passive pickups - choose the best

[Villamarzia]

Which of the following pickups gave you the best in terms of: sound, clarity, balance, signal strength, feedback resistance and less need of EQ?

• K&K
• HFN
• Barbera
• Ultratonic
• Dazzo
• Others (write which as post)

[jamison162]

Will be trying this soon: Dazzo 70T!

[Villamarzia]

Originally Posted by jamison162

Will be trying this soon: Dazzo 70T!

Added let us know how will go and which other pickup you experienced in the past!

[Petty1818]

I hate to say it but you are probably going to get a bunch of replies stating that each of those pickups is the best. You kind of have to try them yourself. The recommendations on here are great but no one really knows how a pickup will sound in a guitar until it's installed. The Barbera and K&K are probably the two that would be the most consistent in terms of results. If you listen to demos online of these two pickups, it will most likely be the tone you get.

The Dazzo and HFN are a bit more hit or miss. Some have loved them and others have struggled with placement. I think what makes it extra difficult is that I know for me personally, I have written off pickups that did not work in my Taylor. However, I bet in my Larrivee they would sound awesome. It's so instrument dependent!

I will say though that of those (I haven't tried the Soloist), the K&K easily had the hottest signal and most full tone.

[Gordon Currie]

In my experience:

Dazzo is the most high quality SBT.

HFN is close to Dazzo in tonal quality, but lacks some deep bass pretty consistently. Not a problem as I ALWAYS roll off at 80-100 Hz.

K+K is the hottest signal by a mile, but that does not mean it sounds the best to me. Invariably I end up cutting out some midrange that does not work well with vocals or other instruments.
(Some might like this midrange buildup as it cuts through a group mix better.)

(I've also used JJB which are a less expensive K+K work-alike.)

Hotter pickups are not automatically better quality than lower output pickups. The amplitude of the typical output has no particular correlation with low noise, frequency response or any other quality factor.

[Doug Young]

I've used all of those except the ultratonic. "Best" is subjective, but I use Barbera and Dazzo. I have K&Ks in 2 guitars as well. They all work. I need very little EQ with any of them, probably because if I don't like the sound of a pickup, I replace it with something else until I'm happy. It depends on the guitar. ToneDexter helps, tho, and that's a form of EQ, and partly why I don't need a lot of EQ otherwise.

Overall, I'd say Barbera wins on most of your points, especially feedback resistance, clarity, string balance. Dazzo only loses on feedback resistance (not its fault, it's an SBT...). A little lower output, maybe? That's not something that particularly matters to me - that's what preamps and amps are for, they have volume controls.

K&Ks are fine, but I don't plan to install any more, unless a special case comes up. My last install of them was in my little Yamamoto mini-12 string. We tried Dazzo's and they didn't work well, kind of a funny guitar, odd sized bridge plate, etc. I knew K&Ks worked from a previous version, and sure enough, they're fine. Never had much luck with the HFN.

[Petty1818]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

I've used all of those except the ultratonic. "Best" is subjective, but I use Barbera and Dazzo. I have K&Ks in 2 guitars as well. They all work. I need very little EQ with any of them, probably because if I don't like the sound of a pickup, I replace it with something else until I'm happy. It depends on the guitar. ToneDexter helps, tho, and that's a form of EQ, and partly why I don't need a lot of EQ otherwise.

Overall, I'd say Barbera wins on most of your points, especially feedback resistance, clarity, string balance. Dazzo only loses on feedback resistance (not its fault, it's an SBT...). A little lower output, maybe? That's not something that particularly matters to me - that's what preamps and amps are for, they have volume controls.

K&Ks are fine, but I don't plan to install any more, unless a special case comes up. My last install of them was in my little Yamamoto mini-12 string. We tried Dazzo's and they didn't work well, kind of a funny guitar, odd sized bridge plate, etc. I knew K&Ks worked from a previous version, and sure enough, they're fine. Never had much luck with the HFN.

Doug, what's your main reason for avoiding the K&K? I know you mentioned the glue before but Dazzo's use a similar approach. Is it the tone, installation method or a combination of the two?

I currently have a Fishman Matrix in my guitar that I run through the Tonedexter and the results are awesome. However, my guitar has second jack so I would love to install a Dazzo or K&K, I just can't decide on which one.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by Petty1818

Doug, what's your main reason for avoiding the K&K? I know you mentioned the glue before but Dazzo's use a similar approach. Is it the tone, installation method or a combination of the two?

I currently have a Fishman Matrix in my guitar that I run through the Tonedexter and the results are awesome. However, my guitar has second jack so I would love to install a Dazzo or K&K, I just can't decide on which one.

To me, the other two just usually sound better. I also like the Trance, but it's not passive. K&Ks are fairly consistent, tho, so they may work when others don't. I've actually been happy with the Barbera not only for its plugged in sound, but how it sounds acoustically, I credit it with improving the acoustic tone of a couple of guitars.

I don't like the glue, for sure. I've encouraged Teddy to make tape work (and I know I'm not alone), even giving him some tape samples to try that I thought might work. Gryphon uses tape with Dazzo's and report success. But so far, Teddy hasn't been happy with the sound. If he could nail that, they'd be so much easier to install, and he'd have a clear winner... But since I'm local to Teddy, I just have him install mine anyway.

ToneDexter, of course is a great equalizer as far as tone goes. With it, the pickup perhaps matters a lot less.

[phcorrigan]

I have K&K in one guitar and JJB in another. I use a ToneDexter so with a good wavemap they both sound great, with the K&K being somewhat louder than the JJB. That could be because I couldn't center the JJB elements directly under the saddle due to maple peg hole repair plate.

If I were installing another in a relatively high-end guitar, like my HD-28V, I'd probably go for the Ultra Tonic.

[Villamarzia]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

Overall, I'd say Barbera wins on most of your points, especially feedback resistance, clarity, string balance.

Doug, I'd go for the Barbera myself. I'm just having an hard time reaching out to Rich via email. He answered to only one but I have no answer yet regarding the price of a Lowden version of the Soloist. By the way, as you highlighted in another thread, the Soloist installation in a Lowden requires a re-routing of the saddle slot (Barbera is larger than Lowden saddles). FYI, Lowden sells on their website spare saddle in 2 sizes, one is the standard, another is a bit larger for the Pierre Bensusan model, which corresponds to the Barbera size. I don't know why someone would take a Barbera out, maybe by selling the guitar, but at least there is an easy solution to the problem. Another side note: looks like Bensusan now uses an LR Baggs Session VTC, at least on some guitars. This is strange to me as Pierre is very demanding and the VTC does not compare to a Soloist IMHO. Probably he's struggling to get more Barberas?

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by Villamarzia

Doug, I'd go for the Barbera myself. I'm just having an hard time reaching out to Rich via email. He answered to only one but I have no answer yet regarding the price of a Lowden version of the Soloist. By the way, as you highlighted in another thread, the Soloist installation in a Lowden requires a re-routing of the saddle slot (Barbera is larger than Lowden saddles). FYI, Lowden sells on their website spare saddle in 2 sizes, one is the standard, another is a bit larger for the Pierre Bensusan model, which corresponds to the Barbera size. I don't know why someone would take a Barbera out, maybe by selling the guitar, but at least there is an easy solution to the problem. Another side note: looks like Bensusan now uses an LR Baggs Session VTC, at least on some guitars. This is strange to me as Pierre is very demanding and the VTC does not compare to a Soloist IMHO. Probably he's struggling to get more Barberas?

Pierre goes thru pickups, like most of us :-) Interesting about the Lowden wider saddle. I have a Bensusan model, which is where I'd most likely try this, but I didn't notice the saddle being wider. I'll look into it, thanks for the tip!

[Villamarzia]

Well, either it is wider or longer (which also might be the case due to the different fingerboard shape). For sure, Lowden sells a different saddle specifically for Pierre’s model.

Btw, I did chat with Pierre this morning and he confirmed he uses the Session VTC now as he finds it more “3 dimensional” compared to the Soloist. I don’t know, I was always impressed by the Soloist, both in my guitar and on YT videos. I can’t say the same about the VTC though..

[Br1ck]

Dazzos do it for me. But like Doug Young, I have the luck to live in his neighborhood and have him install them. Once you have the right set, forget about EQ for the most part, and they have a tone to them that pleases me. I could not wait to get K&Ks out of the D 35 I bought.

I'm not looking for the holy grail. I found something I like, Dazzos through SunnAudio, and don't feel the need to change. Dazzos and bleed through from a vocal mic is a pleasing combination.

[Goat Mick]

I have a K&K in my J-45 and it does sound good, but personally I prefer the sound of the JJB pickups. For higher volume situations I prefer to use a Baggs M1 (passive) soundhole pickup and have two of my working guitars fitted with those. I really don't like using active pickups at all. I know the batteries last forever, but I don't trust them.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by Villamarzia

Which of the following pickups gave you the best in terms of: sound, clarity, balance, signal strength, feedback resistance and less need of EQ?

• K&K
• HFN
• Barbera
• Ultratonic
• Dazzo
• Others (write which as post)

I doubt very much that there are many who have used all of these and can offer an informed opinion. When I was searching for a good acoustic amplification solution I first tried a few of the more popular USTs and really disliked them. I then tried a K&K Pure Mini and totally loved the sound, especially if it was plugged into a preamp or effect pedal to impedance match it to an amp or DI for routing to a PA.

Since I was so pleased with the first K&K Pure Mini install I've since continued on and I think I'm on number 8 or 9 now. I can't offer an opinion on any of the others because I've been totally happy with each K&K Pure Mini I've installed.

My last one offers the same great tone I've come to love; here's a video I did with the K&K Pure Mini plugged into my looper and ported to a Street Cube EX.

https://youtu.be/R2X5NQMRVs0