K&K reliability

[cmac]

Has anyone ever had a K&K pure mini failure?

I have a K&K pure mini fitted, with superglue. The last couple of times I've played out the sound guys have commented that the guitar tone had changed from what they are used to, with less midrange than normal. This could be down to the individual sound tech or a change in mixer settings, and this is my suspicion though the guys that said the tone had changed were supervising sound so they should have been able to dial in a 'normal' mix. Or it could be that one of the piezo sensors has failed. But I reckon the sensor should basically work forever - no moving parts, no significant voltage or power, etc. Problem is, it's a major pain to test them individually.

So I'm wondering if there's any history of sensor failures in K&K pickups? If not then I'm happy to lay the blame elsewhere, but it would be useful to know if it could be the pickup.

[James May]

Originally Posted by cmac

Has anyone ever had a K&K pure mini failure?

I have a K&K pure mini fitted, with superglue. The last couple of times I've played out the sound guys have commented that the guitar tone had changed from what they are used to, with less midrange than normal. This could be down to the individual sound tech or a change in mixer settings, and this is my suspicion though the guys that said the tone had changed were supervising sound so they should have been able to dial in a 'normal' mix. Or it could be that one of the piezo sensors has failed. But I reckon the sensor should basically work forever - no moving parts, no significant voltage or power, etc. Problem is, it's a major pain to test them individually.

So I'm wondering if there's any history of sensor failures in K&K pickups? If not then I'm happy to lay the blame elsewhere, but it would be useful to know if it could be the pickup.

I've never had one fail. You should be able to diagnose this by checking to see if the string balance has changed.

[leew3]

I have them in my mandolin, which is only three years old, but have never had any problems with them.

[Vancebo]

You should be able to stick your hand in the sound hole and give each sensor a tap to see if they are still live. You could also have a sensor barely connected. Do you have an amp to plug into and see for yourself? Also, the change could be from a myriad of buttons on their end.

[Neon Soul]

Never had the pickups fail, but an internal K&K preamp had a faulty component.

Was told I was essentially out of luck because I'm in the UK, just FYI for other UK users.

My tech was pretty disappointed with the build quality when he repaired it as K&K use super glue as well as solder on their SMD components.

[JLS]

Originally Posted by cmac

Has anyone ever had a K&K pure mini failure?

I have a K&K pure mini fitted, with superglue. The last couple of times I've played out the sound guys have commented that the guitar tone had changed from what they are used to, with less midrange than normal. This could be down to the individual sound tech or a change in mixer settings, and this is my suspicion though the guys that said the tone had changed were supervising sound so they should have been able to dial in a 'normal' mix. Or it could be that one of the piezo sensors has failed. But I reckon the sensor should basically work forever - no moving parts, no significant voltage or power, etc. Problem is, it's a major pain to test them individually.

So I'm wondering if there's any history of sensor failures in K&K pickups? If not then I'm happy to lay the blame elsewhere, but it would be useful to know if it could be the pickup.

Were these sound guys referring to previous instances with your guitar, or amplified acoustics in general?

[cmac]

Originally Posted by JLS

Were these sound guys referring to previous instances with your guitar, or amplified acoustics in general?

Specifically my guitar, compared to the tone that it normally produces.

[cmac]

Originally Posted by Neon Soul

Never had the pickups fail, but an internal K&K preamp had a faulty component.

Was told I was essentially out of luck because I'm in the UK, just FYI for other UK users.

My tech was pretty disappointed with the build quality when he repaired it as K&K use super glue as well as solder on their SMD components.

I'm using the external K&K preamp / DI. It's possible that it has developed a fault, and I need to dig out my acoustic amp to try the whole chain to see how it sounds to my ears.

[Neon Soul]

Originally Posted by cmac

I'm using the external K&K preamp / DI. It's possible that it has developed a fault, and I need to dig out my acoustic amp to try the whole chain to see how it sounds to my ears.

Mine was a faulty resistor in the gain stage of the Mic channel.

The use really cheap SMD components in the preamps so that would be the first thing I checked.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by cmac

…So I'm wondering if there's any history of sensor failures in K&K pickups? If not then I'm happy to lay the blame elsewhere, but it would be useful to know if it could be the pickup.

Hi cmac

I'm sure a K&K somewhere has failed. It's inevitable with hundreds of thousands of units being sold and installed. But I'm pretty sure it's rare.

A lot of things could be contributing to output sound changes, including new strings or weight of strings, input gain on the channel versus output volume on the channel, fingerpicking versus flat pick (and pick weight) room EQ, and the skills of the person mixing sound. And lack of midrange is hardly something to worry about.

We acoustic players usually have gobs of that to dial back in when needed.

I'd do the tap test on the sensors, and if it passes, have them readjust their mix for you when you play out.

[Shoreline Music]

I've sold tens of thousands of these pickups, and I can't recall a single instance of a sensor failure (at least not that was reported to me). My first guess would be something in the signal chain other than the pickup itself. My second guess would be that one sensor is loose; Vancebo rightly points out that this is easily tested.

Good luck!

[cmac]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

Hi cmac

I'm sure a K&K somewhere has failed. It's inevitable with hundreds of thousands of units being sold and installed. But I'm pretty sure it's rare.

A lot of things could be contributing to output sound changes, including new strings or weight of strings, input gain on the channel versus output volume on the channel, fingerpicking versus flat pick (and pick weight) room EQ, and the skills of the person mixing sound. And lack of midrange is hardly something to worry about.

We acoustic players usually have gobs of that to dial back in when needed.

I'd do the tap test on the sensors, and if it passes, have them readjust their mix for you when you play out.

The venue, strings, picks, style, etc, were all the same as the usual, so I'm pretty sure it's in the signal chain rather than the environment.

The irony is that I dial back the midrange on the preamp, and always have done, to get a balanced tone. So it's not going to hurt if I level that off now. But if something has changed in the guitar then I want to know why.

I'll try to do a tap test on the sensors to see how it goes. I want to avoid taking the strings off though - it's a pinless bridge - and I have big hands so it's tricky getting in there. But I'll give it a go.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by cmac

The venue, strings, picks, style, etc, were all the same as the usual, so I'm pretty sure it's in the signal chain rather than the environment.

The irony is that I dial back the midrange on the preamp, and always have done, to get a balanced tone. So it's not going to hurt if I level that off now. But if something has changed in the guitar then I want to know why.

I'll try to do a tap test on the sensors to see how it goes. I want to avoid taking the strings off though - it's a pinless bridge - and I have big hands so it's tricky getting in there. But I'll give it a go.

Hi cmac

Sounds like good old trial-n-error troubleshooting, not a scientific test situation.

I only play at church once every month, so sitting in the audience I can tell you the same guy mixing sound will get different sounds out of the PA week to week, and not always for the better.

And all except one of the mixer-techs are erratic in their mixing styles. I mentioned to one that he needed to bring up the gain so my gear wouldn't sound so noisy (he was running gain under ½ and pushing the volume slider nearly wide open). He didn't even know what the gain knob was, nor what it does.

If I'm playing in venues where I'm not familiar with the techs, I pop the looper in line, play about a 3 minute bunch-o-styles of music and then go out into the house and listen to what the techs are hearing.

I also make good friends with them, because they are like God. If they decide to turn you off, you are dead in the mix.

[cmac]

So it looks like the sensors are OK. It's actually really hard to do a tap test because tapping the sensor itself sounds exactly like tapping the bridge plate between the sensors. If a sensor wasn't working then tapping wouldn't really show that - the adjacent sensors would pick up the tap.

Touching the sensors does produce a bit of ground loop hum though, and each sensor does it so I reckon they are OK. (One sensor has a stronger hum than others but I had to resolder the wire on that one at installation time so I'm not worried about that.)

Playing through headphones sounds more or less OK but it's a long time since I listened to it plugged in so it's hard to be sure. But it's fairly even across the strings, which is about all I can measure by ear.

I'll check out the DI at some point but for now I reckon it's a human problem at the mixer end.