Kenny Hill Player + AER Compact 60/3 + KNA NG-1 pickup

[Ceabeceabe]

Just test-drove my new AER Compact 60/3 playing background music gig at a neighbor’s.

Running my Kenny Hill New World Player P650 (spruce) equipped with the KNA NG-1 pickup into the Compact. Worked great. Played a few classical pieces, some slack key, some fingerstyle, and some folk.

The KNA slips under the tied strings and rests on the tie bar at the bridge, so no drilling etc.

The combination of all of the above does a good job of picking up the varous tone shapes based on playing technique and right hand positioning relative to the soundhole. Tapping and knocking on the guitar are also amplified at higher volume levels, which can be a good or bad thing.

I held off on buying both eh KNA (made by Kremona) and the AER for really long times because I was very skeptical about all the positive reviews. THe KNA really surprised me - easy to install and does a good job of replicating the guitar’s sound for non-sit-quietly-and-only-listen to the music situations. As others have said, the AER Compact 60/3 is super transparent. As such, I think it will make me a better player as it amplifies rather than hides all that you put into it including mistakes.

Next stop for me is going to be running my Taylor through the AER, and dealing with a D note feedback problem, and then also running a mic or two through the AER for guitar playing and singing purposes.

So far very happy.

[Vancebo]

Congratulations. Seeing is believing, I mean hearing is believing, whatever works for you. Don’t take it from us. The AER is a beast. I never heard of the pickup. Nice to know. Sounds interesting.

[varmonter]

My AER is stellar.. best amp for acoustic out there. Small light but will fill a room.
Have fun with it.

[Ceabeceabe]

Long overdue upate: Taylor GS-5 sounds great through the AER. No D stringfeedback issue, though it has been present in other situations another amp and on an unrelated PA system.

[vinnie1971]

Good to hear feedback on the KNA. I’m looking at the version for steel string but it’s pricy and has no volume control - so I opted for a soundboard transducer with a volume control for 1/4 of the price and it’s surprisingly good - needs no preamp and works well in the aux in on my iRig acoustic stage. But I think the KNA seems a better solution - probably noisy and prone to feedback.