K&K Pure Mini (Pure Western Mini)

I needed a pickup for my spare guitar, which is almost identical to my main guitar that has a factory-fitted LR Baggs ribbon pickup. I wasn't completely happy with the Baggs as it doesn't give an even response despite some tweaking by a local luthier. So I was hoping the K&K would give a better sound.

The K&K was reasonably easy to fit but if you are not really confident it's best to get an expert to fit it. The sound is amazingly loud without a pre-amp, so it's good value in that respect and less fuss.

The sound wasn't very natural although it was just about acceptable. So I tried it with various pre-amps, including a couple of expensive parametric ones but actually the best result was with a cheap Behringer graphic EQ pedal which let me tune out the worst effects.

So I bought a Zoom MS70 multi-effects pedal, that has a programmable Graphic EQ and that has been great. I was able to set up a good-sounding EQ for the K&K and another EQ for the LR Baggs and both are sounding a lot better.

It's hard to describe how I feel about the sound from this I guess, as the natural tone of the guitar is delivered very well, but it doesn't really have the same kind of body of sound that you'd expect from a standard under-saddle pickup.

I put mine in a PRS SE Angelus Custom which naturally sounds huge, this pickup doesn't really demonstrate that very well. I can make it work with some effects and EQing, but I will end up replacing it with a more expensive kit at some point, probably with an inbuilt microphone while I'm at it.

My advice would be to wear latex gloves or similar when fitting this, as the putty WILL get on your fingers, and it's horrible to get off!

Overall, very good for the price, but IMO it'd be worth saving your pennies for something a little better.