K&K Pure Mini Guitar Pickup

Awesome, Pure and Simple

Posted by Unknown on 23rd Mar 2012

Although passive, the Pure Mini seems to have a similar output to other active pickups
Tone: Very balanced. Initially it was quite middy but that turned out to be the amp and my guitar doesn't have a lot of natural bass for a dreadnaught. I pulled the mids out of the amp and was left with a very beautiful tone - very close to the much sought after 'my guitar only louder' tone.

As far as I'm concerned, this is it. There really is no point trying any other product. I'm hoping to get a Maton 12 string later in the year and a K&K Pure Western will be going straight into it. I thought long and hard about what pickup to get and put a lot of time into researching what was available. I'm glad I did and very glad I came across the K&K Pure Western. My decision over what to get was based on a few parameters: primarily not wanting to cut a hole in the side of my guitar for onboard elctronics. I also didn't want an undersaddle piezo as I hate the compressed sound they normally give. I've been playing for 18 years, mainly acoustic, and always disliked the sound of amplified acoustics. My guitar was a present from my wife and, like her, is beautiful. I knew I wanted a Maton and played all the 225's in the shop and some others when choosing it- this one just rang out beautifully and floored the rest. Even the staff guys couldn't bellieve it when they heard it. I really lucked onto a good one. So, the last thing I wanted to do was cut a hole in the side of it and add a whole lot of weight with an onboard preamp, battery and controls. Maton make great pickups (I know someone who did the Taylor factory tour and even the Taylor guys were talking about how good Maton pickups are). Unfortunately, Maton only do onboard electronics and at $400 for a retrofit, I was keen for something else. I really like the idea behind bridge plate transducers which led me to the LR Baggs I-Beam, B-Band AST, PUTW 27 and K&K Pure Western. I read everything I could find on the net about them and the reviews certainly point to the K&K being the best option. When I heard the K&K Pure Western on Shoreline Music's mp3 page I got a tingle up my spine - I could not believe that sound came out of a pickup. The K&K sounded better than anything I'd ever heard, involved no drilling, soldering, routing etc and was the cheapest option. You have to glue it to the bridge plate which is a little tricky and hunched over your pride and joy with superglue, gloves, safety goggles, a torch, mirror etc is quite an anxious experience. In the end it's pretty easy actuallly and there's nothing like a bit of job satisfaction. Initially I was a bit concerned because, as stated, my guitar sounded a bit middy. A few emails between Dieter at K&K and myself got me sorted (he's very helpful as is well stated). I think K&K know they have a leading product and any problem is more than likely going to be at the users end. They just subtlely help you eliminate all the variables until you find it. In my case, I just needed to turn the mids down. Pretty simple really and now I have exactly what I was looking for. My guitar weighs the same, sounds the same and looks the same. I just have an endpin jack where the strap pin used to be. From there a lead runs to 3 small transducers glued to the bottom of my bridgeplate. This incredibly simple setup just happens to give one of the cleanest and most natural amplified acoustic sounds you're going to find for any price. If you're doing a lot of gigs in different venues you should probably get a preamp or DI box, however, if you just need to plug into an amp occaisonally, you may find you're cool without one. Many people are concerned about feedback with this style of pickup but as it attaches to the bridge plate and not the sound board, this isn't a big problem as the bridge plate is quite solid. It hasn't been a problem for me and I need to stand right next to the stage amp. If you want to keep it simple and sound amazing and acoustic, get a K&K Pure Western. If you like fiddling with knobs and EQ's and don't believe how good this pickup is, you'll probably end up spending hundreds or thousands of dollars just trying to emulate what your guitar would have sounded like with a K&K. Kind of makes me want to buy another guitar just so I can install another one.