NPUD Amulet MVT

[SpruceTop]

Originally Posted by static111

I think I may give those clamps a try. Off hand do you know what the stew Mac inventory number or ordering page for those clamps is?

5" Item #2010 https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-tool...ndhole-clamps/

You may be tempted to go for the 7" clamp because it has a leveler but the leveler may not contact your guitar's top and the clamp's overall length may hit the perimeter of the soundhole behind the end of the clamp. The clamp pressure you'll apply is just enough finger pressure to take all the wiggle out of the setup and then a bit more. I'm estimating maybe 1 to 1-1/2 lbs-ft of torque max. Gary Hull will not recommend that you do my method as he feels the turnbuckle will work best but you can't hurt anything by trying it.

[Petty1818]

Originally Posted by SpruceTop

Scott, let's face it, they're all piezo-based SBT pickups and they're as good as it gets until something revolutionary comes along.

Absolutely! It will be interesting to see where we are ten years from now. The IR trend is great, but I have yet to find a setup where this works well live. I am very much hoping that Fishman release an updated Aura with better wavemaps and/or the ability to create your own IR. I find these days, I am all about simplicity.

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by Cuki79

Guitar and SBT sometimes match and sometime don’t… It is a symbiosis.

There is no “universal” pickup. Just good match....

No truer words spoken!!!

I totally agree with this, as I've seen it play out time and time again. Somebody on this forum with have a successful install of a SBT, and then rave about it. Then it becomes the flavor of the week, until someone else installs one, and it sounds less than stellar (to be polite). And then there will be the debate about the install, whether they did it right or wrong because the pickup isn't giving up the goods. It's an endless cycle.

I've tried almost every brand of pickup in my guitars that I gig with and I find SBTs are absolutely the hardest ones to say they will sound good or not with each guitar. I have never been happy with any K&K pickup and look at how many people rave about them. I've had them in at least 5 guitars (4 of them came with the pickup already installed), and they have never worked for me, and I've used them with all sorts of outboard preamps (even two different versions of the K&K preamp)

Personally I have had the best luck with the last generation of made in Finland B-Band pickups which combine a UST with a SBT (XOM 2.2 System), and I just use a bit of the SBT side in the mix. Too bad the company folded, as I have that system in five stage guitars (Gibson J45, Martin D17M, Gibson Gibson J-100 Xtra, Weber Roundbody, Parkwood LE061, and they all work great. Fortunately I bought two more of the systems as backups when I realized the company was folding

Welp. A month later. A couple calls to Gary and a couple re attempts. I decided the effort was becoming more than I could take. Popped in a k&k and run it through an Orchid DI...Fantastic sound. Not as great as the two previous Trance Amulets that I had, but close enough.

I'm not sure what the lesson is here. Sometimes the greatest pickup is not a match for the guitar. I gotta say I am bummed because my two previous Trance equipped guitars were phenomenal. You can't always get what you want.

I certainly don't mean this to come off as an anti Trance post...As I have alluded to prior to this I had nothing but great experiences.

All in all I am satisfied with where I have arrived with the K&K in this guitar. Would I love the better sound of my previous Trance installs...Yes. In this guitar the time to try to get a perfect match was just too much.

Now I am back to happily playing my guitar and have plans to hit up a couple open mics next week to get myself used to playing in front of people again before I go booking shows.

On the plus side I have a great pickup system that I can either pass along to someone else and recoup some expenses, or just hold on to it in case I acquire a perfect match acoustic guitar in the future.

Say one thing for the K&K its a fairly simple install with a pretty good sound. Now back to playing.

[Petty1818]

Originally Posted by static111

Welp. A month later. A couple calls to Gary and a couple re attempts. I decided the effort was becoming more than I could take. Popped in a k&k and run it through an Orchid DI...Fantastic sound. Not as great as the two previous Trance Amulets that I had, but close enough.

I'm not sure what the lesson is here. Sometimes the greatest pickup is not a match for the guitar. I gotta say I am bummed because my two previous Trance equipped guitars were phenomenal. You can't always get what you want.

I certainly don't mean this to come off as an anti Trance post...As I have alluded to prior to this I had nothing but great experiences.

All in all I am satisfied with where I have arrived with the K&K in this guitar. Would I love the better sound of my previous Trance installs...Yes. In this guitar the time to try to get a perfect match was just too much.

Now I am back to happily playing my guitar and have plans to hit up a couple open mics next week to get myself used to playing in front of people again before I go booking shows.

On the plus side I have a great pickup system that I can either pass along to someone else and recoup some expenses, or just hold on to it in case I acquire a perfect match acoustic guitar in the future.

Say one thing for the K&K its a fairly simple install with a pretty good sound. Now back to playing.

I think one big lesson is that despite some negative posts about the K&K recently; it's hard to argue against it being consistent. I have found that when I put a K&K pickup in a guitar, I know what type of bass, high end and mid range I am going to get from it. I haven't used a Dazzo yet but with the Trance or HFN, it was much more of a gamble/experiment. Yes, the K&K might need eq, but I have found it to be a straightforward eq that becomes almost habit. Now with the Tonedexter or Voiceprint, the K&K seems even more appealing.