K&K Sound Pure Mini guitar pickup installation

Music

January 26, 2024

K&K Sound Pure Mini guitar pickup installation

I’ve been using a Fishman Rare Earth pickup (pictured below) in my Taylor 810 for over 20 years. It started developing a hum when plugged into the amp. Usually changing the batteries fixes the issue. But not this time. I called tech support to ask if they can fix it and they said it is normal that a single coil pickup would have a hum. Why would anyone buy a pickup that could have a hum?

I considered the Fishman Rare Earth Humbucking pickup for $220, which supposedly doesn’t hum. But I wanted a different solution. I didn’t want wires hanging out of the sound hole, so the pickup had to be installed inside the guitar. And I didn’t want to deal with batteries so it had to be a passive pickup.

After some research, I settled on the K&K Sound Pure Mini for Steel-String Acoustic Guitar pickup for $100 on Amazon. There are three passive pickups that are glued under the saddle from the inside of the guitar. The jack comes out of the endpin where the guitar strap holder is.

Materials

The kit comes with detailed 21-page instruction booklet with diagrams on how to do the install in meticulous detail.

In the plastic bag is (almost) everything you need to do the install, including putty, double sided tape, two pins and a plastic thing to make a jig.

You just need to buy super glue.

Preparation

The Taylor 810 is DIY friendly. I was able to take the endpin out by twisting it off with pliers. No glue to mess with or drilling needed.

Here is an inside view of the endpin hole. There is a screw bolt that needs to be taken out.

I was able to nudge out the screw bolt bu pushing on it from the outside. Luckily it just popped out. The jack fit perfectly into the hole vacated by the bolt.

Installation

The white pin on the jig goes into the first hole on the bridge and the golf tee goes into the 3rd hold. Put a small piece of putty right where the saddle is. Stick a pickup (doesn’t matter which one) onto the putty with the wire pointing to the right, which will be pointing away from the end pin hole when installed in the guitar.

Put superglue on the pickup. The white pin is superglued onto the jig so it won’t move.

Bring the jig into the sound hole. I don’t have super glue in the picture below because it was a practice run.

Guide the white pin into the 1st pin hole, but from the inside.

Use the golf tee to align the jig straight. Pull up on the white pin for 30 seconds. Leave for 10 minutes to let the superglue create a molecular bond between the pickup and the bridge.

Jiggle the jig off the pickup. The pickup will stay on the guitar. Some putty may stick on the pickup.

I put too much putty on the second pickup and the glue got mixed with it and it was hard to get off. It won’t affect the sound to have some putty around or on the pickup. The bond between the pickup and the guitar is what determines the quality of the tone.