Hey... Great review and comparison. I did pick out the order. The mic was immediately obvious. I can't tell you how helpful this video will be! thanks for uploading 🙂
I can't tell you how helpful this sonic comparison was. I've installed both and found the same thing. I immediately knew which one was which. But hearing you just play with quick comparisons was what "made the sale". Thanks for your effort!!!
Very well done! Thank you. I liked "A" best and assumed that it was the Pure Mini. I assumed that "B" was the Journey. I'm glad I got them backwards because I installed the Journey system in three of my guitars. I actually liked "A" more than the mic ("C").
Thanks for taking the time to setup and record this test. About as unbiased as it can be. I also ended up preferring the Journey over the K&K, and I’ve been using K&K for a long time. I know that guitars, pickups, and personal preference mixed together provide room for subjective evaluation, but this is reduces the variables to the human ear, so as objective as can be had. My intent was to replace the K&K with the Journey on my Guild F40 Valencia. Ran into a problem that the luthier that installed the K&K used the incorrect glue and would be nearly impossible to remove. The cost for all the labor to remove and install didn’t seem worth it for the benefits. So I replaced the Schatten HFN pickup in my Guild D30 with the Journey. The Journey was a noticeable improvement for warmth and balance. More true to guitar’s acoustic tone. I always had to use a LR Baggs Align EQ with the HFN, and with the Journey I only need to make a few tweaks on the PA channel EQ and sounds great. I sold the EQ pedal. I also have a Journey travel guitar with the same pickups. One thing that I noticed is in both the Journey guitar and Guild D30 with the Journey pickups, the high E string isn’t as prominent as the other strings. I checked the D30 install and placement is spot on per Journey install guide. I use the LR Baggs Align Session pedal to lightly compress the input, and that does the trick. I also prefer the simplicity of passive pickups for gigging and the Journey is all I need for solid live performance sound. I was somewhat skeptical because the Journey is half the price of K&K and a third the price of the Schatten. I’ve been using it for around 4 months now an has worked wonderfully. Thanks again!!
FANTASTIC comparison - this takes a lot of work to install the same pickup on the same guitar to do a comp. We appreciate it! Funny enough, I liked the K&K a lot better. However, I'm listening on proper speakers with balanced bass response so maybe I'm hearing more than others.
Thanks for an great comparison!!! When listening to A first, I found it great. Then listening to B, it sounds kind of the same but with more HF. Then C is very full frequency with room ambiance - it's clearly the most authentic. Listing more to compare A and B, it became very clear to my ears that B is actually significantly fuller in the frequency range. So C first (best), B second, and A third.
It was between B and C depending on what you were doing. I was planning on putting in a K&K tomorrow on my guitar, based on the recommendation of a tech I respect. I guess (minutia?) the guitar will influence all this too. I'm installing on a Martin 000-18 modern deluxe, which already is a bright sounding thing. I noticed a resonant drone sound most apparent post-attack on the strings with A and B which was almost non-existent with C. I would attribute that to a sort of intrinsic feedback but I don't know, I'm just sure about what I heard. There are vast options on pickups and the whole thing is confusing. I don't mind the inherent distortions of a certain pickup, LR Baggs or Fishman etc. as long as I like the sound of that distortion, but I have neither the time nor inclination to test a hundred pickups. I intend to play with the sound, and am not always going to want the sound of a "perfectly" replicated acoustic just made louder. Maybe I will like some reverb or delay etc. Think of what Mike Dawes does with his acoustic...it's amazing. Anyway, thank you for this thought provoking demo. Out of sheer laziness, if nothing else, I'm inclined to trust my tech and try the K&K, a pickup you must have been satisfied with for quite awhile, loosening input jack notwithstanding. If you see this before tomorrow and have an opinion based on the guitar I'm using, I'd be happy to hear your comment and would run it past my tech. Ok....peace/out as they/somebody says.
First off - Thank You for the A B C blind test. I think you had it dead on, had I known which was which, I may have gone K&K out of bias. The Journey was my "eyes closed" pick. I have been thinking of adding a pickup to my parlor guitar - my choice is now made - ordering a Journey. Cheers and again - Thank You
I just stumbled on a video comparing the Journey to a Baggs. The Journey won. Then I searched for a K&K comparison to the Journey and found yours and another. First, great job, second I picked A all the way through. I am surprised, but pleased. The Journey won in the other K&K comparison vid also.
I slightly preferred the K&K for clarity, but I think either could be EQed to sound good. Also, a blend with the mic is preferable...and I like to delay the pickup by 1-3ms (by ear) to time/phase align it with the mic; it really "opens up" the sound.
Actually I didn’t end up with any. I had a custom build and was thinking about having one installed but decided against it. I would very seldom use one But they are nice if you do. K&ks are good. Just giving you a hard time. Lol
The B+C kinda gives away which one is the mic. I couldn’t hear any significant difference between A and B until you started strumming, but A is more open and has more clarity. This was really helpful in deciding what system to get for my most recently acquired guitar.
Thanks for this comparison. To my ears, on a cheap bluetooth speaker I might add, the Journeytek sounded warmer and more natural. While the K&K was perhaps a bit brighter, and I could see what you said about it also being "quackier". These Journeytek pickups are killing it at that price especially!
Actually I’ve had 3 journeys installed in my acoustics even the guitar tech at the store I deal with said he preferred the sound to the K&K and at like 1/2 the price on Amazon. I thought it sounded great as I’ve had both K&K and the Journey tech installed in my acoustics, and I preferred it but I’m not sure I was being objective so he and you confirmed it for me. Thanks for the effort!
I have been using K&K pickups for a long time but noticed their price creeping up over the years, so I thought I'd look into alternatives to other bridge plate under saddle piezo solutions. Right off the bat listening on my iPhone, I liked A (Journey Instruments Piezo) over B (K&K) it seemed to handle the low frequencies better with less boominess. So I thought I better listen to this in my studio with my over-priced Dynaudio Core studio monitors. After I did this I liked the Journey Instruments Piezo even more, and the K&K even less. Don't go away, there's more to this - It doesn't mean the K&K sucks. Read on and I'll explain why. As a recording person for 30 years I know a little something about dealing in frequencies - and the bane of my existence is equalizing a good acoustic sound that doesn't take away the inherent natural sonic qualities an acoustic guitar has to offer. So for this demo/installation, for me the Journey Instruments Piezo wins. But... I have questions: 1. Were both pickups installed simultaneously in the same guitar with both pickups affixed to the same bridge plate at once? Were there a total of 6 piezo cells installed at once. 2. If so, I'm wondering if their placement location would affect the sound in as much as as each piezo cell flatters one location over the other? There is another thing to take note: Piezo crystals aren't always an exact and perfect science. Like a pizza from the same pizzeria, they don't always turn out the same even though the chef makes them using the same steps. Piezo crystals can be chemically pressed or organically grown and consequently they don't all produce the same voltage each and every time. This is not to say one manufacture is better than the other - because of the unpredictable piezo voltage outputs on any given batch of crystal they get from their source. However if the manufacturer carefully measures their piezo crystals and matches them accordingly the we can get more consistent results. So to conclude that the K&K is inferior doesn't mean the next batch won't yield different results. One more thing to consider; every guitar has unique characteristics and every pickup will respond accordingly. Sometimes one pick up will sound great in one guitar and not so great in another and vice versa. There is no magic bullet.
Very good video, fun and informative. I have a few guitars with under saddle piezo’s and onboard preamps. Do you think it’s possible to plug the Journey (that I liked best) into such a preamp? The sound might benefit plus you would have more control and a tuner.
I thought the journey sounded a bit smoother but either one sounded better than the common under saddle piezo. Merwins advice in another video to replace the journeys jack with a switchcraft is the way to go as journey use a cheap jack that wont last long.
I thought B had more white noise, i.e. was it higher self-noise floor which is a common issue with cheap mics?...so I thought that might be the clue. So was surprised B was the K&K. Notably, I also have a K&K in my #1 guitar, and have never observed any noise floor issues (I'm shopping for a second guitar today). So, I'm wondering if this could have been white noise sourced in the room resonating within the guitar body and the K&K was just sensitive enough to pick it up.
Hi from Spain, I thought your presentation was excellent. I had no idea which was which, I thought your fingerpicking style was great and made all three sound really good. I was tempted to replay and I think from a practical point of view playing live with vocals, "C" with just a mic. at the fretboard is not possible, but for recording I would always use two mic's. For playing live I thought "A" sounded as close to the natural sound of your fantastic guitar. I wonder if the 3 pickups on the Journey could be increased to 6 smaller ones precisely located, picking up the vibration of each individual string, and would that improve it further? Great and very professional video, John.
I was surprised to discover I preferred A and C in general, although B won in some samples. I have K&Ks in 2 acoustics (K. Yairi and Larrivee) and I'm pleased with both. I was literally in the process of installing JIs in a cheap Cort parlour (because they're much cheaper and get great reviews), and I stumbled on your video when I was looking to watch the installation video to be sure I did things right before putting glue on anything. Now I'm excited to hear the JIs for myself. Thanks for the excellent demo.
Just wanted to appreciate the effort you put into this video bro. It’s only someone with a true passion for good tone who would go to such lengths. Hope you continue doing this great service to the rest of us tonechasers. And great playing too! I was really surprised by the Journey. It definitely checks the value for money box. Unless you’re a professional studio musician, I feel the journey into an LR baggs para acoustic DI will have you sorted for long time for casual recording, playing in church or jamming with friends.
Very odd, I much preferred B on the fingerpicking part, but on the chords, clearly A was the better one (of the pickups). I'm having a K+K installed as we speak although it's in a much different guitar (Gibson J-185) so we shall see. Also given that these were all "naked" tests without processing, one could argue that if you put on the processing that one would put on at a gig, for each pickup, it might make it a closer call, like if you could compensate for each pickup's strengths and weaknesses. But I like the idea of just taking the starting point of each one and comparing apples to apples as much as you can. Anyway great test! I'd be interested to hear (if you still have both installed) a sort of "best of" test as well, where you record each one and just dial it up as you would and get the best sound out of it as you can, and compare the 2 end points. See which one has the best overall possible sound, as well as get an idea into how versatile each one is.
Man. Maybe I'm getting frequency twisted. After reading other replies, I really ramped it up heavily on the console I played this through again. Daaaannnggg. How ANYONE can't see/hear the far superior tonal balance in the K and K. And just add, all eight other musicians here in the studio also said, in near unison, when they heard A vs B said, I and K the instant they heard it. And that the K and K blew it away. And then if course LAUGHED !!!! Thanks for helping not waste $50 along with the time it would have taken to install the Journey, uninstall it, and install the K and K Pure mini. I'd have been better off with a Tonewood gadget. And they are JJUUUUNNNKKK.
I mostly preferred the Journey pickup, in one or two situations the K&K sounded nicer. I have the Journey in my main guitar but was surprised the K&K was so similar. I went for the Journey because they cost quite a bit less but had good reviews. I play in many different situations and most electric guitar amps can't cope with the high impedance of piezo so I built a little preamp using an LM071 single FET chip in a small pedal box plus volume control. Probably should have used an LM072 (twin FETs) and built stage two as a buffer but it works ok, mostly giving a clean, natural(ish) acoustic sound as long as the amp owner agrees to turn the gain down. Strangely some refuse or are very unwilling, they'll kindly offer to lend their spare amp but adjust the settings? That's just taking the p*ss. 😎
Been messing, making and using these for years now. Difference in sound is more due to the Journey's being 20mm transducers (picking up more lows) and the K&K being 15mm and possibly the coating. Assuming the same preamps were used. I use the JJB 20mm version on a 000 chopped of the piezo on the fake Fisman 301 mic preamp for the JJB and honestly its just an amazing sound but if i were to instal into a dread id definitely go the 15mm. Especially live if you need to tame some low end. All can be EQd anyhow. So here id go for the K&Ks and pull a bit if 1K honk. Get the JJB 15mm, theyre $50
Excellent comparison and especially since you're using the same guitar for all! I just bought a 2015 Martin hd28v and want to have a pickup installed in it. My thoughts on the A B and C. (Journeytek, k&k and mic) I like the mic best for all applications. For me, A is best for fingerpicking and B for strumming. I'm thinking after watching this excellent video that I will use a good mic. Can I use my Sure SM58 for my guitar until I get a good guitar mic?
Question: why was ‘pick scratch’ so much more noticeable with the K&K? It should be similar to the JourneyTek but it seemed more noticeable. Did I imagine that?
You pointed out the big disadvantage of all pickups that are fixed to the bridgeplate - but obviously you were not conscious about it: The k&k emphasizes one string, the journey another. The problem is: this depends on the exact position of the pickups - one mm can make the difference. By chance it could have been just the other way around, because you never have exact control where you put it. And with both pickups you get really into trouble if one of the pickups is more than 2 millimeters away from the spot where it should be.
I liked both at different times, my favourite was A and C together. For me though I am buying the Journeytek. For similar money to the K&K you can get the Journeytek and also their EPS001 active mic add on which hopefully will then make it better.
Today I installed the journeytek in my martin. It really pales in comparison with the LR Baggs M1active magnetic pickup that is also installed. But the only reason for the journeytek to be there is to run it into my IR pedal (magnetic pickups don't do well with IR's) and mix the IR sound with the LR Baggs. On their own I think all piezo's sound crappy, although the journeytek is less crappy then the K&K.
This is the right answer. The only acoustic pickup you should expect to find is the least crappy. They all sound like garbage. But, IRs change the game. The Journey is clearly darker, but that's not a huge problem. For half the price, it's an easy pick for an IR.
You don't mention it, but it sounds a little bit like you use K&K without preamp, which may cause the noise. Can you clarify? That may be important factor. JI is much less noisy - great! - but it also cut higher frequencies a little bit too much. It may be good in many situations, but not always. What is always a challenge with different mic/pickup comparison is that they always color the sound, and a lot of that can be neutralized/changed by EQ. Sometimes what sounds like a big difference can be EQ-ed to non-issue. That's said, I appreciate how well you did the comparison (blind test, the same guitar, etc.). Thank you!
They're all good, I don't know what to choose now. I play live most of the time and record in the studio at times. Please help me choose. Thanks and GOD bless.
If you play in a big full piece band (drums, electric guitar, keyboard,bass) and the acoustic is background and just needs to be percussion and cut then probably K&K. If you play solo and want the guitar to sound full and big and natural then probably Journey. Either way for recording use a microphone.
I’ve been contemplating putting a James May Ultra Tonic V3 in my D28. Suppose to counteract excessive feedback and clear out muddiness that k & k has. Journey is nicer than the pure mini. But I gravitated towards C the mic in basically all scenarios.
I use chinese transducers....4.00 or 5.00$ each....I've heard all them and the chinese sounds fine to me. You should compare them with the more expensive types. I do use a pre amp and a DOD EQ. The chinese brands emphasize the D string....sometimes I get a bit of a howl (just little) with it with just the EQ unit.....the preamp helps that problem. If you did a test between them it would be a great service. I've read that all the stick on transducers are made pretty much the same.
Well C wins strongly across the board here (clearly the mic). I definitely prefer A over B for fingerpicking, and with a pick I preferred B over A and even more so when palm muting. Kind of surprised I liked a piezo better than the K&K in one situation.
I like B best. More airy and woody natural. A sounds amplified and aggressive. I thought B was miked. Turned out C was miked which was a surprise. Perhaps it was the the position or the mike itself or both.
The K&K (B) has A LOT of white noise in the signal (3'35'') that the journey (A) has not. A is pretty much as quiet as the mic. For this very reason A is better than B. And compared to C both lose.
C had to be the mic! A and B both sound great and I think just slight eq changes. 4-chord progressions are copyrighted?! How?! Someone owns the rights to 1-5-6-4?
I noticed you were going more between A and B and not giving the same time to C so I’m not joining in, why do you have to plug into other things , it should be just into the amp so it’s not an accurate test?
Huh? I recognized the K and K IMMEDIATELY. ALL the Journey did was squawk. The K and K blew it AWAY in tonal balance. And trust me when I say I've the studio to listen in EXTREMELY high fidelity. I did like the mic quite well. I'm finicky about pickups and mics. All to say. I was considering trying a Journey for a brand new guitar I just bought. I appreciate the testing and video. But I kinda figured trying to save a few bucks and trying a Journey was a BAD idea. K and K, here I come again for the 12th time.
Journeytec sounded way better, I recently put one one a D28 and I can't believe how good it sounds for so little money, it's the closest to the actual guitar sound yet.
The K&K and Journey both sounded ok with fingerpicking. However, the Journey sounded much better to me when strumming. K&K sounds too compressed when strumming.
The K&K is a much higher quality product. The jack is a heavier higher quality and cables are solidly soldered. The cable is also longer and better quality. The Journey has much bigger diameter pickups surface and uses a cheap circuit board connections inside the jack and it also has a male plug from the cables to circuit board another weak point. It`s half the price and about half the quality. The larger size pickups of the Journey reflect the brighter sound difference between the two.
I tried to install the Journey Tek and Piezo`s were too large to even fit bridge plate on my Eastman OM Installed the K&K worked perfect. Don`t scrimp just but the K&K`s. They sound better anyway and the parts like jack quality is also very apparent.
K&K used to have a model with larger pickups, the K&K Pure Western. It's a shame they don't make it anymore. I've tried both the Pure Western and Pure Mini and the difference in sound quality is huge.
A and C together is the best. A is best by itself but a little muddy. B is really muddy. C is too boomy with a strange kind of scoop. Wouldn't use any of them live.
To me, A sounded much more piezo-like and B more like an acoustic. I was surprised since I'd heard rave reviews about the Journeytek. In this video at least, K&K definitely keeps the throne.
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
THIS is the best way to make comparisons!
Thanks for using the same guitar in the test 👍🏾
Perhaps the best comparison video l've seen anywhere. Was debating which one to get. Saw your video and ordered the Journey for my Guild. Thank you!
I also have the Journey and loving it! Sounds so natural!
Hey... Great review and comparison. I did pick out the order. The mic was immediately obvious. I can't tell you how helpful this video will be! thanks for uploading 🙂
I can't tell you how helpful this sonic comparison was. I've installed both and found the same thing. I immediately knew which one was which. But hearing you just play with quick comparisons was what "made the sale". Thanks for your effort!!!
Very well done! Thank you. I liked "A" best and assumed that it was the Pure Mini. I assumed that "B" was the Journey. I'm glad I got them backwards because I installed the Journey system in three of my guitars. I actually liked "A" more than the mic ("C").
Nah, A is muddy and has more of the piezo quack. K&K is much clearer and defined, especially strumming.
@@halfbakedmunky5566 Ha! You are a half-baked munky, so what do you know?
Thanks for taking the time to setup and record this test. About as unbiased as it can be. I also ended up preferring the Journey over the K&K, and I’ve been using K&K for a long time.
I know that guitars, pickups, and personal preference mixed together provide room for subjective evaluation, but this is reduces the variables to the human ear, so as objective as can be had.
My intent was to replace the K&K with the Journey on my Guild F40 Valencia. Ran into a problem that the luthier that installed the K&K used the incorrect glue and would be nearly impossible to remove. The cost for all the labor to remove and install didn’t seem worth it for the benefits.
So I replaced the Schatten HFN pickup in my Guild D30 with the Journey. The Journey was a noticeable improvement for warmth and balance. More true to guitar’s acoustic tone. I always had to use a LR Baggs Align EQ with the HFN, and with the Journey I only need to make a few tweaks on the PA channel EQ and sounds great. I sold the EQ pedal.
I also have a Journey travel guitar with the same pickups. One thing that I noticed is in both the Journey guitar and Guild D30 with the Journey pickups, the high E string isn’t as prominent as the other strings. I checked the D30 install and placement is spot on per Journey install guide.
I use the LR Baggs Align Session pedal to lightly compress the input, and that does the trick.
I also prefer the simplicity of passive pickups for gigging and the Journey is all I need for solid live performance sound.
I was somewhat skeptical because the Journey is half the price of K&K and a third the price of the Schatten. I’ve been using it for around 4 months now an has worked wonderfully.
Thanks again!!
FANTASTIC comparison - this takes a lot of work to install the same pickup on the same guitar to do a comp. We appreciate it! Funny enough, I liked the K&K a lot better. However, I'm listening on proper speakers with balanced bass response so maybe I'm hearing more than others.
thanks a lot for this! I've been mulling over which one to get for months. I REALLY didn't want to go cheap on the journey incase I regretted it
Thanks for a great comparison!
Thanks for an great comparison!!! When listening to A first, I found it great. Then listening to B, it sounds kind of the same but with more HF. Then C is very full frequency with room ambiance - it's clearly the most authentic. Listing more to compare A and B, it became very clear to my ears that B is actually significantly fuller in the frequency range. So C first (best), B second, and A third.
Great review/test, thank you. My personal preference was C, just the mic, although A and C together was nice too.
It was between B and C depending on what you were doing. I was planning on putting in a K&K tomorrow on my guitar, based on the recommendation of a tech I respect. I guess (minutia?) the guitar will influence all this too. I'm installing on a Martin 000-18 modern deluxe, which already is a bright sounding thing. I noticed a resonant drone sound most apparent post-attack on the strings with A and B which was almost non-existent with C. I would attribute that to a sort of intrinsic feedback but I don't know, I'm just sure about what I heard. There are vast options on pickups and the whole thing is confusing. I don't mind the inherent distortions of a certain pickup, LR Baggs or Fishman etc. as long as I like the sound of that distortion, but I have neither the time nor inclination to test a hundred pickups. I intend to play with the sound, and am not always going to want the sound of a "perfectly" replicated acoustic just made louder. Maybe I will like some reverb or delay etc. Think of what Mike Dawes does with his acoustic...it's amazing. Anyway, thank you for this thought provoking demo. Out of sheer laziness, if nothing else, I'm inclined to trust my tech and try the K&K, a pickup you must have been satisfied with for quite awhile, loosening input jack notwithstanding. If you see this before tomorrow and have an opinion based on the guitar I'm using, I'd be happy to hear
your comment and would run it past my tech. Ok....peace/out as they/somebody says.
This is a very helpful comparison. I'd like to hear these pickups compared against a) a decent undersaddle piezo and b) a decent magnetic pickup.
Hey brother, how were both your pickups installed? What solution was used for them to be attached internally?
Yeah, same question. Having installed a few of these, it doesn't seem at all possible that they are both installed optimally at the same time.
at the end he said his k&k had a jack issue im guessing he replaced to the journeytek
First off - Thank You for the A B C blind test. I think you had it dead on, had I known which was which, I may have gone K&K out of bias.
The Journey was my "eyes closed" pick. I have been thinking of adding a pickup to my parlor guitar - my choice is now made - ordering a Journey.
Cheers and again - Thank You
I just stumbled on a video comparing the Journey to a Baggs. The Journey won. Then I searched for a K&K comparison to the Journey and found yours and another. First, great job, second I picked A all the way through. I am surprised, but pleased. The Journey won in the other K&K comparison vid also.
I liked the more articulate sound of the K&K. The Journey sounded more like an under saddle pickup to my ear.
Totally agree B for me. Prob best is B and some C
Exactly
ayyyyyy your back
thats pretty neat
Edit: after watching the I like the journey better. the K&K sounds less natural
I slightly preferred the K&K for clarity, but I think either could be EQed to sound good.
Also, a blend with the mic is preferable...and I like to delay the pickup by 1-3ms (by ear) to time/phase align it with the mic; it really "opens up" the sound.
I like the Journey. I was going for the K&K until I started watching and listening to videos. Thanks for the review.
You should get your ears checked😂😂😂😂
Did you happen to read the other comments. Maybe your ears need checking. 🤣😂🤪
@@luvbgrass the fact you didn’t end up with the k&k is crazy.
Actually I didn’t end up with any. I had a custom build and was thinking about having one installed but decided against it. I would very seldom use one But they are nice if you do. K&ks are good. Just giving you a hard time. Lol
C sounded the best to me... seemed like it had more presence and captured the moment!
Great video, very helpful. Could a preamp make A sound closer to C?
The B+C kinda gives away which one is the mic. I couldn’t hear any significant difference between A and B until you started strumming, but A is more open and has more clarity.
This was really helpful in deciding what system to get for my most recently acquired guitar.
Thanks for this comparison. To my ears, on a cheap bluetooth speaker I might add, the Journeytek sounded warmer and more natural. While the K&K was perhaps a bit brighter, and I could see what you said about it also being "quackier". These Journeytek pickups are killing it at that price especially!
Actually I’ve had 3 journeys installed in my acoustics even the guitar tech at the store I deal with said he preferred the sound to the K&K and at like 1/2 the price on Amazon. I thought it sounded great as I’ve had both K&K and the Journey tech installed in my acoustics, and I preferred it but I’m not sure I was being objective so he and you confirmed it for me. Thanks for the effort!
God bless you for stopping by with this comment, and may your entire family prosper in every aspect
I have been using K&K pickups for a long time but noticed their price creeping up over the years, so I thought I'd look into alternatives to other bridge plate under saddle piezo solutions.
Right off the bat listening on my iPhone, I liked A (Journey Instruments Piezo) over B (K&K) it seemed to handle the low frequencies better with less boominess. So I thought I better listen to this in my studio with my over-priced Dynaudio Core studio monitors. After I did this I liked the Journey Instruments Piezo even more, and the K&K even less. Don't go away, there's more to this - It doesn't mean the K&K sucks. Read on and I'll explain why.
As a recording person for 30 years I know a little something about dealing in frequencies - and the bane of my existence is equalizing a good acoustic sound that doesn't take away the inherent natural sonic qualities an acoustic guitar has to offer. So for this demo/installation, for me the Journey Instruments Piezo wins. But...
I have questions:
1. Were both pickups installed simultaneously in the same guitar with both pickups affixed to the same bridge plate at once? Were there a total of 6 piezo cells installed at once.
2. If so, I'm wondering if their placement location would affect the sound in as much as as each piezo cell flatters one location over the other?
There is another thing to take note:
Piezo crystals aren't always an exact and perfect science. Like a pizza from the same pizzeria, they don't always turn out the same even though the chef makes them using the same steps. Piezo crystals can be chemically pressed or organically grown and consequently they don't all produce the same voltage each and every time. This is not to say one manufacture is better than the other - because of the unpredictable piezo voltage outputs on any given batch of crystal they get from their source. However if the manufacturer carefully measures their piezo crystals and matches them accordingly the we can get more consistent results. So to conclude that the K&K is inferior doesn't mean the next batch won't yield different results.
One more thing to consider; every guitar has unique characteristics and every pickup will respond accordingly. Sometimes one pick up will sound great in one guitar and not so great in another and vice versa. There is no magic bullet.
(A), nice playing, great demo.
Good work. Thank you
Very good video, fun and informative. I have a few guitars with under saddle piezo’s and onboard preamps. Do you think it’s possible to plug the Journey (that I liked best) into such a preamp? The sound might benefit plus you would have more control and a tuner.
I thought the journey sounded a bit smoother but either one sounded better than the common under saddle piezo. Merwins advice in another video to replace the journeys jack with a switchcraft is the way to go as journey use a cheap jack that wont last long.
Great video.
Great video. I bought the journey to save a couple of bucks, and I will eq the hell out of my sound if needed. Thanks again!
I thought B had more white noise, i.e. was it higher self-noise floor which is a common issue with cheap mics?...so I thought that might be the clue. So was surprised B was the K&K. Notably, I also have a K&K in my #1 guitar, and have never observed any noise floor issues (I'm shopping for a second guitar today). So, I'm wondering if this could have been white noise sourced in the room resonating within the guitar body and the K&K was just sensitive enough to pick it up.
How has the Journey Tek and the K and K held up after all these years? Any updates?
Hi from Spain, I thought your presentation was excellent. I had no idea which was which, I thought your fingerpicking style was great and made all three sound really good. I was tempted to replay and I think from a practical point of view playing live with vocals, "C" with just a mic. at the fretboard is not possible, but for recording I would always use two mic's. For playing live I thought "A" sounded as close to the natural sound of your fantastic guitar. I wonder if the 3 pickups on the Journey could be increased to 6 smaller ones precisely located, picking up the vibration of each individual string, and would that improve it further? Great and very professional video, John.
Excellet video!
I was surprised to discover I preferred A and C in general, although B won in some samples. I have K&Ks in 2 acoustics (K. Yairi and Larrivee) and I'm pleased with both. I was literally in the process of installing JIs in a cheap Cort parlour (because they're much cheaper and get great reviews), and I stumbled on your video when I was looking to watch the installation video to be sure I did things right before putting glue on anything. Now I'm excited to hear the JIs for myself. Thanks for the excellent demo.
Of course, I like the mic best. Of the two pickups I preferred the Journey.
Just wanted to appreciate the effort you put into this video bro. It’s only someone with a true passion for good tone who would go to such lengths. Hope you continue doing this great service to the rest of us tonechasers. And great playing too! I was really surprised by the Journey. It definitely checks the value for money box. Unless you’re a professional studio musician, I feel the journey into an LR baggs para acoustic DI will have you sorted for long time for casual recording, playing in church or jamming with friends.
Very odd, I much preferred B on the fingerpicking part, but on the chords, clearly A was the better one (of the pickups). I'm having a K+K installed as we speak although it's in a much different guitar (Gibson J-185) so we shall see. Also given that these were all "naked" tests without processing, one could argue that if you put on the processing that one would put on at a gig, for each pickup, it might make it a closer call, like if you could compensate for each pickup's strengths and weaknesses. But I like the idea of just taking the starting point of each one and comparing apples to apples as much as you can.
Anyway great test! I'd be interested to hear (if you still have both installed) a sort of "best of" test as well, where you record each one and just dial it up as you would and get the best sound out of it as you can, and compare the 2 end points. See which one has the best overall possible sound, as well as get an idea into how versatile each one is.
Man. Maybe I'm getting frequency twisted. After reading other replies, I really ramped it up heavily on the console I played this through again. Daaaannnggg. How ANYONE can't see/hear the far superior tonal balance in the K and K. And just add, all eight other musicians here in the studio also said, in near unison, when they heard A vs B said, I and K the instant they heard it. And that the K and K blew it away.
And then if course LAUGHED !!!!
Thanks for helping not waste $50 along with the time it would have taken to install the Journey, uninstall it, and install the K and K Pure mini.
I'd have been better off with a Tonewood gadget. And they are JJUUUUNNNKKK.
Great compare, thanks! I found the Journey Tek more natural sounding also, and for half price is a no brainer...
I mostly preferred the Journey pickup, in one or two situations the K&K sounded nicer. I have the Journey in my main guitar but was surprised the K&K was so similar. I went for the Journey because they cost quite a bit less but had good reviews.
I play in many different situations and most electric guitar amps can't cope with the high impedance of piezo so I built a little preamp using an LM071 single FET chip in a small pedal box plus volume control. Probably should have used an LM072 (twin FETs) and built stage two as a buffer but it works ok, mostly giving a clean, natural(ish) acoustic sound as long as the amp owner agrees to turn the gain down. Strangely some refuse or are very unwilling, they'll kindly offer to lend their spare amp but adjust the settings? That's just taking the p*ss. 😎
Merci pour la Vidéo .😁
Been messing, making and using these for years now. Difference in sound is more due to the Journey's being 20mm transducers (picking up more lows) and the K&K being 15mm and possibly the coating. Assuming the same preamps were used. I use the JJB 20mm version on a 000 chopped of the piezo on the fake Fisman 301 mic preamp for the JJB and honestly its just an amazing sound but if i were to instal into a dread id definitely go the 15mm. Especially live if you need to tame some low end. All can be EQd anyhow. So here id go for the K&Ks and pull a bit if 1K honk. Get the JJB 15mm, theyre $50
Are you using the k&k with pre amp or just the simple version?
Nice playing.
nice job !
Thanks buddy
Excellent comparison and especially since you're using the same guitar for all! I just bought a 2015 Martin hd28v and want to have a pickup installed in it. My thoughts on the A B and C. (Journeytek, k&k and mic)
I like the mic best for all applications. For me, A is best for fingerpicking and B for strumming. I'm thinking after watching this excellent video that I will use a good mic. Can I use my Sure SM58 for my guitar until I get a good guitar mic?
Question: why was ‘pick scratch’ so much more noticeable with the K&K? It should be similar to the JourneyTek but it seemed more noticeable. Did I imagine that?
As an add on he said they were going to start carrying the Journey Tech so there you go👍
Nice review, just have a question, do these pick ups pick up random sounds from the body when you tap on it?
Yeah they do. But all acoustic pickups do that.
The best acoustic guitar amplification system is the k&k pure mini or the k&k western both has a sound similar to a microphone
You pointed out the big disadvantage of all pickups that are fixed to the bridgeplate - but obviously you were not conscious about it: The k&k emphasizes one string, the journey another. The problem is: this depends on the exact position of the pickups - one mm can make the difference. By chance it could have been just the other way around, because you never have exact control where you put it. And with both pickups you get really into trouble if one of the pickups is more than 2 millimeters away from the spot where it should be.
Epic video a thorough test and really well done. Prefer A .and C combined. Then C A B. How would a Seymour Woody compare I wonder. Thanks Tom UK
I liked both at different times, my favourite was A and C together. For me though I am buying the Journeytek. For similar money to the K&K you can get the Journeytek and also their EPS001 active mic add on which hopefully will then make it better.
great idea
Today I installed the journeytek in my martin. It really pales in comparison with the LR Baggs M1active magnetic pickup that is also installed. But the only reason for the journeytek to be there is to run it into my IR pedal (magnetic pickups don't do well with IR's) and mix the IR sound with the LR Baggs. On their own I think all piezo's sound crappy, although the journeytek is less crappy then the K&K.
This is the right answer. The only acoustic pickup you should expect to find is the least crappy. They all sound like garbage. But, IRs change the game. The Journey is clearly darker, but that's not a huge problem. For half the price, it's an easy pick for an IR.
You don't mention it, but it sounds a little bit like you use K&K without preamp, which may cause the noise. Can you clarify? That may be important factor. JI is much less noisy - great! - but it also cut higher frequencies a little bit too much. It may be good in many situations, but not always.
What is always a challenge with different mic/pickup comparison is that they always color the sound, and a lot of that can be neutralized/changed by EQ. Sometimes what sounds like a big difference can be EQ-ed to non-issue.
That's said, I appreciate how well you did the comparison (blind test, the same guitar, etc.). Thank you!
Both Pickups are plugged into a Red-Eye Twin by Fire Eye. It is specifically for passive piezo pickups.
They're all good, I don't know what to choose now. I play live most of the time and record in the studio at times. Please help me choose. Thanks and GOD bless.
If you play in a big full piece band (drums, electric guitar, keyboard,bass) and the acoustic is background and just needs to be percussion and cut then probably K&K. If you play solo and want the guitar to sound full and big and natural then probably Journey. Either way for recording use a microphone.
Could not hear the difference using my iPad kind of like looking at paintings in the dark
I’ve been contemplating putting a James May Ultra Tonic V3 in my D28. Suppose to counteract excessive feedback and clear out muddiness that k & k has. Journey is nicer than the pure mini. But I gravitated towards C the mic in basically all scenarios.
I use chinese transducers....4.00 or 5.00$ each....I've heard all them and the chinese sounds fine to me. You should compare them with the more expensive types. I do use a pre amp and a DOD EQ. The chinese brands emphasize the D string....sometimes I get a bit of a howl (just little) with it with just the EQ unit.....the preamp helps that problem.
If you did a test between them it would be a great service. I've read that all the stick on transducers are made pretty much the same.
Well C wins strongly across the board here (clearly the mic). I definitely prefer A over B for fingerpicking, and with a pick I preferred B over A and even more so when palm muting. Kind of surprised I liked a piezo better than the K&K in one situation.
prefer B the balance and clarity is better
I like B best. More airy and woody natural. A sounds amplified and aggressive. I thought B was miked. Turned out C was miked which was a surprise. Perhaps it was the the position or the mike itself or both.
Thanks, this video made me realise that althought the journey sounds better, it still sounds like piezo when strumming. Not for me.
To me the K&K sounded more like the mic...and much better than the Journey.
I liked best the combination of b and c. And with a better mike this would have been more obvious.
A for me, seemed more open, fuller, like a full range speaker, hard to put in words.
One of these... An impulse response pedal as an acoustic amp... I think the journeytek is actually a little better and it's cheaper
Glad it was A will save a few bucks 😅
One might be much improved with a little eq. Not hearing each it at it's best defeats the main purpose
The K&K (B) has A LOT of white noise in the signal (3'35'') that the journey (A) has not. A is pretty much as quiet as the mic. For this very reason A is better than B. And compared to C both lose.
A for me. B sounds quacky . But still personal preference.. Depends on what type of player u are. Cheers! 🥂
C had to be the mic! A and B both sound great and I think just slight eq changes. 4-chord progressions are copyrighted?! How?! Someone owns the rights to 1-5-6-4?
The one chord progression just kept getting flagged, I don't know why.
I noticed you were going more between A and B and not giving the same time to C so I’m not joining in, why do you have to plug into other things , it should be just into the amp so it’s not an accurate test?
Huh? I recognized the K and K IMMEDIATELY.
ALL the Journey did was squawk. The K and K blew it AWAY in tonal balance. And trust me when I say I've the studio to listen in EXTREMELY high fidelity. I did like the mic quite well. I'm finicky about pickups and mics.
All to say. I was considering trying a Journey for a brand new guitar I just bought. I appreciate the testing and video. But I kinda figured trying to save a few bucks and trying a Journey was a BAD idea.
K and K, here I come again for the 12th time.
The C best of course,then B👍🏻 the A was a bit dull I think.
Damn, I only liked C. Back to the drawing board. Thanks.
Journeytec sounded way better, I recently put one one a D28 and I can't believe how good it sounds for so little money, it's the closest to the actual guitar sound yet.
The K&K and Journey both sounded ok with fingerpicking. However, the Journey sounded much better to me when strumming. K&K sounds too compressed when strumming.
The K&K is a much higher quality product. The jack is a heavier higher quality and cables are solidly soldered. The cable is also longer and better quality. The Journey has much bigger diameter pickups surface and uses a cheap circuit board connections inside the jack and it also has a male plug from the cables to circuit board another weak point. It`s half the price and about half the quality. The larger size pickups of the Journey reflect the brighter sound difference between the two.
I tried to install the Journey Tek and Piezo`s were too large to even fit bridge plate on my Eastman OM Installed the K&K worked perfect. Don`t scrimp just but the K&K`s. They sound better anyway and the parts like jack quality is also very apparent.
K&K used to have a model with larger pickups, the K&K Pure Western. It's a shame they don't make it anymore. I've tried both the Pure Western and Pure Mini and the difference in sound quality is huge.
A and C together is the best. A is best by itself but a little muddy. B is really muddy. C is too boomy with a strange kind of scoop. Wouldn't use any of them live.
A 🙂✔️🏆👍🗳️
🤘🤘🤘✌️✌️🤘🤘🤟
To me, A sounded much more piezo-like and B more like an acoustic. I was surprised since I'd heard rave reviews about the Journeytek.
In this video at least, K&K definitely keeps the throne.
Quack quack....go ahead and buy from the purveyor, but know that piezos are crap.
Why can’t you just plug it into an amp
░p░r░o░m░o░s░m░ 😣
K&K sounds better to me