Pickup Lines
Company founder Dieter Kaudel explains the thinking behind K&K Sound’s industry-standard piezo acoustic pickup, the Pure Mini…
Playing the guitar is still K&K Sound founder Dieter Kaudel’s favourite hobby, as the impressive array of albums listed on his own artist website (www.dietrimusic.com) attests to. “I’m both a musician and a tinkerer,” he tells us down the line from K&K’s Oregon headquarters. “It’s been like that since I was 12 years old. I played in bands for years but I’ve always been interested in how things work.”
Hailing from Germany, Dieter first began experimenting with acoustic instrument pickups in the early 80s. “We started with a vibraphone pickup system but we also wanted to build something for the marimba,” he continues, “and this pickup – a piezo pickup glued to the marimba bar – is the ancestor of the Pure Mini. In the late 80s, we came up with the concept of mounting it onto the bridge plate of a guitar and evolved the design into the single-headed [piezo transducer]
Hot Spot and the Twin Spot Internal. The two-headed Twin Spot Internal proved to be very popular and is a forerunner of the [three-headed] Pure Mini.
“K&K stands for Kaudel and Kassimir – my last name and my wife’s maiden name. She arranged the move [from Germany] to America in 1995. Because of the increasing popularity of the acoustic music scene back then, we decided to concentrate on the string instrument sector in the late 90s. The MTV Unplugged series really helped. I remember The Eagles ordering a Hot Spot for one of their instruments. In more recent years, Eric Johnson installed a Pure Mini in his Martin and requested some more for a couple of other acoustic guitars. Andy McKee also uses a Pure Mini. We have so many amazing players using it. The
Pure Mini is absolutely our most popular acoustic guitar pickup. Most people have probably heard it somewhere before.”
Although it’s certainly possible to do it yourself, installing the Pure Mini is a routine job for any luthier and is normally carried out by using strong glue to attach the pickup heads to the bridge plate on the inside of the guitar. “This gives a molecular bond and lets the pickup vibrate in total sympathy with the instrument,” explains Dieter. “It picks up the true vibration of the entire instrument and not just the strings. It’s different from an under-saddle pickup, which picks up mostly strings and can be very hard and quack-y sounding. The Pure Mini has a woody, natural timbre that none of the under-saddle pickups or magnetic soundhole pickups have.
“The Pure Mini allows you to play with full dynamics. If you want to, you can really dig into the guitar hard. It still sounds pleasant and you won’t overwhelm the pickup. Or you can softly pick the guitar and it will pick up all the subtle nuances of your playing. Another benefit to the Pure Mini is that it has a natural bass response. Unlike an under-saddle pickup, it doesn’t have any cut or restriction in the lowend. Theoretically, it goes down into the subsonic. Most acoustic amps are set up to artificially boost bass but when you plug in a Pure Mini you might just need to cut some out.”
As a passive device, the Pure Mini does not require a battery in order to function. “It’s very light and doesn’t get in the way – it’s virtually invisible once it’s been fitted,” highlights Dieter. “Many players use it just as it is – even in regular electric guitar amps – but we also have a simple, inexpensive external preamp specially made for it called the Pure Preamp. This has a threeband EQ and gain control so you can finetune the sound of your guitar and make it sound good in pretty much any amp. We also do a combination system called the Trinity Pro System, which is especially popular with fingerstyle and percussive players. It’s a dual-source system that uses the passive Pure Mini and an internal guitar mic that is powered by the external [nine-volt] two-channel preamp. With this, you can really dial in your pickup and mic sound to suit any situation.”
“The Pure Mini picks up the true vibration of the entire instrument and not just the strings”
“We have so many amazing players using the Pure Mini. It’s absolutely our most popular pickup”