K&K Pure Mini sensitivity

[duojet]

Thanks to Molder for suggesting I check the internal pot setting on my K&K Pure preamp. I had it set to about the 2 o'clock position. I recall setting this to what was recommended --thank-you for reminding me about that trim pot.) So now,the "handling noise" is reduced somewhat. Looking back over my original post,I realize that my expectations of a quiet/silent under bridge transducer system was just unrealistic and uneducated. I should be clear that the sound quality is very good and always has been,but at higher volumes through a P.A.,is where I went-Yikes!-- especially since my bandmate was also playing a Larrivee -03 with the stock pickup,and was getting no noise.Imagine my consternation.
Anyhow-- I will be back at stage volume this weekend and will report back.

[varmonter]

Unfortunatly i think the "my guitar only
louder" mindset is at large. I love the. kk pup
but find , like sdelsoray stated above you need
to cut the thump thump with the LC/hp filter.
I find this especially true with my kk equipped
mandolin. When doing chops it is just like beating
a floor tom. Have to just dial it back some.
The louder you need to be the more you have
to cut. Or go the soundhole mag route.

[phcorrigan]

Originally Posted by jsandbloom

I had some similar issues on a pure mini install that I did myself. I really botched the install. I had to send it in and have them replace the one I messed up and put another one in. Since a pro did it I hadn't had any of those issues your speaking of.

I was going to mention also that this might be an installation issue, but you beat me to it!

I have a K&K in my HD-28V, and the biggest issue I've had is distortion due to impedance mismatch between the K&K and the sound system. My first fix was to buy a preamp with a 1 meg input, and that solved the problem. I have since replaced the preamp with a ToneDexter.

The other issue I ran into is that even though the K&K is a passive pickup, it is very hot. Make sure input gain on whatever you are connecting to is adjusted accordingly.

[duojet]

Update: I tried things out at "stage" volume(loud),last night. A big improvement was due to turning down the gain pot/trim pot on the K&K Pure-Preamp,to a much lower setting. I went from a 2 o'clock position to a 9 o'clock position. I presume that I was mistakenly causing the pickup to be too"hot". Second big improvement in reducing all that irritating handling noise was to reduce the high freqs. I also reduced the lowest freqs. which really got the feedback/boominess under control. Third thing I found to be helpful,was to simply keep the input setting down a bit on the K&K preamp....I had better results at higher volumes by turning up the P.A. volume rather than my preamps input volume. By the way, the satin finish on my Larrivee is WAY noisier than a guitar with a gloss finish at amplified volumes.... all makes perfect sense when I unplug and think about things a bit:(

[martingitdave]

Originally Posted by duojet

Update: I tried things out at "stage" volume(loud),last night. A big improvement was due to turning down the gain pot/trim pot on the K&K Pure-Preamp,to a much lower setting. I went from a 2 o'clock position to a 9 o'clock position. I presume that I was mistakenly causing the pickup to be too"hot". Second big improvement in reducing all that irritating handling noise was to reduce the high freqs. I also reduced the lowest freqs. which really got the feedback/boominess under control. Third thing I found to be helpful,was to simply keep the input setting down a bit on the K&K preamp....I had better results at higher volumes by turning up the P.A. volume rather than my preamps input volume. By the way, the satin finish on my Larrivee is WAY noisier than a guitar with a gloss finish at amplified volumes.... all makes perfect sense when I unplug and think about things a bit:(

Congrats! I was hoping those changes would make the difference.

[duojet]

Thanks Martingitdave.... You were right about being mindful of the input volumes. I totally forgot about that little gain pot too ...oops....
I am going to look around for a soundhole cover of some sort,and see if that makes another bit of improvement.

[lkingston]

Sensitivity issues like this are a large part of what I like so much about my Shertler AG6/S-mic. With just the magnetic pickup there is no body sensitivity. It's just the strings. Then you add the mic. You know how some mics like the Shure Beta 58 and Beta 87 are highly isolated from handling noises, and others like the cheap Digital Resource or Musicians Gear mics pick up every little touch of the body of the mic?

The Scherler S-mic is highly isolated from touch. You can actually touch the mic directly and barely hear the touch. If you touch the pickup to adjust the mic volume, you don't hear your hands touching at all.

This is not the case with some other mag mics or body sensing soundhole pickups that I've tried. When I had the LR Baggs M1 and M80 pickups, you could clearly hear if you touched the pickup to adjust the volume or if you accidentally brushed against it when you were strumming. The same thing with my Skysonic FS-1.

The Schertler S-mic picks up sound from the air well, but almost none through body coupling. Snap your fingers above the pickup and you'll hear it clearly. Tap the mic and you'll barely hear it. Tap the guitar and you'll hear it and you hear fine, but not too much. This is because you get the sound of the tap through the air, but not coupled mechanically through the top of the guitar through to the mic. It's the only pickup I've ever owned where the balance between playing and tapping is the same amplified as it is acoustically.

[stevecuss]

That's amazing! I wonder if the have some sort of noise gate built into the preamp to make it act like that, or is all that accomplished by simply decoupling any mechanical transmission?

Also, how do you like the sound of just the mag with no mic? I've always found mag mics to be a compromise, but this is an exciting review and a great option to add to the list.

Originally Posted by lkingston

Sensitivity issues like this are a large part of what I like so much about my Shertler AG6/S-mic. With just the magnetic pickup there is no body sensitivity. It's just the strings. Then you add the mic. You know how some mics like the Shure Beta 58 and Beta 87 are highly isolated from handling noises, and others like the cheap Digital Resource or Musicians Gear mics pick up every little touch of the body of the mic?

The Scherler S-mic is highly isolated from touch. You can actually touch the mic directly and barely hear the touch. If you touch the pickup to adjust the mic volume, you don't hear your hands touching at all.

This is not the case with some other mag mics or body sensing soundhole pickups that I've tried. When I had the LR Baggs M1 and M80 pickups, you could clearly hear if you touched the pickup to adjust the volume or if you accidentally brushed against it when you were strumming. The same thing with my Skysonic FS-1.

The Schertler S-mic picks up sound from the air well, but almost none through body coupling. Snap your fingers above the pickup and you'll hear it clearly. Tap the mic and you'll barely hear it. Tap the guitar and you'll hear it and you hear fine, but not too much. This is because you get the sound of the tap through the air, but not coupled mechanically through the top of the guitar through to the mic. It's the only pickup I've ever owned where the balance between playing and tapping is the same amplified as it is acoustically.