K&K Pure Mini/Preamp - AER Amp

[maplebaby]

Would appreciate any feedback pro or con and love to hear from any others who might be using similar gear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW9ikwP2Bl8

[Karel]

I have K&K in all my guitars. Together with a K&K preamp and AER 60 I have the finest of results. Time and again.

[dogdog49]

K&K into a Compact 60 is always my go to solution for smaller gigs. Beauty in simplicity. No external preamp needed, the preamp section of the 60 sounds great with the K&K.

[dcopper]

I agree that no preamp is necessary. I just cut the bass to take out the muddiness. Sounds very good without a preamp. That said, I often will use the RedEye Twin as a dual source mixer since I have a K&K + Sunrise in my 914 and a K&K plus Baggs M80 in an 814 Cocobolo.
The AER 60/3 is an excellent amp and will give you back what you put into it. That said, it can be somewhat unforgiving with certain pickups.
davidc

[dogdog49]

Yes, with K&K and no preamp into the Compact 60 I have the bass pot at 11:00, the mids at 9:00 and the treble at 1:00 in an average room. The inherent clarity of the Compact 60 which can make a bad piezo sound harsh is actually perfect for K&K's. In a dampened room, carpets, drapes, etc., the mid pot comes back up as needed. Even though I've been extremely happy with the results I've still tried tons of outboard gear to see if I can improve it, but the improvements have always been incredibly minor to non-existent and not worth the money or hassle so they all get sold eventually. I use an Xvive wireless system and it's so cool to walk into a gig with my guitar in one hand, my Compact 60 in the other and no cables. For even smaller gigs I use my Elite Acoustics battery powered amp and don't even bring a power cord - bliss!

[Kittoon]

All my guitars have the passive KK pickups, going into the AER/60. Because I am using a Strymon reverb box, I decided after testing with my ears, that I would benefit from a preamp/DI box. I kind of splurged and bought a Grace Alix, Eq is very nice, tons of extra "headroom" A mute switch which is essential, but also a switch to allow different input Impedances that KK folks fuss about!

[ljguitar]

Hi Dale

All my acoustic guitars are K&K equipped.

I own several acoustic amps, but not an AER. I have played my guitars through an AER, and my observation is that without a preamp K&K sound good (just relying on the internal preamp of the amp). Add an external preamp and it gets even better.

The same is true of the K&K equipped guitars in pa systems, and other amps. When I run sound for events, and carry a couple spare external preamps to those events for players with K&K who show up without preamps. I always tweak their guitar without one, and then add one and leave the choice up to them…and they always use the preamp.

As to whether your personal needs are for improved tone control and shaping would be something you'd have to check out for yourself. Easy enough to do if you either borrow a decent preamp, or take your guitar to a music store with decent gear and try it out with and without preamps.

I liked both examples of you and the singer you put on YouTube.

[martingitdave]

It sounds great! If you are looking for a more mic like tone, you can consider the ToneDexter, which is matched well to the K&K pickup.

[maplebaby]

great posts and great thanks from me for sharing a wealth of knowledge and experience here! I learned a lot, best, dale.