Opinions of K&K Pure Macaferri pickup?

Tele295 · February 2009

Fingers wrote:

Thanks for that review...it was very helpful. And thanks to the OP for the heads up on this pickup...I personally had not heard of it before.

I hadn't, either. I'm not sure if I did a Google search or what when I stumbled across it. K&K Pickups are very well regarded in the upright bass community, and this setup certainly sounded like exactly what we all seem to be looking for.

TomThumbs · February 2009

I just ordered the K&K Pure Mac ( not Trinity) for my new DG-300. I'm wondering if anyone has tried placing the piezo elements in other places than the ends of the mustaches?

BluesBop Harry · February 2009

Wow! Has anyone really managed to fit their hand inside an oval hole???

TomThumbs · February 2009

AN FYI for anyone considering the K&K Pure Mac.........

I am not a very big guy, although apparently I must have bigger hands than the 6'2" guy who says he got his hand through the oval whole on his Hoyer Joscho Stephan model in the instruction sheet. No amount of squeezing or contortions allowed me access. I think I might have been able to force my hand in, but I'm pretty sure it would have required the "jaws of life" to get the guitar back off.

However, I made a tool from a piece of aluminum and was able to place the transducers in their approximate locations, and then had my 15 year old son check that they were securely adhered and to place the jack through the end block. Without his smaller hands, the installation would not have been possible.

All's well that ends well, I suppose, as it sounds great.....very natural, but does require some tweaking. Will work well for recording purposes. Don't know about playing in a venue. 'Course, no one's going to pay to hear me play at this stage of the game, anyway. ;-)

Tom

Tele295 · February 2009

Dr. Hall wrote:

The pre-amp runs on a 12-volt battery, and I'm finally on my second battery after quite a few gigs with it over the past year. I think a battery is supposed to last 40 hours or so.
-Stefan

I don't think I've ever seen a 12-volt battery. Are they commonly available in the US?

Bob Holo · February 2009

K&K's pickups are pretty nice in general. I've been working with them now for a couple months and though I'm not yet ready to say I'm completely decided - I will say that I really like what I'm getting from the K&K. Your mileage may vary given placement and which system you choose and whether you use in conjunction with a mic. etc. I will say this. So far, K&K is ahead in the running and I've found K&K's designer to be very competent and a nice guy to boot. His recommended placement for the Mac with two piezos (right at the tips of the mustaches) is good. Keep in mind that the guitar he used for install was not a very live guitar. So, if you have a stiffer factory guitar it'll probably be a very good placement. If you have a guitar with a bit more dynamic range, you may want to move the pickups out even closer to the edge of the soundboard - and they're still too live, move them closer to a brace. As was said earlier in this thread, it's dependent on the guitar. Also, it's not always necessary - or even a good thing to have the dots perfectly symmetrical. Finally - a decent preamp can help you quite a bit if you're mixing with a mic. If you can flip the polarity of one of the two inputs, you might find the sound is better (or worse) the point being that polarity is important when you have two types of pickups that will be covering the same frequency spectrum. Rather than trying to calculate whether your polarity should be inverted, it's pretty simple just to try it both ways. If you can't tell a difference - don't sweat it. If there are cancellation problems from phase, it will likely not be subtle - you'll hear the difference clearly. If you don't hear it clearly - 'it ain't there to hear'... haha. Oh, and what does a phase problem sound like? It makes things sound indistinct... like the sound is hard to locate - like the sound is coming from no particular place or sounds like it's coming from somewhere other than the amp - or just generally a weird hollowed out kind of sound - almost like speaking into cupped hands. But if your sound is strong and direct and natural - your phase is fine - or "good enough".