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I've recently sold my second instrument and the buyer, a fairly heavy flat picker, would like a pickup installed for playing in smallish venues.

Any recomendations ?

P.S. he's not up for using a mic

Lots using K&K minis here, in fact quite a few on list are distributors. For the odd occasion I need a pickup I use one of THESE and like it a lot.

Cheers

Kim

K & K minis are great (I'm a distributor and I use one live). However a lot will depend on the technique of the player.

We installed one a few weeks ago for a guy in Melbourne and he wasn't happy with the sound of it. So I went along to one of their gigs to see what was going on.

The sound was harsh and quite peaky. Turns out he plays the instrument like a threshing machine and strums in the area between the bridge and the soundhole.

Told him to lighten up his attack on the strings and move his strumming hand away from the bridge. Voila - nice sound returns.

He also found that he was losing bottom end when chunking blues type rhythms on the bottom strings. He was resting the heel of his hand on the bridge and dampening the top of the guitar. Lifted his hand off the bridge and the bottom end returns.

If he'd been playing, for instance, a Takimine with under bridge saddle, this would not have been accentuated as much as the K & K bridge plate pickup.

Having said this he's only been playing a few years and was receptive to changing his technique to achieve a better sound.

Some players may be be unwilling or unable to change technique to suit the pickup, and they shouldn't have to, so install a pickup that's suited to the musician.

I'm waiting on some D-tars to compare with the K & K's so I can't say anything about them yet.

Apparently they have more headroom for aggressive strumming due to their design and may be more appropriate for your heavy flatpicker.

Hopefully Rick will jump in here becuse he's forgotten more about acoustic amplification than most of us already know.

Best I can suggest is to get the guy to try some different guitars/pickups at his gig and get some feedback from him about what he likes.

Cheers

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Bob Connor
Geelong, Australia

For a flat picker, I think a DTAR Wavelength or a LR Baggs Active Element would be better than the K&K mini. I like the K&K mini a lot.
Another good choice might be sound hole pickups like the Fishman Rare Earth Blend or Baggs M1 active. With these, the customer can take it off and reinstall whenever he wants.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

I have the D-Tar Wavelength in my 30 year old Yamaha and love it. I strum fairly aggressively 90% of the time. I intend to put the same pickup in the instrument I am building at the moment. I must add that I also use the D-Tar Equinox eq box to fine tune the sound to my own taste.

Regards

Craig.

As many of you know, I am the "T" in D-TAR; my old friend Seymour Duncan is the "D". I try not to comment on other companies' pickups other than to say that we're on good terms with practically everyone in the biz.

We do have a commitment to high headroom pickups and electronics, and if an undersaddle pickup is the right choice for you, then I think we really deliver the goods with either our Wavelength or Timberline pickups.   At my guitar company, we've installed a good couple of thousand Timberlines and pre-Timberline coax USTs in our Renaissance line of guitars and basses, and we hear practically every day from customers who love the sound.

I've also recently started experimenting with a dual source system that uses our Wavelength pickup on channel one and the Perfect Timbre soundboard transducer for channel 2. This is the setup I'm doing for Rodrigo y Gabriela in their nylon string guitars, and they are knocked out. They get the clear, warm, and loud string signal from the Wavelength, and then can mix in as much of the ambiance of the top and percussive work that Gabriela does with the Perfect Timbre. I found that a mi of about 60% to 40% sounded fantastic, got the drumming beautifully, and yet still stayed pretty controllable for feedback. They're also using Equinox EQs and are going to try Mama Bear on the Wavelength pickups.   This should prove to be a pretty state of the art setup used in very extreme conditions.

The stuff also sounds great at moderate volume levels, and that is my goal...consistent sound under almost any conditions.

[QUOTE=larkim] Lots using K&K minis here, in fact quite a few on list are distributors. For the odd occasion I need a pickup I use one of THESE and like it a lot.

Cheers

Kim [/QUOTE]

Theyve stolen that idea from the oil patch mate. When we do a rig seismic shoot we run a triaxial geophone down the hole that is very much like that pickup.....senses sound pulses along three axes.

[QUOTE=kiwigeo] [QUOTE=larkim] Lots using K&K minis here, in fact quite a few on list are distributors. For the odd occasion I need a pickup I use one of THESE and like it a lot.

Cheers

Kim [/QUOTE]

Theyve stolen that idea from the oil patch mate. When we do a rig seismic shoot we run a triaxial geophone down the hole that is very much like that pickup.....senses sound pulses along three axes.

[/QUOTE]

That is the alleged tech behind the sound Martin. The Takamine Tri-ax is just a re-branded Baggs Active M1. The only difference is that the Taka is black (which I preffer) and the Baggs is white, both are M1's though and made by Baggs.

I really do like the sound, they are a very good pickup for a soft touch but also have no trouble cutting through in a wired jam but they can get a bit barky if you really dig hard. I am extra pleased with mine, it was secondhand and one of those good value ebay buys, the guy was selling a Martin OOO and had listed this pickup in a separate action, this worked out well for us both.

Cheers

Kim

Hi Ian,

Although the site is a little bit dated, there is a site - Doug Young Guitar Pickup Comparison - where they attempt to provide sound samples to compare various pickups. It's not perfect, but it is probably a lot better than just reading each manufacturer's advertising/marketing materials.

(If anyone knows of a better/newer site for pickup comparisons, please post it.)

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

thanks folks lots of help