I know the K&K is the default go to, but I'm not a fan. Here's my story. I was looking for a pickup to replace a horrid Lyric in a Martin I had. A friend told me about a local pickup maker I should try out, so I called Teddy Randazo and bought a set of Dazzos and his recommended RedEye pre. Instant love. Four sets of Dazzos later, I bought my Martin D 35 that came with K&Ks already in it. Great I told myself, I won't have to spend for Dazzos. Plugged the guitar in, and something was wrong. They must be defective, I thought. Went into Gryphon and asked the guys if they could check them for me. They plugged into a Loudbox mini, AND BEFORE PLAYING THE GUITAR, they rolled all the bass off on the amp. Then they started playing with the mid and treble EQ. Yes, they got a decent sound. So I asked them, that is just how they sound? Yes. You see, it had been years since I touched even the treble knob on my RedEye. I've since moved on to a SunnAudio pre, an even better tone than the already good RedEye. You will need all the considerable EQ on the PARA DI if you go the K&K route. It is a cheaper way to go. Even cheaper is the JJB, witch I put in my cheapo archtop when I had the back off it. Now K&K is only part of the problem. The design of the gain in both the RedEye and the SunnAudio is very linear, so you don't need EQ to compensate for frequency dips and bumps in a poorly designed gain stage. Of course it all comes down to cost of components, and marketing. If Fishman and Baggs used even the best pots, it would double the cost of them. A Dazzo with SunnAudio combination is not cheap, but it is the best plug and play combination I've found. I help run an open mic, and had SunnAudio build me a two input Blender DI in a box. It makes even the cheapest piezo sound much better. Now I don't consider myself a holy grail tone chaser, but I do like trouble free plug and play. Set the board tone controls flat, plug in and go.
