Martin Authentic Pick Up Installation?

[Wild Bill Jones]

You are right. The Trance is active with a battery. The Dazzo is not.

[Methos1979]

I was in the exact same boat as you: I own a Martin D-1 custom (same as the Authentic but in all-flamed mahogany) and although I bought it as a mainly acoustic guitar I wanted to put something in it for the occasional open mic or to use amplified if I wanted. I used to put K&K's in everything even though they were a bit of a challenge in that they needed a lot of EQ for fingerstyle playing and also they tended to be a little bassy/boomy especially on larger body guitars and let's face it, our D-1's are large body guitars!

Then there was also the internal fight I had on whether to drill out the end pin. So I decided to look into magnetic sound hole pickups to see if there was something that would give me a decent enough tone that I could just pop in there whenever I decided to amplify and run the cable out of the sound hole and remove it when not in use. After trying several well known systems I found out that K&K has a really nice magnetic sound hole pickup that looked interesting so I gave that a try and it was perfect for me.

In the end I decided to have the bottom hole drilled out, installed the pickup and left it in there since like you I like to have the guitar 'ready to go' to be amplified any time. I still primarily play the D-1 only acoustically but mostly because we are on a semi-permanent hiatus from playing out live. When we do play live I normally use my Cole Clark guitars but I love the D-1 so much that if we were still playing gigs or open mics I'm sure I'd be taking the D-1 at least occasionally.

The other good thing about the K&K Double Helix Solo is that it's made to be combined with the K&K Pure Mini if you want to have a dual source system and get the best of both worlds. Plus the DHS has a tone switch that allows you to boost the tone for delicate fingerstyle playing. This feature for me is what set it apart from the other magnetic sound hole pickup systems I tried.

Here's a link to the very long and detailed review of K&K Double Helix Solo I installed in my D-1:

NSHPD: K&K Double Helix Solo review - long and detailed

Here's the demo video from K&K that sold me on trying this system which is also embedded in the above review:



It was my search for 12-fret dreads that led me to the Martin D-1 Authentic which in turn led me to stumbling upon the D-1 all-hog custom. I love all mahogany acoustics and I much prefer a 1 3/4" nut to 1 7/8" so the custom D-1 was a match made in heaven over the Authentic! It was just dumb luck as I was not even really in the market for a new guitar, let alone a 12-fret dread but it's become my absolute favorite guitar of all time. I have yet to run into a Martin D-1 Authentic but I'd love to play one and especially A/B it with my custom D-1!

Here's my NGD post for my custom D-1 in case you're interested in that:

NGD: Martin D-1 Custom 12 fret all hog slope dread - Updated

[varmonter]

Both my dreads have kk minis
Installed. I bought them both
With the pickups installed.
I think they are pretty good
Pickups for piezos. But I like
Soundhole pickups better.
My gigging guitar has a sunrise
And also the kk. Both wired to the endpin.
I have a cord wired so it will run the kk
If i want to use it....seems i never
do anymore. I've decided that no pickup
Is my "guitar only louder" so
Why even pretend. I think the sunrise sh pickup sounds great and it's more consistantly great than the kk ever was.
They are both great pups I just think
The kk is more fussy about what its
Plugged into. Probably that impedance thing.

[Mandobart]

I've installed piezo SBT's in almost every instrument I have. The only exception so far is my grandpa's 1880's fiddle.

When I got my Martin HD-28 I didn't want to ream out the endpin hole. So I installed a tapered Tapastring Vintage jack which uses a 3 mm (~1/8") jack. I made up a 3 mm to 1/4" instrument cord and a 3 mm to 1/4" adapter to keep in the case.

Rather than superglue I use blu-tak putty to mount the SBT's. Some instruments its been in there over 10 years with no problems. That way its also easily removed or replaced.