K&K Pickups with the Venue DI

[Mking]

Do any of you use the LR Baggs Venue DI with your K&K pickup equipped guitars? If so, what is your assessment, good or bad?

[JStotes]

I tried both the Para Di and the Venue and didn't care for either of them.
I now use the red eye and it works much better for me. The guitars sound more natural and it's a simple plug and play system. No need to fidget with several controls.

[DenverSteve]

I have never used any K&K pickups that didn't do fine with any DI. My experience with DI's is the same as with amplifiers. The user (you) have to take the minutes or hours to experiment with the DI settings and adjust it to suit you. It's not a plug and play. Additionally, even when you think you have the sound you want and then plug into a different PA or amplifier system, you may have to tweak it.

[Vancebo]

Originally Posted by PastorSteve

I have never used any K&K pickups that didn't do fine with any DI. My experience with DI's is the same as with amplifiers. The user (you) have to take the minutes or hours to experiment with the DI settings and adjust it to suit you. It's not a plug and play. Additionally, even when you think you have the sound you want and then plug into a different PA or amplifier system, you may have to tweak it.

This is what I experienced.

[Vancebo]

Originally Posted by JStotes

I now use the red eye and it works much better for me. The guitars sound more natural and it's a simple plug and play system. No need to fidget with several controls.

This is what I do now. It will work as long as you don't have extreme EQ needs.

[jay7347]

I've been playing over five years with a K&K and a venue DI, first on my Lowden O25 and the last year and a half on my harp guitar from Duane Noble. I've got dual K&K's in my harp guitar and love them for the sound. Dialing in isn't that complicated imo. I'm sure there's better rigs out there but this combo suits my needs for playing out every couple of weeks.

-jay

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Mking

Do any of you use the LR Baggs Venue DI with your K&K pickup equipped guitars? If so, what is your assessment, good or bad?

HI Mk

Our worship leader leads with a Jumbo Taylor with a K&K Pure mini through a Venue. He upgraded from a ParaDI (because somebody kicked the cable which sticks straight up in the air from the ParaDI and broke the jack).

It sounded great with the ParaDI and even better with the Venue. And that's through either an acoustic amp or the house PA system at our church.

[Mking]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

HI Mk

Our worship leader leads with a Jumbo Taylor with a K&K Pure mini through a Venue. He upgraded from a ParaDI (because somebody kicked the cable which sticks straight up in the air from the ParaDI and broke the jack).

It sounded great with the ParaDI and even better with the Venue. And that's through either an acoustic amp or the house PA system at our church.

I'm glad to hear you say it works well through an acoustic amp. I rarely play through a PA so my need is more often for a preamp than a true DI application with a balanced cable/signal. I also have the K&K Pure XLR preamp but it has more mid range that I can't seem to get rid of to my complete satisfaction. Whereas the Venue DI has EQ controls for bow low and hi mids. I am able to adjust the midrange. However, I have read so much good info on the Red Eye, I really wonder if there would be a significant improvement, even though it lacks a lot of EQ capabilities.

[Mandobart]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

He upgraded from a ParaDI (because somebody kicked the cable which sticks straight up in the air from the ParaDI and broke the jack).

You know he could have fixed the Para DI for a lot less than the cost of the Venue. Less than $ 10 in parts and an hour's work....

[Mking]

I had a Para DI before the Venue and it is a great piece of gear.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Mandobart

You know he could have fixed the Para DI for a lot less than the cost of the Venue. Less than $ 10 in parts and an hour's work....

Hi Mandobart
It was the third time someone kicked and broken it over the past couple years. I suggested repairs, but it really damaged things this time. He's really happy with the Venue.

I own/love ParaDI preamps, but the Venue sounds so much better than the ParaDI did (and I cannot tell you why). I tend to think of them as very similar devices…

It's not the first K&K Pure Mini I've heard using a Venue which sounds fabulous. They just play well together.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Mking

…I have read so much good info on the Red Eye, I really wonder if there would be a significant improvement, even though it lacks a lot of EQ capabilities.

Hi Mk

I'm swimming upstream here. I realize how popular RedEye preamps are. I spent an entire weekend at an event where everybody played a minimum of 5-6 times, and the house system had a RedEye that everyone with single source systems plugged into.

To be honest it sounded 'fine'. Wasn't spectacular. And the few of us who had dual source systems, or active systems and needed to bypass it, sounded better through the house PA.

The RedEye is like having a very sophisticated point-n-shoot camera. If the conditions you are shooting pictures in with a point and shoot are very average, then it's looks ok. And it's quick. If you need to taylor things, you're going to hit walls.

The RedEye is great in average settings. If anything unusual happens, or you have a stray feedback frequency, or a sub-standard PA at an open mic etc. you are just up a creek.

I recently plugged into a small rural church system (a pastor friend we stopped to see on vacation who asked me to play along with him for the morning). My Fishman Platinum Stage preamp saved the day for me. A Venue could have done the job very well.

They had no mixer (just a digital interface with 6 volume knobs and no tone control). The input impedance/gain on their mixing strip required me to back the input gain and output volume on my preamp back to zero, and the bass well into the minus range, cut the bass frequency with the Bass Hi-pass Filter at 120hz, then find the midrange honky frequency that was blatting and remove it.

Could not have done it with a RedEye preamp.

If everywhere you intend to play is average a RedEye will do fine. If you have additional ⅓ octave EQ, or other extreme tone shaping capability in your chain, you will be good to go. My gigging partner and I have just hit too many odd situations to reduce things to point-n-shoot.

[Mking]

I called the folks that make the Red Eye. Actually spoke to Daren, the fellow that is the founder; he started making them in his garage. He made it clear that if I bought one and it did not suit me or fit my needs they have a full refund policy. So with that I purchased one. With his guarantee, I have nothing to lose. I'll let you all know how it goes once it arrives. Thanks again

[erniecaster]

Hi folks,

well, there has to be an EQ somewhere just in case, you need it and you will need it some day. It doesn´t matter if in your preamp, as a stomp box, as a rack unit, in your D.I. or the mixer, be sure to have one, when you need it.

Just imagine: You plugged into your EQ-less rig, play one single chord and everything is fine. Great! Don´t need an EQ! And if you got one, don´t touch it. But what, if the sound is boomy or harsh or quacky or whatever? You need a tool for that and mostly you don´t have too much time to fiddle with controls or even programs, banks or USB-based UI.

I know that there is not a lot of love for the old Boss GE7 on this board and it surely is not the perfect tool for everything, everybody and everytime. But it still is the old and cheap swiss army knife. Keep one in your bag. Maybe you will not receive the best sound of your life but it might save the one gig.

cu

erniecaster