K&K upgrade! Adding the Ultratonic kit -

[tadol]

I like K&Ks - they were my favorite, no hassle, simple, and very decent sounding pickup choice. Also very easy to install, so I’ve put a couple in myself. But then I got a chance to try an Ultratonic, and it made me much more aware of the limitations of the K&K, and how much more was possible with piezo technology.

Recently, I installed an Ultratonic in a guitar that had an LB6 undersaddle that had gone bad. It was only slightly harder than the K&K install, mostly in the adjustment process, but once installed, again, I realized how much I liked it. But I had a couple of guitars that had K&Ks in them already, and I knew that James May had an upgrade kit, but the installation seemed a bit more daunting. After thinking about the effort necessary to remove the K&Ks, I decided to try the upgrade kit - effort seemed about a wash -



The guitar is a ‘89 maple SCGC F - one I love to take out (loved to? ) and I wanted to improve the treble response and get a cleaner/crisper bass. Plus a soundhole volume control would be nice. First step, take off the strings and pull out the end jack -



The 3 leads have to be removed, and then I stripped off the jacket, twisted those wires together, and stripped off the center insulator, and twisted those together. Then I twisted the 3 outer sets together, and the 3 inner, and tinned those together as sets. Then, the Ultratonic upgrade hardware -



Very simple - an extra pad for the treble boost, a larger bass pad to enable the feedback cancellation, and the volume control. James has really good instructions about using putty, and magnets - but I did it the easy way. First, I put bridge pins back into the 2 outside holes, then reached in the sound hole to feel where the K&K pads were, and where I could put the new treble and bass pads. No problem, lots of room, so I smeared a bit of med viscosity CA on a pad, reached in, and using the bridge pin as a reference, glued it to the bridge plate. Feeling around quickly to check location, I change fingers quickly to make sure I don’t glue a fingertip to the pad while I’m holding it in place. It’s solid in about 30 seconds, and I pull out the bridge pin to make sure I haven’t gotten any glue on it. Repeat for the other pad, per James instructions. Then, I peeled the tape off the volume control, and stuck it in the treble side of the sound hole. On this F, there is a thin reinforcement strip I stuck it to, so while the wheel is just hidden slightly behind the hole, its down a bit more below the top, and is very easy to reach and adjust -



The tricky bit - soldering the K&k bundled leads to the mini-circuit board. Not hard, but small, and I would have welcomed another set of hands for about 3 minutes. The leads solder to both the front and back of the board. It was actually pretty easy. Next, slide the end-jack assembly on, restring the guitar, plug in and test -



This is the only part that is a bit time consuming - you have to play and tap, and try each switch one at a time to find the optimum setting to get the best bass response while minimizing (or eliminating) feedback. Once you find the setting you want, you have to take the strings back off, and adjust and feed the end jack back out through the end of the guitar, tighten everything up, and restring the guitar. All told, about 40 minutes, with the biggest problem / time consumer (for me) the soldering, and replacing/adjusting the end jack.

Sound is great - bass is much more solid and clear, and the trebles stronger. Now that I know I’ve got everything set right, next step is to put some fresh strings on, and get to know this new sound better, so I can try raising it another step later, by training it on the Tonedexter!

My decision - any guitar I have with a K&K is getting this upgrade. It wasn’t hard, and the improvement is extremely noticeable - very recommended!

[ballynally]

Nice one. I will consider that for my own K&K equiped guitars..
Btw, i see that the upgrade kit (v3.2 ck) has an extra pad for a (supposedly) weak high E string, but no new one for the bass. In your post you mention 2 extra pads w the bass pad for the phase shift.
Could i just rewire the existing K&K pad to the mix board or do i really need another pad?

[shufflebeat]

Tip for fitting/removing/refitting endpin jack - a long chopstick or barbecue skewer into the jack (with retaining nuts removed) can push the jack up into the guitar (held upright) where it can be grabbed at the soundhole.

The reverse procedure allows you to use gravity to guide the jack back down into the hole pretty reliably.

No need to remove strings.

Come to think of it, I fitted a K&K to my mandola using blu-tac on a chopstick where a tiny soundhole restricted access so, in theory, the whole fitting process is possible without removing strings, probably not advisable though.

[tadol]

Originally Posted by ballynally

Nice one. I will consider that for my own K&K equiped guitars..
Btw, i see that the upgrade kit (v3.2 ck) has an extra pad for a (supposedly) weak high E string, but no new one for the bass. In your post you mention 2 extra pads w the bass pad for the phase shift.
Could i just rewire the existing K&K pad to the mix board or do i really need another pad?

I realize the pic isn’t showing the extra pad - must have been under the bubble bag. The extra pads do 2 different things - the extra treble pad helps boost a weak high E, which I had - but its installation is optional, and the bass pad is not really a bass boost - it’s out of phase with the other pads, and adds its signal to that mini circuit board on a separate input. Somehow, James has built some user selectable voodoo into that board, and by trying each of the 12 switches (you only use 1!) you adjust the frequency that gets you the best bass response while also cancelling out the frequency that creates the most feedback issues. No idea how any of that works, but it does. My first Ultratonic pickup went into my baritone, and that guitar is set up so nicely, I can play it sitting directly in front of my amp at high volume with no feedback, but still get crisp and clear tone with the bass oomph that I want from it. And the volume knob does a great job of reducing the volume without killing the tone -

I’m sure James can explain it all in appropriate technical terms. I just know it works, I don’t need batteries, and the sound is great -

[poopsidoo]

Gosh, I want that on my J-45 with K & K. Im gonna see if my repair guy that installed my K&K can do the ultratonic upgrade. Im afraid of all those switches!!

[fazool]

I love my K&K's

I might add this to one to try it out

[tadol]

Originally Posted by poopsidoo

Gosh, I want that on my J-45 with K & K. Im gonna see if my repair guy that installed my K&K can do the ultratonic upgrade. Im afraid of all those switches!!

Don’t be afraid of the switches - they’re actually kinda fun! All they do is change the cut frequency that gets applied to the pick-ups signal, so that you can dial in the optimal bass response and feedback suppression. You can leave it to your tech, but you’d probably want to sit there and play it as you try each setting. You figure out really quickly which 3 or 4 switches are the range of what you want, then it takes a little more time to narrow it down to maybe 2, and at that point, it actually can be nice to get a second opinion, or have someone else play it so you can listen more closely to the amplified sound, and minimize the tone coming straight from the guitar. But ultimately, you choose one, and if over time you think you might like something else, you just slide the jack out and change it.

[James May]

Originally Posted by tadol

Don’t be afraid of the switches - they’re actually kinda fun! All they do is change the cut frequency that gets applied to the pick-ups signal, so that you can dial in the optimal bass response and feedback suppression. You can leave it to your tech, but you’d probably want to sit there and play it as you try each setting. You figure out really quickly which 3 or 4 switches are the range of what you want, then it takes a little more time to narrow it down to maybe 2, and at that point, it actually can be nice to get a second opinion, or have someone else play it so you can listen more closely to the amplified sound, and minimize the tone coming straight from the guitar. But ultimately, you choose one, and if over time you think you might like something else, you just slide the jack out and change it.

I would second the notion not to be afraid of the switches, and should add a small clarification to what Tad wrote: Think of the switch as an 12-step attenuator that controls how much of the feedback cancellation sensor gets added to the main sensor. Too little, and it sounds very much like a K&K. Just right, and the woof and boom vanish leaving a clear, woody sound with no feedback problems. It's really pretty simple to set as your ear will hone you right in to the sweet spot.

[mathieu rancour]

No turning back after ultra tonic or k&k install..
I love k&k but I always feel like bass was just a touch muddy at the 160k and 250k, the upgrades correct this right away plus there more treble and air .
Very good upgrade