Fishman Prefix Premium blend or K&K pickup+mic system?

[The Rocket]

I'm looking for a good acoustic pickup + mic system for my guitar. I kind of narrowed it to either the Fishman Prefix Premium Blend or the K&K system...I like the stereo thing with the Fishman...

I'd like to know what are your experiences with these two systems and if anyone compared them.

I have a Fishman Prefix Onboard Blender (mono) stock in my Taylor, but I've been intrigued by the new Prefix stereo upgrade and I'm curious about the K&K pickup+mic system (Trinity mini Western?)...

please chime in! Thanks.

[The Rocket]

Anyone compared the two systems?

[royd]

what kind of music/settings will you be playing?

If a stereo output is the only thing drawing you to the Fishman, the K&K can have a stereo output if you go with an external pre-amp.

[The Rocket]

Hi royd,
thanks for the input...I will use the system in a acoustic trio (only vocals and 2 guitars...occasionally with a band).
My idea was to have a stereo output from the guitar or preamp...then run the pickup signal to the mixer and the monitors but the mic signal only to the PA (not monitors) in order to avoid feedbacks...

The other gtr player uses with good results a Fishman Premium Stereo Blend in this configuration...no feedback problems at all....so I was intrigued by the K&K Trinity because maybe it is better sounding than the Fishman Premium (which by the way is very expensive...)

what would you suggest?

[The Rocket]

Anyone tried to hook the K&K Pure Mini pickups to a Fishman Prefix sidemounted preamp? Does it work?

[Beagle1]

Anyone tried to hook the K&K Pure Mini pickups to a Fishman Prefix sidemounted preamp? Does it work?

You should do a search for this over on the Acoustic Guitar forum. I remember a while back this question came up and someone had successfully rewired their Fishman barndoor preamp to accept the input from a K&K Pure instead of the crappy Fishman undersaddle. You might also ask Dieter at K&K about this as I believe it does work, if done properly.

There are some other options for replacing the Fishman barndoor system in your Taylor. For one, Taylor will replace the Fishman with one of their ES pickup systems...it's not cheap, and you have to send your guitar to Taylor. Also, LR Baggs makes an iMix system (Element UST + iBeam) that is a direct replacement for the Fishman Prefix. B-Band used to make a similar system called the A10...not sure if they still make it. But either the Baggs or the B-Band would be an improvement over the Fishman. One final option would be Fishman's new Aura OnBoard system which can replace older Prefix barndoor systems.

[The Rocket]

Thanks for the help!

[in a little row]

Anyone tried to hook the K&K Pure Mini pickups to a Fishman Prefix sidemounted preamp? Does it work?

i have done this, but it sounds rather unbalanced...impedance issue i gather...ive also matched a K&K with the stereo jack on the fishman matrix pickup, which worked but was hard to get a good blend (the K&K sounds great but feeds back at stage volume when matched to the fishman)

also, its subjective, but i dont agree that the baggs or bband are an improvement over fishman...they are all different animals, and use different elements...having tried almost everything out there for acoustic, i find fishman is consistently solid and the number of pros using fishman products speaks for itself...