K&K Pure Mini (Pure Western Mini)

OK - so this was a chance I decided to take on my Fylde Bouzouki.
The bouzouki in question had a passive under-saddle piezo pickup that made the instrument sound hollow and horrible. The Fishman Aura mitigated the problem somewhat, but not enough by a long shot.
So I opted for this 3-head passive pickup - even though I knew it was going to be difficult - the hole is very small and the brace is right next to the bridge.
In the end I got it installed at home. It was tricky and it had to be done with care and patience - especially since I was using superglue. It's important to remember that this is a 3-head pickup - and there are 4 sets of paired strings - my setup: one each under the high and low strings, one between the 4 middle strings.
The result was immediate in comparison to the previous under saddle piezo. Firstly and most importantly, it sounded far more natural and louder - no longer hollow. Despite this bigger sound, feedback was enormously reduced, which was really surprising. The 3-head pickup is plenty enough for bouzouki, by the way - 4 would have been more difficult (maybe impossible) to fit.
In the case of the Fylde bouzouki I would recommend the pickup if you have either a good luthier or very small and steady hands (a cheap C-clamp might help too).

By far the best pickup for an amplified acoustic sound I've experienced. The guitar sounds truly acoustic, but amplified - it is a basic task for all pickups, but the ones I've had in the past, transducers and USTs, always sound 'electric' and/or imbalanced.

I replaced a Highlander UST pickup in my Sobell Steinbeck guitar, the preferred pickup of the guitarist Martin Simpson, with the K and K Pure Mini. The Highlander unfortunately had to be balanced every time I changed the strings and was a bit unpredictable sound-wise (perhaps not always the case for other users) - something I couldn't take the risk on playing live. Sometimes the trebles and basses were hugely different regarding volume. This could be resolved, but it happened regularly. The K and K Pure Mini is predictable and always reliable - once fitted it will always sound the same.

It was simple to install. One change I made to fixing the transducers was to use superglue rather than double sided tape (a trick used by a top luthier). Once the instructions were followed, it was a straightforward installation.

Given the relatively cheap price-point, the pickup is incredible value for what it is - even if it were twice the price it would be good value. I would recommend it to anyone wanting a truly acoustic amplified sound.

I totally love my LR Baggs anthem pickup, but I find myself changing out batteries more often than necessary just to prevent mishaps during a performance. That is why I bought this passive pickup for my second acoustic. Installation was pretty straightforward, but it did take me some time to get done; I wanted to get the positioning of the heads spot on - which I think I did.

The sound is much fuller (i.e. less of that top end sizzle) than a standard under-saddle piezo ribbon, and it comes pretty close to the LR Baggs in that respect. Unlike my LR Baggs, there is no microphone which actually cuts down on feedback, although you do lose out on a bit more 'ambience' in the sound. All in all a really great acoustic pickup that I'd recommend over the LR Baggs to anyone playing in a fairly loud band setting. At softer stage volumes I do prefer my Anthem though - so it really depends on what you want out of a pickup. I highly recommend the K&K!

Update, I now have these pickups on both my guitars and using a Fishman Platinum preamp with a swept EQ to tune out any odd resonance I'm really happy with the sound so I've upgraded this to 5 star.

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.