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JeffC
Lokahi
USA
189 Posts |
 Posted - 02/24/2007 : 08:58:38 AM
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Thanks Paul. I would be interested in the article. Please email me if you find it.
Jeff |
Jeff
Making Trout Country safe for Slack Key! |
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Karl Monetti
`Olu`olu
USA
756 Posts |
Posted - 02/24/2007 : 1:52:42 PM
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I put a K&K Pure estern Mini in my first travel guitar. I picked it largely becausae of the shape of my guitar...very thin, with small sound holes, so i knew i would not be able to add anything later due to lack of access to the inside of the body. I do have a side soundhole on the lower bout that gives me limited accesss to the bottom of the bridge plate, and that is where the three little sticky things go for the K&K. I was a bit disappointed in it at first.. Plenty of volume, but could not get much out of the treble strings....volume, yes, treble sounds, no. The whole deal sounded very bass heavy. I bought a Baggs Paraacoustic DI on recommendation from Dusty Strings, where i bought the pickup. Dialing out some of the bass and loading up the treble gives me a more even tone. And, my small Crate acoustic amp lets me accent the trebles even more.
I went to the K&K website for help and they mentioned that placement of the pickup tabs is very important, and in some "heavily braced guitars" you need to set the treble reciever closer to the treble end of the bridge plate than described in the instructions provided. Problem is, once you set them in place, (using the super glue they provide) you have to do some delicate work to remove them (without damaging the reciever or the bridge plate) so you can re-position them. I considered repositioning mine, but instead built a second guitar the same as the first, and put the treble reciever even with the outside edge of the 1st string (normally the three recievers go in front of the bridge pins, between the 1st and 2nd, 3rd and 4th, 5th and 6th strings), leaving the other two in the normal positions. This provided a much better balance of tone from treble to bass strings, and now i leave the dials at neutral on DI and amp.
They do suggest a pre-amp, but this pickup is REALLY HOT!. If I turn up the DI output to a really high level (they recommend that because the DI signal is virtually noise free) then i can only crack the volume on the amp to maybe 1 or 2.
I do like the tone of the K&K, it was easy to install (of course i put it in my two during the construction phase, before i even glued the back on, so anything would have been easy...,but i can see where it would be a fairly simple procedure throught the soundhole of a normal guitar.
An ideal situation would be to be able to try the three recievers in different places on the bridge plate before gluing them down. Perhaps one oculd use a small bit of buble gum to stick them on temporarily. Or, since it takes 30-60 seconds for the glue to set, you may be able to attatch each one and play the strings amplified by that reciever and move it around to find the best spot; then take the reciever out, put on another drop of the glue for good measure and stick it in the identified spot. This method may take a really small guy to crawl inside the guitar, or someone with a really tiny head on a long neck, or a lot of patience using mirrors and a lot of tongue english. Haven't tried it myself, lemme know if it works, if you ever get your noggin out of the soundhole. |
Karl
Frozen North |
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rendesvous1840
Ha`aha`a
USA
1055 Posts |
Posted - 02/24/2007 : 6:23:38 PM
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| Karl,I had a small De Armond transducer that was attatched temporarally with a putty-like substance called Ticky- Tac. You kneeded it in your fingers for a few seconds to soften it and stuck it on. It could go inside or outside the guitar. The sound was ok, but it did feed back at higher volume levels. The ticky-tac was reusable, and would probably last forever, if you didn't loose it.You could probably use it to determine where to put your pickup,and then use the glue.A friend is using the De Armond/ticky-tac on her dulcimer with no problems. It doesn't leave marks on oil,lacquer, or other instrument type finishes, but it stains latex wall paints.I let one of my daughters use it to put pictures on her wall, and it soaked into the paint. I expect bare wood may also be stained. Don't try it on your old, shellaced Stradivarius violin. I'm not sure how shellac will respond. |
"A master banjo player isn't the person who can pick the most notes.It's the person who can touch the most hearts." Patrick Costello |
Edited by - rendesvous1840 on 02/24/2007 6:28:08 PM |
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Karl Monetti
`Olu`olu
USA
756 Posts |
Posted - 02/24/2007 : 6:33:53 PM
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| Yeah, DAP had a product called FunTac that sounds similar. Due to the fact it does stain paints and leave marks on bare wood, it might not be a good choice unless you de-greased the spot before using the glue, as the glue might not stick to the stained surface |
Karl
Frozen North |
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rendesvous1840
Ha`aha`a
USA
1055 Posts |
Posted - 03/25/2007 : 3:59:46 PM
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| Jeff, I just caught on that the member emails may not be working. (I'm slower than the average bear).Did you get the one I sent about the magazine articles?I found several old Acoustic Guitar Mags that had articles relating to your question. I'll make up a list of the issues and titles of the articles and put it in this forum. |
"A master banjo player isn't the person who can pick the most notes.It's the person who can touch the most hearts." Patrick Costello |
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hapakid
Luna Ho`omalu
USA
1533 Posts |
Posted - 03/25/2007 : 6:49:11 PM
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This might be too far off track, but I use a stethoscope to figure out where the hot spot is on a guitar before putting on a transducer.
Jesse Tinsley |
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JeffC
Lokahi
USA
189 Posts |
Posted - 03/25/2007 : 7:28:07 PM
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Hi again Paul
No, I didn't get the email. I'll send you my address.
Mahalo.
BTW, I'm meeting this week with a luthier I found out about who works in Redding. The photos of his instruments look beautiful. I'm pretty jazzed (I mean slacked!) to talk with him about guitar techy stuff.
JC |
Jeff
Making Trout Country safe for Slack Key! |
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Admin
Pupule
USA
4551 Posts |
Posted - 03/26/2007 : 02:16:12 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by JeffC
Hi again Paul
No, I didn't get the email. I'll send you my address.
The email function at Taropatch.net was not working recently. It should be back up now. |
Andy |
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