K&K Pure Mini Acoustic Guitar Pickup

I installed the K&K Pure Mini Acoustic Guitar Pickup on my Baby Taylor and I am stunned at the superb sound quality I now get. I've never been really pleased with my Baby Taylor because it had a hollow empty barrel sound to it, often typical of small instruments. But these pickups collect the sound right at the underside of the saddle and the sound is perfect. It's clear, perfectly balanced between strings, and the sound is exactly what it should sound like from a full-sized top notch guitar. The hollow sound I disliked is not in the output that goes to the amp, so the amplified sound is now better than the guitar itself. The 3 pickup elements have a lot of output so they feed the amplifier just great. I had no trouble installing the pickups. Just follow the instructions, read every word thoroughly about 3 times, work slowly and dry run the installation using the special alignment jig that is part of the kit. It makes sure the 3 pickup elements are perfectly positioned. It's simple, but be sure to dry run it few times just to make sure you can get your hand into the sound hole without getting superglue on yourself and you get the jig into the right places. With superglue, you only get one chance to position the pickup pads. My Baby Taylor has a real small sound hole (only 98 mm), so this practice was very important. Also be sure to cover your entire guitar top with paper or something in case you drip some glue. Be double sure to use only superglue Gel which stays where you put it and will not run. Do not use regular or even thick superglue because it will run. Use only the gel. Do what they say and use lots of glue spread around on the pickup pad until it covers the entire pad and is thick. It should squeeze out from under the pickup pad when you push it into place. Be sure to press it firmly into place and hold it for at least 30 seconds until the glue sets. I held mine for a full minute or longer just to be sure. I found the superglue Gel at Lowe's and Home Depot for about 3 bucks. I practiced by gluing a small coin onto a piece of wood. This is the best $99 I ever spent on my guitars. It changed my Baby Taylor into my favorite guitar. This is a superb product that performed better than the advertisements claimed.

I've played guitar, both recreational and professional, for over 25 years. Always acoustic. Can't remember if I've even ever picked up an electric guitar. Anyway, I've for the most part, been happy with most of the rigs I've had in the past, as long as I had a pre-amp to adjust the sound with. Doing a little tweaking with a pre-amp seemed like a fair trade off to getting a great sound. But still, the sound I heard coming out of my guitars when they were unplugged, just couldn't be reproduced once they were plugged in. Until I found the Pure Western mini. I had recently purchased a Taylor GSmini (which has an amazingly full and warm sound in its own right) and was looking for the best way to get it wired for sound. After looking at all the different options (Taylor's own GSmini pickup - which is horrible, a couple of Fishman alternatives and the LR Baggs Anthem) I ran across the K&K Pure Western. I was a little hesitant be cause the the pick up is passive, so I wouldn't have any volume control on the guitar itself, I've been running through a Baggs Para Acoustic DI for years, so I could control my volume through that if I needed to. The reviews I read about the K&K almost seemed to good to be true, but since the installation seemed easy enough to do and 99% of the reviews on the K&K were 5 stars, I took a chance. I am so glad I did! The sound, straight out of the guitar - without going through the Baggs DI - was amazing! It was just like the natural sound produced by my guitar except louder. I was blown away! No "quackiness" or "tinny" sounds like you sometimes get with a ribbon or piezio pickup. No feedback like you have to battle with some internal mics in guitars. Just pure, warm and full guitar sound. Running it through the Baggs DI only enhances the sound and gives me more options to widen up and add layers and textures with the tones. But even without running the guitar through a pre-amp, I can't say enough about the fullness and warmth of the guitar tone! It's truly the first guitar (and I've played dozens and dozens) that sounds identical when plugged in, to the way it sounds unplugged. You really have to hear it to fully appreciate how awesomely powerful this K&K Western pickup is and how amazed you'll be at the results. Since the pickup is passive, there is no on board electronics to fool with or batteries to mess with or replace when they lose their charge. If you really want on board volume control with this pickup, use a Taylor V- Cable guitar chord that has a volume knob built into the cable so you can have complete control to mute or raise or lower your guitars volume. Or run through a pre amp of some kind. Installation was not too difficult, but did take about 45 minutes to do properly. The instructions provided with the pickup are some of the best and most detailed instructions for the installation of anything that I've ever used. I was never in a position where I didn't understand what the instructions were telling me to do or I was confused as to what I needed to do next. I will say that if you have large hands and/or forearms, the installation may be a little difficult. I have large forearms and installing the endjack through the rear of the guitar was the hardest part for me, simply because of the size of my forearms in relation to the size of the sound hole of my Taylor GSmini. Installing the transducers under the bridge plate was pretty easy, as long as you are following the directions provided and have taken the time to make and use the "jig" that the directions suggest using. You can use a piece of the cardboard box that the K&K Western ships in to make the "jig". All the other materials needed to make the jig and position the transducers under the bridge plate are included. If the guitar you are installing this pickup in doesn't have a pre-drilled hole in the rear of the guitar for the end-jack, you'll have to drill a hole, using a succession of larger and larger drill bits, until you get the hole up to the right size for the end jack to poke through. The installation instructions provided give great, step by step details for doing this, and even provide you with the drill bit sizes. If you have to do this (my Taylor GS mini came with a whole already drilled so I didn't have to do this part), I would recommend picking up a hole reamer to use to get the hole to its final dimension. I'd use the hole reamer in place of the final bit size the recommend. You'll just have more control over the final dimension of the hole using a reamer instead of a drill bit. All in all, I may never buy another guitar again with built in electronics as long as K&K is still making the Western Pure. It was easy to install and the sound it produces is the most genuine sound I've heard a plugged in acoustic make. K&K has a new fan in me and if you one in your guitar, I'm guessing they'll have another new fan as well.

I purchased this 9 years ago for an acoustic guitar without electronics and preamp. The good: the sound quality is amazing. Far better than most sound hole pickups. Unlike electric pickups, it sounds just like your acoustic guitar just louder and through the amp. This is my favorite feature about this as I don’t care for the cheap electric-acoustic sound from lower end guitars. Installation is easy but be careful, take your time, use masking tape and get the right drill bit to widen the hole for the plug. Cons: if you are playing in a live setting with other players you may need a sound hole plug (to prevent reverb and echo from the noise) and a DI for pre-amp power (you’ll be overpowered by other instruments that have a preamp). But given that the guitar actually sounds like your guitar, it is worth it. Top notch product even a decade later.

This is the absolute best passive-pickup I have ever used in any of my guitars. Since the pickup I purchased would be going into a very rare and vintage 1988 Martin HD-28PSE (only 96 made,) I needed to be sure I was using the best as this pickup would superglued into my best guitar. After much deliberation and research, I chose this one and I am so glad I did. I have to thank my personal friend, Tommy Mizzone, lead guitar player for the Sleepy Man Banjo Boys. He also plays vintage Martins and uses this exact pickup. Do a search for Sleepy Man Banjo Boys on YouTube and you can hear how this pickup sounds on his guitar. They've played at the Grand Ole Opry, Carnegie Hall, The David Letterman Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and at countless bluegrass/roots music venues around the country. This pickup sounds AMAZING in all of his performances. The sound is clear with accurate bases and trebles and a beautiful mid-tone. The pickup can be installed on your own but if you're dealing with an expensive or vintage guitar, I'd strongly suggest using a professional luthier to do the work. It'll cost you about $50 to be installed and gives you an opportunity to get a new set of strings installed and ensure the pickup is installed correctly. As great as this pickup is, I can assure you, 90% of it's sound is created by proper installation so unless you're 100% comfortable doing it yourself, have a luthier do it. You can go the route of "temporarily" installing it using the included double-sided tape although you will have noticeable sound degradation as the pickups aren't picking up the full tone from the guitar's top section. The tape essentially acts as a buffer and reduces sound quality. If you want to test the pickup first, go ahead and use the removable tape, otherwise be sure to use a MEDIUM viscosity superglue (they don't include it in the box) when gluing the pickup in. The reason for the MEDIUM viscosity superglue is it isn't too liquidy where it seeps out everywhere and doesn't get a good hold. The wood on the guitar will absorb much of the moisture of the thin superglues and that can lead to an improperly installed pickup that falls off, or, damages the wood. *** I hope this review was helpful for you. If it was, please let me know. I do my best to provide you with the information you need to make a sound decision when investing in these products. I also only review products that I personally own and use so you're getting an accurate, straight forward refview based on actual experience using the product. ***

The manual is very clear on the install procedure. I was able to do this myself with an old dewalt drill, a standard drill bit set, some masking tape, and some gel superglue. The install kit provided with the pickup is very straightforward and makes it easy to glue the pickups inside the guitar. It's a little fiddly but I did it myself and I'm no luthier. One thing that wasn't fully touched on in the manual is how to get the endpin jack all the way down inside the guitar and through the hole you've drilled... I was installing in an Alvarez parlor guitar and there was just no way for me to reach my arm in that far. They mention guiding it in with a chopstick but not how. What I did was to use the leftover sticky putty included for placing the pickup mics to stick the jack to the end of a chopstick and use that to extend my reach. It didn't seem like the most elegant solution but it worked. Just be aware that if you can't reach your arm all the way into the body of your guitar down to the end pin you'll want some way to extend your reach in that direction. Install aside, this was an excellent solution for me. I was able to plug right into my parish's mixer through a DI box and play. My guitar sounds buttery smooth through the pickup and my guitar has plenty of presence in the mix. And the pickup is incredibly discreet. The end pin is the only thing visibly modified. If you don't like the look of electronics mounted on your guitar this is a great solution. Flip side is that there's no audio controls on board so if you're looking for volume control on your instrument you'll need a pre amp or a different model of pickup.

Installed this pickup on a GC Martin Custom that sounded very much like a D18 side by side. Using a 12mm stepped drill, that long cone shaped drill that ends at 12mm and some tape on the end-pin hole produced a perfect and neat hole with no damage. I used gloves, gel superglue and patience, but the whole thing took less than 40 minutes including replacing the strings. The strap button end piece is a really nice detail. Overall the package, instructions and component quality are very good. Output level and lack of feedback are amazing for a pickup with no batteries. Overall, the sound would be fabulous if I were the type of acoustic player that wants a more punchy, electric-like sound. The bass range is very heavy and the tip top is there but not what I would like. There is also some of that nasal quack in there, but less than expected. It turns out that a preamp with a 1 megaohm impedance on the input is what K&K says will cure the issues. That should be stated outright in the product description. I have a separate amplifier that is designed for use with acoustic guitars, but it does not sound good with this pickup lacking a pre-amp. In contrast, a Taylor 314ce with its ES1 pickup was pure magic until its body sensor failed. If purchase of a K&K preamp resolves the issue, I'm going to add a star, but reluctantly because the price of the pickup and preamp then is right up there with other systems that might work better. I might drop a star if it doesn't, but I have to admit that this pickup is a lot of sound for not a lot of money. If I didn't already have a nice jazz guitar and nice other electric guitar, I'd be enjoying this pickup a whole bunch. In many ways, it turns my accoustic into an archtop jazz guitar with a lot of punch in it. K&K support was very responsive to my email regarding sound issues. Their suggestion regarding impedance is highly likely to be spot on, especially given the character of the sound. It's not just an equalization issue. Hopefully the preamp does the trick. Had I known that I need to compare it to other more expensive systems, I might be a little happier. Update March 27th 2020 With a preamp that accepts a one megaohm input, the Pure Mini has a much more manageable low-end. Sound quality is decent, but not comparable to what comes standard on a Taylor 314ce. The crystal-clear mid to upper range is still lacking, but okay with the preamp. The "piezo quack" is diminished a lot with a preamp. Feedback rejection is remarkable. For a range of acoustic tones to a more electric type punch, and higher volumes, this is a good pickup. I would prefer a cleaner, more natural acoustic sound in the upper midrange; so next time I need to put a pickup on a guitar, I'll be looking to other setups. Want a pickup with a lot of grit, a lot of nasty punch on a dreadnought guitar and you've got about a hundred bucks to spend? Handy with DIY projects? K&K Pure Mini is great! Want a pretty good range of clear sound to some dirty slappin' fingers on the other? K&K Pure Mini with a 1 megaohm preamp, but ouch, that's nearly 300 bucks without professional installation. Need a crystal clear magic acoustic sound? Keep looking. I'm keeping this at four stars because the preamp was not listed as a "required" item at the time of purchase. That said, it is something that will make playing with other louder instruments practical. It does have a character to it that some people will just love right off the bat.

Very nice natural sound! I installed this in my CEO-7 and followed the directions precisely and took about an hour and half from drilling out the endpin hole to plugging in. The instruction booklet is very good. Only thing I would add is to divide the putty in 3 balls for each of the 3 transducers before starting the putty steps. It will make the perfect size ball for the install. For drilling out the endpin hole, I used a 1/2 in unibit that is supposed to be used on metal or PVC and it worked perfectly and gave a nice smooth finished hole. I bought one specifically for this project and I recommend that. Make sure you use a piece of blue painters tape to keep things neat and protect guitar from scratches during drilling. Installing the transducers was the easier part but also tricky part that helps if you do a dry run, so follow instructions exactly. The endpin install was the patience step as it required working on both sides of the guitar and getting the right fit with the washer/nut. I used a straw to help guide the jack through the hole. It took me 3 tries to get the washer fit perfect but when it was done, it nice and tight, which is maybe one of the most important steps for getting a nice sound with no stray vibrations. Sonically, the K&K Pure captures my CEO-7 tone very accurately from bass to trebles. A few reviewers have mentioned bass bias but I didnt notice any uneveness in tone and did not even need to EQ. I am sure tone shaping with a preamp would dial in an even better sound but honestly it is not needed. It really is impressive for a $100. pickup. In my other guitars I have LR Baggs Lyric, LR Baggs Anthem, ES2 and truly think K&K is at least equivilent and then add in the fact that there is no battery needed and price point with easy install and only conclusion is, get one. You will not be dissapointed.

I recently installed this in a Yamaha FG700. The only complaint I have is that I wasted time trying out other pickup systems before finally installing this. It sounds fantastic! I had previously drilled out the endpin but would say that is probably the only part that seems challenging. Take your time and use tape and it goes fairly easily. The included jig and materials make it very easy to install the pickups right where they need to be and the instructions are very clear. You will need some superglue gel that isn't included. I love that the wires are cut to the proper length so all you have to do is give it a twist to spool up the slack and you don't even need any kind of clip to hold excess wiring. I would highly recommend some type of preamp just for the ability to get your sound dialed in just how you like it. You will want something that has 1Mohm impedance, like the K&K preamp. Many other preamps have higher impedance (10Mohm) and you will get a lot more bass response out of the pickup if you use it. One easy trick if you already have a preamp with the wrong impedance is to run it through an old Boss pedal (like a TU-2) first and then into the preamp or soundboard or amp. I tried a Boss TU2 into a DI into our soundboard at church and thought it sounded great without even having to EQ it at the board. I ultimately have been running it through a Boss ME80 multieffects which has the proper impedance and the sound is great straight out of that into the PA. We run floor monitors and I experimented with volumes to see if feedback would be a problem. Unless you were on a tiny stage with volumes maxed, I don't see feedback being a problem. I tossed a feedback buster soundhole plug in my case just in case but I have a feeling it won't come out much. It is a rich, balanced sound - your guitar, just louder. It does pickup any body noise so if that isn't something you want, be aware. Overall, it is an easily installed, no hassle, fantastic sounding pickup, all for a very affordable price. I would highly recommend it before trying other systems!