anemic pickup

[birdmove]

So, my guitar that I put on a K&K stick onto the bridge passive pickup has no volume. Bought a new Kustom PA50 and have a couple of mics and mic cords coming too. So, I plug in my Hohner HW03 in, and thought the PA50 wasn't working. Pulled out my Pignose 7-100 to test the Hohner and the cord, and they worked, and the Pignose had some volume. Brought out my electric guitar and plugged into the PA50 and it had decent volume.

So, mt Hohner is basically unusable through an amp or the PA50. Now what?

I want to go in and talk to a local gent that maybe can give me a price to install an active pickup and cut the body to install the unit. Of course, I'm sure it'll cost more than the guitar will be worth in the end.

I tried reading and searching for an acoustic guitar booster pedal/preamp, but many of the units I looked into, it was unclear just what the purpose of the unit was. Many were more for electric guitars and like overdrives.

Does anyone think it might be useful to order a Behringer AD121 and see if it will boost the volume to a usable level?

Another option would be to trade or sell the Hohner and get an electric/acoustic guitar with an active pickup already installed. I've listened to a few Youtube videos of these, and they didn't really demonstrate a noticeable clean boost.

Not looking to play large halls or something, but in small rooms or small areas outside.

I have found videos of players using the Kustom PA50 or the Powerworks version with an acoustic and a mic, and they seemed to do all right.

The K&K unit I have was bought about 7 years ago now, and they no longer show this one anywhere. Are there other passive units that provide more volume?

So, suggestions? Should I:

1.give up on the Hohner and get a new acoustic/electric with an active pickup?

2.Try the Behringer unit?

3.Pay the bucks to have my local shop install an active system in the Hohner?

4.Give up and disappoint my 8 year old granddaughter? We are writing a song we want to perform at her 9th birthday party using the PA50, two mics, and my acoustic. She has a great voice too. The party is July 27th.

Maybe 12-14 years back I did a couple songs at my brother in laws wedding that worked out well. Borrowed an Ibanez acoustic amp and used a Cort acoustic electric with an active pickup, and it worked out fine.

[cmac]

The PA50 input, assuming you are using the line input, is looking for a much stronger signal than the K&K, or any other passive piezo pickup, will produce, so you need a preamp. Also the input impedance of the line input is too low, so it will kill some of the tone.

K&K's own preamps are ideal for the job, but most preamps will give you something you can work with even if they aren't a perfect match to the pickup. You can always take the guitar along to a music shop and try some different preamps to see how they sound, and to verify that the pickup is working ok.

[birdmove]

Thanks for that. I live near Hilo Hawaii, and trying something out is highly iffy. No Guitar Centers here.

[Methos1979]

The little K&K preamp works wonders for a K&K guitar. Runs on 9v battery and you can clip it to your pocket or even the guitar strap (if you use one) and have on the fly EQ and gain. They are around $99 new, I think. You could also just pick up a little Danelectro Fish & Chips which are only like $29 new and can be found really cheap. That's a little 7 channel EQ with gain/volume plus a footswitch. They work great. Also run on 9v or wall wart power.

[B. Adams]

You have a PA system, not an instrument amplifier. While the input connector is the same on each, the expected source and impedance are not. Some pickups work OK into a line level input on a mixer, but some don't. In my experience, usually a straight passive piezo is the worst offender.

A preamp will work, or a decent (preferably active) direct box will too.

[Pine Cone]

The Beringer ADI 21 should fix your problem. I have one that works well with a K&K Mini and my Journey's piezo pickup.

You might want to use an XLR cord to connect the ADI 21 to your PA50 since the XLR/Mic input has a 70 dB boost while the 1/4" Line input only has a 56 dB boost. The volume difference is quite noticable.

[guitarwebguy]

I’ll second methos1979, a K&K preamp will match nicely and do what you need

[birdmove]

Okay, some progress here. Took the guitar with the weak passive pickup in to Rogers Guitars in Keaau, Hawaii. He checked it over and pronounced that the pickup (remember, and older model K&K single stick on). He pointed out it was not mounted in a good spot for best sound and volume. This one was not designed to be mounted inside the body under the bridge, as the wire is nowhere near long enough. So, I was able to remove the stick on pickup and mounted it where he suggested, which is on the body of he guitar centered on the bridge, just underneath the bridge. This helped a bunch. Still have to try it with my Kustom PA50.

I still may need a preamp or DI with preamp because I want the ability to run two mics and the guitar at the same time. On the Kustom, there is three channels, but the third one has, I believe it is, a 3.5mm input jack. Channels one and rwo each have one 1/4" instrument jack and one three pin XLR mic jack. So. I'll have to run the guitar and one mic through one of the channels. So. I'll need a way to adjust the volume for the guitar before the signal enters the PA50, and so I can have a suitable volume on that guitar and that mic.

At least I don't need to buy a new pickup, or a new guitar.

Any suggestions on what I could use to stick the pickup in place? I want to be able to remove it if needed without marring the guitar body.

[Pine Cone]

Congrats on making some progress on making your pickup louder.

The 3.5 mm input on the PA50 is for high volume inputs and only has 42 dB gain versus 70dB for the mic inputs. The 1/4" line input has 56 dB gain.

In my experience using one of the mic inputs for vocals and one of the line inputs for a guitar is marginal even with a DI or preamp. Hard to get the volume of the guitar to match the vocal volumes without really turning down the microphone gain way down. At that point even with the master volume up all the way the PA50 is not very loud.

With only 42 dB gain on the 3.5 mm Aux channel the guitar would be even quieter.

My preferred setup is to use one mic input for a vocal microphone and the second mic input for the output from a preamp or DI connected to the guitar's K&K pickup.

If you want more channels you should probably get a second PA50 or a mixer.

You might try mounting your pickup with a piece of carpet tape which is thin double-sided sticky tape. Might fall off if the temperature get too hot. Carpet tape tends to release at temps above 90 to 100 degrees... Given that you are in Hawaii that might be a problem, but you don't have much to lose if it doesn't work, and the carpet tape sold in Hawaii may cope with its higher temperatures.

Standard piezo pickup mounting uses gel superglue and assumes you can use a razor blade to cut the pickup off the guitar if needed. Here is a link to one guy's install method...
https://guitarbear.wordpress.com/201...-prestige-330/