert ukulele (brilliant!), followed by Pure Western mini's for my Collings 00-42 ESB, which stays at home in the studio, and my John How ladder braced concert, which goes to gigs with me. I sing and play the old-style country blues by myself. Once I completed the signal chain with a Pure XLR pre-amp, I threw away a whole drawer full of other pickups and pre-amps, including Sunrise, Baggs, pretty much you name it, I've tried it over the years (except UST piezo rubber band types - I could never stomach them!). As you say, the K&K really lets the character of each individual guitar come through. I plug my Zaolla Silverline guitar lead(and there's a whole other barrel-full of worms for you!!)into my Pure XLR pre-amp, and run another Zaolla XLR mic. lead into the PA. If I need my own onstage monitor, I run a short Zaolla guitar lead into a Carvin Vintage 16 tube amp. (for small gigs), or one of my KV2 EX-10 500-watt powered monitors (for big gigs). So both FOH and monitor sound is controlled by ME from the Pure XLR, not some monkey at the desk.
All the monkey has to do is push a fader up or down, which is usually not too much for him (or occasionally, her). Having a balanced XLR out put and a jack line out gives so much more flexibility over the Para DI, and quite honestly I hardly ever have to tweak the tone controls. If you use a small-bodied guitar onstage (my How is only 13.5 inches wide) you'll find that bottom-end feedback is just a bad memory. Yes, you would only need one pre-amp for all. While I have never used a mini-mic myself, I have heard several in use and observed mainly added mud and feedback at anything approaching usable onstage-type real-world volume - as opposed to messing around in the living room-type fantasy-world volume. I think it would be best to consult Dieter, but I gather you play mostly with others, which is usually when feedback problems occur as you push for more and more level.
Enough - time to go and play some, and enjoy my now pristine sound. So mull no longer, Tom. When you've spent all that money on multiple Collings, what's another $150 to be able to hear them properly?

Peace and love,

John.

BTW, you can check out my little John How hog/adi gigging screamer at
http://www.om28.com/sluthier/howlbc.html
and no, it's not a varnish finish, though he will do a beautiful French polish for $200 extra.

John.