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  #1  
Old 05-25-2019, 09:53 PM
AZLiberty AZLiberty is offline
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Default K&K vs JJB for my Rainsong

I'm going to need to put a pickup in the CH-PA sometime before November.

Given how much K&K has increased their prices lately, is there any good reason to pick up the K&K vs the JJB 330? ($100 vs $50)

I have a K&K in my Shorty, so I'm familiar with the downsides of a passive.
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  #2  
Old 05-25-2019, 11:32 PM
steelvibe steelvibe is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AZLiberty View Post
I'm going to need to put a pickup in the CH-PA sometime before November.

Given how much K&K has increased their prices lately, is there any good reason to pick up the K&K vs the JJB 330? ($100 vs $50)

I have a K&K in my Shorty, so I'm familiar with the downsides of a passive.
Hey AZ- I personally would go with the K&K for the RainSong. JJB is great as I have one in my D Jr. but that guitar is almost a third of the price of the CH-PA. For resale purposes it would serve the whole guitar better to to with K&K. The K&Ks seem a little hotter too FWIW. I run all these SBT types through an outboard Pre/DI anyway and that seems to help them all (including the proprietary pickup in the OF660).

BTW, Shoreline has the K&K Pure Mini from time to time in their open box closeouts. You can often find them for $70 if you are diligent.
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Old 05-26-2019, 06:09 AM
jonfields45 jonfields45 is offline
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I don't like the idea of permanent installation with cyanoacrylate on CF weave as you can't do the classic razor blade removal. I put a Schatten HFN in one of my guitars with a second one on order as I type. It needs EQ to boost the bass and cut the treble (my mixer does it fine, I've also got a GE7 and Zoom G1 four that also do the job), but after EQ it is a step up from the three head SBTs. Also as a single head design it seems to be less sensitive to the input impedance of your amp/mixer/preamp/pedal (as with a K&K it won't sound good into very low impedances due to bass loss). I installed mine with the included tape and made a placement jig to know I got it exactly where I wanted it.



I've done a few K&K installs in RainSongs too before I learned about the HFN:



I've put JJBs in plenty of friends' guitars and in cheaper instruments. To me it is the equal of a K&K but lacking the name recognition you might want someday for resale.
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Old 05-26-2019, 07:57 AM
GuitarLuva GuitarLuva is offline
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+1 for the Schatten HFN. Very simple install and IMO sounds much better than a K&K. It adds an airiness to the tone that K&K's lack.
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Old 05-26-2019, 03:38 PM
Pitar Pitar is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AZLiberty View Post
I'm going to need to put a pickup in the CH-PA sometime before November.

Given how much K&K has increased their prices lately, is there any good reason to pick up the K&K vs the JJB 330? ($100 vs $50)

I have a K&K in my Shorty, so I'm familiar with the downsides of a passive.

They both use Piezo as the driver and Piezo remains stable in it's raw form. Packaging can make the difference, meaning, how Piezo performs through thickness and type of material used to contain it. being a very sensitive material, both companies produce it virtually identically because the signals out are identical.

That said, I prefer a package that offers longer lead wires for each of the Piezo transducers. The notion that their best placement is the bridgeplate can easily be challenged and defeated by finding other, better locations on the top for each of them, and then fine tuning those locations to provide a very close balance of signals out. That done, little EQ is needed. I experimented with a removable transducer from Shadow well after I had followed K&K's installation instructions for their PWM. The Shadow, placed in locations other than the bridgeplate had better signals out than the K&K on the bridgeplate. Had I known that I would have installed longer leads on the K&K and installed it where the best signals and balance could be provided by that particular guitar (Goodall RCJC). Live and learn.

Anecdotal: I was disappointed when I found out that I had to make some large EQ adjustments with the K&K PWM installed per the factory instructions. Logic told me any other packaging by K&K would not have allowed it to be a simple DIY product so they boasted the bridgeplate as the best place and kept the leads just long enough for that location. JJB simply followed suit.
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Old 05-27-2019, 01:13 PM
AZLiberty AZLiberty is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pitar View Post
Anecdotal: I was disappointed when I found out that I had to make some large EQ adjustments with the K&K PWM installed per the factory instructions. Logic told me any other packaging by K&K would not have allowed it to be a simple DIY product so they boasted the bridgeplate as the best place and kept the leads just long enough for that location. JJB simply followed suit.
The K&K in my Shorty sounds fine, but I paid someone to install it. For $40 it was worth the piece of mind of having someone else get superglue near my guitar. (and ream out the jack hole)

I am however seeing many people complain that the K&K gives too much mid-range, and some folks seem to prefer to cut off the center transducer. So I'm curious as to what EQ adjustments you had to make.
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  #7  
Old 06-03-2019, 07:15 PM
AZLiberty AZLiberty is offline
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My tech just called on my Larrivee Parlor, and the LR Baggs I was going to have dropped in has a bad pickup element.

He's already drilled the endpin hole. I'm going to grab a JJB 330 off of Reverb or E-bay and experiment on the Larrivee.

If I like it, I'll drop the same one in the Rainsong.
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  #8  
Old 06-08-2019, 10:40 PM
AZLiberty AZLiberty is offline
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And another setback...

USPS shows the JJB delivered, but... mailbox was empty on Friday.

Drove to the post office, they called the delivery driver and she claims to remember a small package. So, either it went in the wrong box, or we have mail thieves again.
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Larrivee OM-03RE; O-01
Martin D-35; Guild F-212; Tacoma Roadking
Breedlove American Series C20/SR
Rainsong SFTA-FLE; WS3000; CH-PA
Taylor GA3-12, Guild F-212

https://markhorning.bandcamp.com/music
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