Quote:
Originally Posted by Petty1818
I quite like it. The installation is about as simple as it gets, especially with the putty. It does still have that piezo quality to it but I find it's a bit more hi-fi than the K&K (in a good way) and for my experiments, it was a bit more full sounding than the Amulet M.
Interesting note though, when I first put it in, I used the putty and admittedly I think I used a bit too much. As a result, the lower strings were weaker sounding. I know Sprucetop has mentioned this issue but I believe it had more to do with me not evenly pressing it into place. The tone was great otherwise.
Recently I stuck my hand in and pressed down harder and more evenly. The tone is now much more balanced but it's a bit too hi-fi/thin now. I know Les recommends tape for a warmer tone so I might try that next or I make take it out and do a proper installation.
As a standalone pickup though, it's hard to beat the price, installation and tone. I have to be honest, after trying the K&k, Schatten and Amulet, I can't say there's a huge difference so it's hard for me to justify the Amulet pricing.
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I'm in agreement with this comparison between K&K, HFN, and Trance. In essence, they all use similar piezo transducers. But the location away (and 3D suspension) from the bridge plate gives a sense of air to the tone. However, the installation is more critical with these 3 dimensional solutions, whereas K&K is nothing but slapping some superglue on a 2 dimensional disc and sticking it on.
Over the past 5 years I have tried most of the pickups on the market, including those mentioned in this thread. All of them can produce good results in some guitars with expert installation. That said, I'm back to using K&K. My time for tweaking and re-installing has all but vanished. I'm not suggesting K&K is the "answer." It's simply a matter of attrition for me. I'm further convinced no one in the audience cares, and I can't be bothered to obsess about it anymore.
So, I'm going for simple and "good enough." Schatten HFN can be an improvement over K&K in terms of adding some "air." The same is true for Amulet. The K&K begins to close the gap with a proper preamp to restore high frequency reproduction. But, that won't capture the "air" inside the guitar like a 3D element will. However, my initial installations of HFN and Trance were always disappointingly thin sounding. Who knows, maybe they would have benefited from super glue too?