K&K Pure Mini Acoustic Guitar Pickup

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.

Installed this in a 1946 Gibson Southern Jumbo which previously had a cheap, sound hole mounted pickup. The K&K really made a difference; just pure, clean, and clear natural sound of a great old guitar! Easy to install, virtually undetectable, and sounds great. Highly recommend!

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.

Absolutely the best acoustic guitar pickup. I have one on five of my guitars - it gives a much more pure guitar sound than any peizo pickup. I've had mine installed by a luthier - it's well worth the money to have a pro do it.I call them passive-aggressive pickup. No batteries and it puts out plenty of signal. I love these pickups.