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Old 05-28-2020, 04:47 PM
poopsidoo poopsidoo is offline
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Default Just got a pure mini installed in my J-45

Am planning on a trip to GC next week to see which preamp/di sounds best to me while plugging into a PA. I already have a baggs venue, so I’ll have that with me. Have heard good things about the red eye. Which else should I try out on my visit?
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Old 05-28-2020, 04:58 PM
capefisherman capefisherman is offline
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Unlikely you will find a Red Eye at a GC.
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Old 05-28-2020, 06:32 PM
Rudy4 Rudy4 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by poopsidoo View Post
Am planning on a trip to GC next week to see which preamp/di sounds best to me while plugging into a PA. I already have a baggs venue, so I’ll have that with me. Have heard good things about the red eye. Which else should I try out on my visit?
Your Venue with impedance match your Pure Mini just fine. That's all the pre you'll need unless you're just wanting to part with some cash.
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Old 05-28-2020, 06:36 PM
alnico5 alnico5 is offline
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I have a K&K in my Taylor. I have a Red Eye and it is a great thing to have. I plug directly into my Loudbox Mini now. The LB has a 1,000,000 Ohm input impedance and works nicely with the K&K. I don't need a preamp other than the preamp in the Loudbox. When I ran through house PAs the Red Eye did a fantastic job.
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Old 05-28-2020, 07:27 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by poopsidoo View Post
Am planning on a trip to GC next week to see which preamp/di sounds best to me while plugging into a PA. I already have a baggs venue, so I’ll have that with me. Have heard good things about the red eye. Which else should I try out on my visit?
Hi p-si-doo

All of em! I like the Venue as a preamp on K&K Pure mini, it does a great job. And the RedEye are good, but thing of them as point-n-shoot.

You cannot adjust the bass, or the mids on the RedEye. They are pre-set/baked in. If you don't mind that they will sound as good as your Venue. The Venue will give you far more adjustment and control over your sound. The built in tuner on the Venue is lame, but it serves as a mute button and that makes it worth it's weight in guitar cables. Also it has a boost…

The Fishman Platinum STAGE is a $150 dollar solution with a lot features other preamps leave off. It is small enough to fit in the pick drawer of three of my acoustics, and it's housed in aluminum. Has similar tone adjustment features as the Venue.

It's big brother the Fishman Platinum Pro is twice the price but a great feature set. It has everything the Venue has, plus a compressor built in (designed for acoustic not electric compression).

If money is no object, a Grace Felix would future proof you for decades (and set you back $1100).

If it were me, I could live with your Venue and the K&K Pure Mini.



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Old 05-29-2020, 12:23 AM
phcorrigan phcorrigan is offline
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Originally Posted by ljguitar View Post
If money is no object, a Grace Felix would future proof you for decades (and set you back $1100).
You may want to consider a ToneDexter at about $400. It will, IMO, give you the closest sound to a mic'd guitar that your going to find.

https://audiosprockets.com

Check out the demos by Mollie Tuttle and Doug Young.

BTW, you won't find it at GC. There's a list of dealers on the web page.
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Old 05-29-2020, 07:56 AM
poopsidoo poopsidoo is offline
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Originally Posted by capefisherman View Post
Unlikely you will find a Red Eye at a GC.


Is there a dealer that would have them?
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  #8  
Old 05-29-2020, 07:58 AM
poopsidoo poopsidoo is offline
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Originally Posted by ljguitar View Post
Hi p-si-doo

All of em! I like the Venue as a preamp on K&K Pure mini, it does a great job. And the RedEye are good, but thing of them as point-n-shoot.

You cannot adjust the bass, or the mids on the RedEye. They are pre-set/baked in. If you don't mind that they will sound as good as your Venue. The Venue will give you far more adjustment and control over your sound. The built in tuner on the Venue is lame, but it serves as a mute button and that makes it worth it's weight in guitar cables. Also it has a boost…

The Fishman Platinum STAGE is a $150 dollar solution with a lot features other preamps leave off. It is small enough to fit in the pick drawer of three of my acoustics, and it's housed in aluminum. Has similar tone adjustment features as the Venue.

It's big brother the Fishman Platinum Pro is twice the price but a great feature set. It has everything the Venue has, plus a compressor built in (designed for acoustic not electric compression).

If money is no object, a Grace Felix would future proof you for decades (and set you back $1100).

If it were me, I could live with your Venue and the K&K Pure Mini.





I will try that. I’d read somewhere here that venue was an impedence mismatch
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1940's??? Harmony Patrician archtop
2002 Taylor Big Baby
1985 Kentucky KM850 mando w/lr baggs radius
1959 Gibson A-5 Mando
2004 Fender Strat (Mexican)
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Old 05-29-2020, 08:29 AM
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Originally Posted by poopsidoo View Post
I will try that. I’d read somewhere here that venue was an impedence mismatch
Hi p-si-doo

There are a lot of posts from several years back about 'alleged' impedance mismatch with K&K - all prompted by the comments on K&K's site.

There were special cables wired up, recordings done, oscilloscope readouts shown etc. The overall conclusion is it's more of an issue on paper than in actual use. There were no side effects which could not be dealt with by a slight adjustment of a tone control. My personal feeling is that comment was hoping to cause musicians to think they need to buy a K&K preamp to have the perfect match.

Even when the input of most preamps is not the precise impedance K&K calls for, it's really not an issue with any current mid-line or upper end preamp.

I used to own a preamp with switchable impedance, and you could flip that switch all day long and not hear any difference between any of the impedances.

If it actually-is a problem, there are thousands of guitarists running around with the problem.

A few years back my wife & I were on a cruise for a week which featured over 20 concerts with Nashville musicians, and the majority of acoustic guitarists were running K&K Pure Mini through Baggs Venues.

The few who were not using either a K&K or Venue sounded just as good as the ones who were through the house system. In fact, not one of them seemed worried about anything other than making music…and they left the job of making it sound good up to the sound crew.

I will say, not one of them had a RedEye. This concert cruise was before the Grace Felix became popularized and I'm guessing that today if there were this type of cruise, the Felix would have been front-n-center.

In fact, we had a local 2 day mini-Bluegrass gathering with a mixture of pros and amateurs (distinguishable only by whether or not music was their main source of money-making) and there were over ˝ dozen Grace Felix and a lot more Venues at the events I saw.

There were also a few ParaDI, and K&K preamps as well.



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Old 05-29-2020, 10:08 AM
poopsidoo poopsidoo is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ljguitar View Post
Hi p-si-doo

There are a lot of posts from several years back about 'alleged' impedance mismatch with K&K - all prompted by the comments on K&K's site.

There were special cables wired up, recordings done, oscilloscope readouts shown etc. The overall conclusion is it's more of an issue on paper than in actual use. There were no side effects which could not be dealt with by a slight adjustment of a tone control. My personal feeling is that comment was hoping to cause musicians to think they need to buy a K&K preamp to have the perfect match.

Even when the input of most preamps is not the precise impedance K&K calls for, it's really not an issue with any current mid-line or upper end preamp.

I used to own a preamp with switchable impedance, and you could flip that switch all day long and not hear any difference between any of the impedances.

If it actually-is a problem, there are thousands of guitarists running around with the problem.

A few years back my wife & I were on a cruise for a week which featured over 20 concerts with Nashville musicians, and the majority of acoustic guitarists were running K&K Pure Mini through Baggs Venues.

The few who were not using either a K&K or Venue sounded just as good as the ones who were through the house system. In fact, not one of them seemed worried about anything other than making music…and they left the job of making it sound good up to the sound crew.

I will say, not one of them had a RedEye. This concert cruise was before the Grace Felix became popularized and I'm guessing that today if there were this type of cruise, the Felix would have been front-n-center.

In fact, we had a local 2 day mini-Bluegrass gathering with a mixture of pros and amateurs (distinguishable only by whether or not music was their main source of money-making) and there were over ˝ dozen Grace Felix and a lot more Venues at the events I saw.

There were also a few ParaDI, and K&K preamps as well.





Thanks. Good info.
Just tried my j-45 with pure mini straight my churches P A. Sounded good, but even better with 700-800 hz dialed down about 6 dB.
I will try my venue when I get home I’m thinking it will be fine and if I wanted to give some money to my local shop I’d look into a Grace. Thank you all for your input. All I can say is, the k & k is soo fine!
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2021 D'Angelico EXP-1 Throwback archtop
1983 Martin HD-28 w/Ultratonic
1965 Gibson J-45 w/K&K/Ultratonic conversion
1940's??? Harmony Patrician archtop
2002 Taylor Big Baby
1985 Kentucky KM850 mando w/lr baggs radius
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Old 05-29-2020, 12:18 PM
poopsidoo poopsidoo is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by poopsidoo View Post
Thanks. Good info.
Just tried my j-45 with pure mini straight my churches P A. Sounded good, but even better with 700-800 hz dialed down about 6 dB.
I will try my venue when I get home I’m thinking it will be fine and if I wanted to give some money to my local shop I’d look into a Grace. Thank you all for your input. All I can say is, the k & k is soo fine!


The k & k sounds great with venue with that same 750hz dialed back. It even sounds great straight into my mixer. .
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2023 Gibson 1960 Fixed Bridge Hummingbird w/Ultratonic
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1983 Martin HD-28 w/Ultratonic
1965 Gibson J-45 w/K&K/Ultratonic conversion
1940's??? Harmony Patrician archtop
2002 Taylor Big Baby
1985 Kentucky KM850 mando w/lr baggs radius
1959 Gibson A-5 Mando
2004 Fender Strat (Mexican)
Army bugle
Old autoharp
Indian flute
Cowbell
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Old 05-29-2020, 02:14 PM
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I ran K&K's for years. I had really good luck with the Red Eye and the K&K preamps. The Red Eye was pretty much just plug it in and dial up a little treble. The K&K allowed slightly more EQ control. Both sounded outstanding. Depends a lot on your end use.
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Old 05-29-2020, 02:41 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by poopsidoo View Post
Am planning on a trip to GC next week...
I hadn't been to Guitar Center and went to the one in Richmond, VA. You should know that they require customers to wear masks, and I'd guess that policy comes from headquarters...
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Old 05-29-2020, 05:24 PM
Marty C Marty C is offline
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Yes GC required mask. I went for some strings yesterday. Store had very little inventory.

To the OP, good luck aT GC. They rarely have a large variety of acoustic preamps. You may try another local store or use the website and look at store inventory.
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