best passive acoustic pickup?

[brandon]

im soon to be buying a om-03; however, i do not want it to come with a pickup. if i spend a large sum of money, well to me its a lot, on a guitar i would prefer that a big chunk of wood not be missing from it. i have also heard horror stories of active pickups, batteries melting etc. so my question is what is the best passive pickup for an acoustic guitar. my friend has a D-50 and he just put a basic undersaddle pickup in it and runs it through a LR Baggs Para Acoustic DI. it sounds really good but i just wanted to tap into the infinite amount of wisdom on this site to see what other options are out there. thanks in advance.

in His grasp,
brandon

[patrickgm60]

Brandon:

I have the K&K Pure Western Mini in 2 of my guitars and will probably install one in my old LS next week. Passive and minimally invasive to your guitar, with nice acoustic sound - at least, that's the opinion of many...

[tuffythepug]

LR Baggs M-1 on my OM-03r sounds great.  I use it with the LR Baggs Para Acoustic D.I. most of the time but it works very well by itself if I'm careful with my tube amp settings.

[martind gibsona]

The best-sounding one I've heard is the McIntyre Acoustic Feather.  So that makes one vote for the K&K, one for the Baggs and one for the McIntyre ... we're not much help, are we?     

Don Smith

[brandon]

plenty of help. thats three more options to research than i had coming into this post.

in His grasp,
brandon

[harptech]

I'll break the 3-way tie...
I installed a K&K Pure Western Mini in my L-19.
To me, it is the most natural, clean sounding pick-up I have ever heard. It sounds like my L-19 ...only louder.
I play small coffee shop type venues and open mics, ...nothing but compliments on the sound from the Larrivee.
I purchased a K&K Pure Preamp but have only used it a couple of times. I havent really needed it, except for use as a volume controll. lol.

--Bill

[rockstar_not]

K+K Pure Western Mini in my L-03E, the 'E' part being the factory installed Fishman that completely crapped out on me and left a big old hole in the side once I took it out.  It actually sounds nice unamplified while I play it.

But the K+K is easier to install than what they tell you on their site.  I used a jig to properly locate it.

It makes for a really easy recording setup.  Just plug and chug.

-Scott

[brandon]

i went ahead and purchased the fishman saddle piezo passive pickup tonight. Dan has one installed in his D-50 and it sounds very nice. he gets compliments all the time from a very highly respected sound man on how good the pickup sounds. checked out the westerns but just couldnt go against the good ole piezo

[dberch]

I have K&K mini in three guitars. Love it!  I've had comments from sound men that say it's so refreshing to hear three guitar sthat actually sound different. (translation: Like themselves!)

Just heard a comment tonight form a lady that said the first time she heard by K&K mini equipped Gibson J-100, she got a lump in her throat it was so beautiful.

David

[brandon]

sounds like i may regret passing on the k&k. if im not happy with the fishman undersaddle keep an eye out on the for sale section because i may be willing to let it go. i think itll all work out though!

[jimmyd]

I just ordered a K&K mini to allow me to play plugged into a PA for local gigs. Don't want to hijack this thread but I'd love to learn which preamps, DI boxes, etc,, you think work well with the K&K.

[dberch]

sounds like i may regret passing on the k&k. if im not happy with the fishman undersaddle keep an eye out on the for sale section because i may be willing to let it go. i think itll all work out though!

Is it installed yet?  You can always re-sell it.

Here's what one of my K&K equipped guitars sounds like plugged in.  I challange anyone to show me a Fishman that sound this natrual without boatloads of EQ and processing.

http://www.larriveeforum.com/smf/index.php?topic=10957.0

David

[brandon]

no its not installed yet. i just ordered it off music123 last night. do any of you k&k users have any trouble with feedback issues such as from floor monitors?

[dberch]

I've never had feedback that I couldn't address with changing monitor angle or moving the mains speakers farther away.  If you play right handed, place the monotor on your left angled at 45 degress.  Puttong monitor on the right can cause sound to bounce off guitar top into vocal mic.  Took me a while to figure this out!

Good luck!
David

[Dale_I]

LR Baggs man here. I have an Element in my 12 string, a dual source preamp using an M1 and I-Beam in the Larrivee. A dual source preamp using an Element and a condenser mic in my Seagull. All are wonderful. The most natural sounds come from the dual source signals, but just the under bridge does a find job by itself. The under saddle by itself is slightly less natural than the under bridge by itself, but you can EQ it to sound very good.