Installed a K & K Western mini, now what?

[Graham]

I installed the pickup in my JF-30 this evening. Not too difficult or time consuming, but I really don't know how to operate the amp that I'm using until Guildstock where I get my Marshall AS50R, which I don't know how to operate either. :shock:

I plugged the guitar into my Roland Cube 30 and goofed around a bit with it, but I really don't know what to do with the settings or anything. Maybe if I spent more than 2 minutes with it I'd have some luck or notion of what I was doing, but I unplugged it and played it that way for the rest of the time tonight.

Any thoughts or should I just wait for Zilla's get together and fake my way through that? :mrgreen:

 

[cjd-player]

Graham,

One of the silver thingies on the end of that black cord goes into the guitar, and the other silver thingy goes into the amp.
It probably has the word: "INPUT" beside or beneath the hole. Be careful here. If you plug the silver thingy into a hole that says OUTPUT, you'll blow up your guitar and probably cause another crash of the LTG site. Worst case, you'll get a severe shock and get blown to New-Z-Land :mrgreen: (Please be on the look out for UFO's, Coastie)

Oh, wait, you're in Canada - that's more like England. Head's up Jerry, he'll probably be launched your way. I'm not real confident he'll get this right the first time. Maybe we should just do an LTG-wide alert. No telling where he might go!

Then find another cord that comes out of the amp. it will have three metal pins on the end. They go into a three-hole thingy in one of the walls of your house (Unless you're in a tent. Then you won't have the three-hole thingies in the wall, and you won't be able to play using the amp.)(Scratch has been a happy camper on several occasions recently. Maybe he can help you with the tent thing.)

Next, find a button or switch on the amp than says: ON. When you flip, push, slide or turn it, a cute little colored light may turn on. Don't be alarmed. Oh, never mind. This is going to take tooooo long. Its an acoustic guitar. What in blazes do you need an amp for???



That's the same pickup I put in my D-55, which I'll have at Guildstock.

Unless you are not getting any signal at all, its just EQ'ing and setting the amp volume it to your liking after that.

I find I have to turn out a lot of mids (around 700Hz frequency) on my Shenandoah amp to get a tone that I like. If your amp does not have that much control over the mid frequencies, then just adjust the bass and treble controls on the amp 'till you get a tone that you like.

I run through a LL Baggs Parametric DI when I play at church. I don't use the amp. That gives me a volume control and I knock the mids down on that before going to the house mixer board.

I'll bring the LL Baggs to Guildstock. I'll also bring an EQ pedal. You can play around with those. I'm sure you'll be able to get it to sound fine through that Marshall will very little fuss.

 

[chazmo]

Graham, do you have a preamp? If you do, that will go between the guitar and the amp and will allow you to shape the sound before it gets into the amp.

I'm learning all this too, by the way. I have the K&K pure western mini pickup system now in my F512, and I have an external preamp (also a K&K).

Have fun.

 

[Graham]

Graham, do you have a preamp? If you do, that will go between the guitar and the amp and will allow you to shape the sound before it gets into the amp.

I'm learning all this too, by the way. I have the K&K pure western mini pickup system now in my F512, and I have an external preamp (also a K&K).

Have fun.

No preamp. Sounds like something the amp guys came up with to sell more stuff. :shock:

 

[Ross]

Hi Graham:

I don't know what conditions are like where you are, but the walls of my igloo are getting a bit soft these days, making it difficult to locate the 3-hole thingies. So I can't plug in an amp

I've found that when I plug an acoustic guitar into an electric guitar amp, I have to cut treble & boost bass to make it even vaguely resemble an acoustic sound. If I leave the EQ on the amp at mid-range, the ol' D-25 sounds like a trebly Telecaster!

cheers
R

 

[chazmo]

Graham, do you have a preamp? If you do, that will go between the guitar and the amp and will allow you to shape the sound before it gets into the amp.

I'm learning all this too, by the way. I have the K&K pure western mini pickup system now in my F512, and I have an external preamp (also a K&K).

Have fun.

No preamp. Sounds like something the amp guys came up with to sell more stuff. :shock:

I guess in some sense, Graham, it's akin to an effects pedal. I'll be very interested to see how important the preamp is to getting the sound the way I want it. A number of folks have told me that it's important, especially if you're mixing a couple of inputs into the same amp, which we're likely doing for this summer concert I'm in.

The other thing the preamp does is it provides an "XLR" output which can be run fairly long distances and run directly into a mixing head, which could be very useful for recording.

 

[cjd-player]

The purpose of a preamp is to amplify the weak electrical signal from the guitar pickup(s) to a level that will work as the input to an amplifier. Most built-in pickups in acoustic guitars have the preamp built into the guitar. The preamp is what needs the battery, and the preamp is where you usually make the intitial tone (EQ) and volume adjustments.

The K&K pickups typically put out a strong enough signal that a preamp is not usually necessary. They can be plugged directly into the amplifier. So you make your tone and volume adjustments at the amp. Some external preamps (external to the guitar) are just preamps to boost the signal. Others, like the K&K preamps and the LL Baggs Paracoustic DI also have tone controls.

Whether or not you actually need a preamp depends entirely upon your amplifier. If it is o.k. with the signal from the K&K minis, and if you can do all of your tone shaping (EQ) at the amp, then you do not need a preamp. However, if you can't get a tone that you like by plugging directly into the amp and using the amp tone controls, then the tone controls on a preamp will help you to get the tone you want.

 

[cjd-player]

I plugged the guitar into my Roland Cube 30 and goofed around a bit

I just looked up a Roland Cube 30 on the web. I did not realize it was a modeling amp for electric guitar :shock:. I'd be suprised if you got a nice sound out of your JF-30 through that. The JC setting is probably the best chance, but the acoustic model in the "lead" controls might be interesting as well. The gain control in the lead section will likely cause distortion if set too high.

Acoustic guitar amps have separate tweeters. Electric guitar amps do not. Plus the preamp sections are voiced differently, and the speakers themselves are different.

Like trying to use a VW Bug to plow snow. Not a good fit. :wink:

Don't get dissapointed. I'm sure you'll get great acoustic sounds out of the Marshall when you get it :mrgreen:.

 

[West R Lee]

Graham, do you have a preamp? If you do, that will go between the guitar and the amp and will allow you to shape the sound before it gets into the amp.

I'm learning all this too, by the way. I have the K&K pure western mini pickup system now in my F512, and I have an external preamp (also a K&K).

Have fun.

No preamp. Sounds like something the amp guys came up with to sell more stuff. :shock:

Yep.......next they'll come out with a post amp. :?

West

 

[danerectal]

Yep.......next they'll come out with a post amp. :?

West

They've actually had speakers about as long as amps from what I've read.

 

[chazmo]

I tried out my F512 with K&K on a friend's amp yesterday and it's fantastic. I didn't have an opportunity to try the preamp, but I didn't need it. I'm really psyched.

 

[Graham]

After playing around with the Marshall AS50R and, especially after hearing cjd play around with it, I don't need a pre-amp, I just need to learn how to play. :shock:

A very fine amp for my needs. Thanks for the recommend Scratch.

 

[Scratch]

As good as you are with electronics, you can teach me a thing or two in Arlington, Grammy... :shock: :?