peterbright Posted February 10, 2014 Posted February 10, 2014 Received it yesterday and installed it tonight. What I thought would be the difficult part (drilling for the jack) was made very easy if a bit time consuming with a 1/8" to 1/2" reamer. The easy part (super gluing the 3 transducers to the bridge plate) was not as easy. Had to emoryboard a lot of excess super glue off my fingers. I have to stop building up my forearms if I'm going to work through soundholes much. Tried it out without a preamp with my Evans SE200 and it was plenty loud. It was quite acoustic sounding...not like a mic but I anticipated that. The finger squeaks were horrific. I guess I've gotten used to flatwounds. I have put them on acoustics before and I have some TI Plectrums I can try. Will try it out later with a preamp.
MartyGrass Posted February 10, 2014 Posted February 10, 2014 Interesting. I have D'Addario Half Rounds 12s on my flat top for the same reason. They sound fine amplified but definitely are a compromise.
peterbright Posted February 10, 2014 Author Posted February 10, 2014 My Eagle Classic sounds great acoustically with flat wounds so I guess there is no harm in trying.
peterbright Posted February 11, 2014 Author Posted February 11, 2014 Tried it through a BBE 282 Sonic Maximizer and it does improve the sound. More knobs to twist...when will it ever end?
rockabilly69 Posted February 11, 2014 Posted February 11, 2014 Peter, as I said before, you need to optimize the K&K with the proper preamp. They are very hard to handle without one. My Archanchel preamp will be shipped tommorrow, so before you go buying any more equipment, let me test this one out to see if it brings out the best in the K&K. I'll report to you ASAP. I sure hope it works as I have two guitar that have K&Ks and I've never liked that pickup in them so maybe this will be the ticket!
Billgelder Posted February 11, 2014 Posted February 11, 2014 Which one are you getting? The X7 looks interesting.
rockabilly69 Posted February 11, 2014 Posted February 11, 2014 Which one are you getting? The X7 looks interesting. Bill I am getting a custom built one. It's like the X7 but all the in/outputs will be 1/4" so that it can go on my pedal board. And the outputs will be post EQ. And it will have a 18V DC power jack instead of being powered by 48v phantom power. Willie the designer also took liberties with mine and put in some higher fidelity OP amps because it will always be pedal board powered, and battery life won't be a consideration. He's calling mine the X6HD, and if it works out I'm sure he could build the same model for you...
rockabilly69 Posted February 11, 2014 Posted February 11, 2014 Look at how clean the circuit looks! He's also sending me some prototype transducers for my new Gibson!
rockabilly69 Posted February 11, 2014 Posted February 11, 2014 Hey Peter, the price shipped to my door was $188.00. It was shipped UPS 2 day shipping so I should be able to test it out shortly. Be patient and I will give it you the comprehensive review:) Mine is the first of this type to be built, and Willie told me he just shipped two X7s today. One will be on the stage with Jackson Browne and David Lindley so they must be pretty good preamps! If mine does the trick, I may build a pedal board around it, specifically for acoustic shows!
peterbright Posted February 11, 2014 Author Posted February 11, 2014 Sounds great...I'm in no hurry to buy a new preamp.
Billgelder Posted February 12, 2014 Posted February 12, 2014 Hey Daniel, when you have some time I would really like to know what you are using for a pedal board, Maybe some photos and a run down of whats what and the order. I run the Martin with the Ellipse Matrix Blend through a beat up BBE di that runs on Phantom power into the PA. It is on its last leg. I cross my fingers every time I plug it in hoping that it still works, so I think it time to find something new. ,
peterbright Posted February 12, 2014 Author Posted February 12, 2014 Ditto...we need info from someone who knows.
rockabilly69 Posted February 12, 2014 Posted February 12, 2014 Currently I'm using a pretty simple board consisiting of an Ernie Ball Volume (tuner out to Boss TU2), Fulldrive II Mosfet, SexDrive, Voodoo Labs Trem, Boss RE20 Tape Echo, Dr Scientist Mini Reverberator, on a Pedal Train PT2 board powered by a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power II When my Archangel comes it will be placed after the volume pedal.
Mikenov Posted February 20, 2014 Posted February 20, 2014 I have a K&K Pure western in my Taylor ( think predecessor of the Mini). I do like the sound but a pre amp is not optional. You need it to get any high end at all. I used the Tonebones PZ-Deluxe at my last gig ( see thread in family tree for clip) and was VERY happy with the results. That is the best DI box I have ever used and really complimented the K &K .
212Mavguy Posted March 19, 2014 Posted March 19, 2014 Not exactly the same as the OP's choice, I have a K&K Pure Mini Powermix installed in my new to me Alvarez-Yairi Masterworks DYM 94 acoustic. I gambled with a chunk of cash and won it on eBay at a discount, new product with warranty. Getting a wider envelope of amp gain settings and stage volumes with less feedback than any acoustic pickup systems I have heard previously, incredible tonality/dynamics...the sound is amazing, just like the guitar sounds unplugged. The powermix has a 9v battery and a small, light 2 channel preamp with each channel having gain, gain, treb mid bass trimmers, designed to be installed inside the guitar. Output is mono. There are two small volume wheels on a small board very light in weight attached to the inside of the soundhole. The top's projection and tones are not affected by the mounted pickup elements and controls. It's possible to place the battery and preamp out of the way inside the guitar body. This particular instrument has a very lively back, you can really feel it move air while playing, and the place where I mounted the preamp did not affect it. Those volume control wheels make it easy to adjust and mix the tonalities of the Pure Mini pickup and their uniquely constructed Piezo saddle pickup for the other channel. I'm floored at how good this setup sounds. I like to bring the volume up on the Pure Mini channel first, then gradually add amount of the piezo channel to taste, best feedback rejection is then the two channels are clost to even in settings, though.
rockabilly69 Posted March 19, 2014 Posted March 19, 2014 Any word on your new preamp? Yes it sounds very good with the K&K equipped guitars, but unlike Mav212, I am not a fan of the K&K's, so I will be taking them out of the 3 guitars they are in. I tested them against the Fishman Matrix Infinity (my favorite stage pickup) and I am convinced for pro playing at stage volumes the K&Ks won't cut it. The louder it gets the more boxy they get. But with acoustic guitars you never know when your going to get a good combination of pickup/guitar. Mav send he was going to bring his powermix setup to one of my gigs so that will be nice to hear what his sounds like. But for now, IMNSHO, at best, the K&K is more suited to coffee house style gigs.
peterbright Posted March 19, 2014 Author Posted March 19, 2014 I'm sure you are correct. Would you recommend the new preamp?
rockabilly69 Posted March 19, 2014 Posted March 19, 2014 Yes I would as I think it a designed around the K&K, I also heard the Red-Eye is really good with the K&K. I own the K&K XLR preamp and it I think it's both ineffective and cheaply made, compared to the the Archangel and Red-Eye. Remember that if you're going to use it with a 1/4" cord to the PA. You will need to have an X6 Archangel made to have that output be post EQ, but you'll be unable to power the X6 with 48 volt phantom that way but Mr Smith can mod it to be used with an 18 volt DC adaptor. These mods are exactly what I had done to my custom model, but if I was to do it again I would order a switchable true bypass, as when mine is on, when you turn it off, it doesn't pass the signal it goes to mute. As anal as I am about things, I can't believe I didn't think of that! I just wrote him an email and he just emailed me back and said he can mod one to be switchable bypass instead of mute!!! I'm using my Archangel with a magnetic Dimarzio DP139 and it sounds really good with that for a great blues tone. The Red-Eye pre... http://www.fire-eye.com/welcomepage.htm The Archangel pre... http://www.archangelelectronics.com/x7.html
rockabilly69 Posted March 20, 2014 Posted March 20, 2014 can I get a shot of thre i/o's? Here they are. The way mine differs from an X7, is that mine can't be powered by phantom power, although it can be powered by batteries or the 18 volt DC jack, my main out is 1/4" phone jack, instead of XLR, and it's post EQ like the XLR would have been. I'm going to have him make me another with a bypass switch instead of a mute switch, and I'm going to have him make the lines on the knobs easier to read as it will be on a pedal board and they are very hard to read from a distance. If you don't plan on using one with a pedal board the regular X7 should work better!
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