Pure Classic

The Pure Classic is a transducer systems only. No battery, no onboard electronic, just the pure pickups. Don't be fooled by the sound of some competitors' "thin sounding" passive systems. The Pure Systems are definitely different. They sound full and rich and have sufficient output to drive most amps and PA systems directly!

Pure Classic - passive system for classic guitar, four pickup heads, endpin jack

This pickup system is designed to be installed with superglue for optimum sound transmission. For the players who do not wish to do this we also supply a special extra thin double stick tape for peel-and-stick mount. Pickups mounted with this tape require a preamp. The peel-and-stick mount cuts off a little bit at both the low and high end plus the output is reduced by about 30% compared to the superglue installation.

Advantages of the Pure Guitar System: The special Pure surface transducers transmit a significant portion of the soundboard because they are not as close to the strings as an under-saddle pickup. Each of the 3 or 4 transducers is designed to pick up a specific string pair, but also "listens" to the adjacent area around the bridge. The Pure pickups are not under pressure and therefore do NOT sound percussive or harsh. The Pure System reproduces all strings nicely balanced, a known problem with under-saddle pickups. The Pure System sounds great just in passive mode! Unlike under-saddle pickups which passively sound thin and trebled-only, the passive PURE system puts out a nicely balanced, warm, full range signal.

How safe is the Pure System with feedback? Due to the Pure System's location on the bridge plate under the bridge, feedback resistance is comparable to under-saddle transducers. Technically, a pickup installed in or on the bridge is a lot less likely to feedback than one which is attached to the open sound board. The 1/8" thin sound board can act like a diaphragm and vibrate along with loud sound-signals from speaker cabinets. This is the kind of feedback you experience on an acoustic guitar. The thicker bridge area is a lot harder to be set into vibration from an outside source simply because of its mass. In our tests with both, steel string and classic guitars equipped with an under-saddle pickup plus the Pure System, we were able to achieve about the same gain-before-feedback with both systems.

Disadvantages of Under-Saddle Pickups:

• Hard, percussive tone, because it is under high pressure.
• Picks up mostly strings and hardly any sound from the soundboard.
• Chance of unbalanced individual string-loudness can result in work-intensive balancing procedure.
• Needs special preamp to compensate for the hard sound.

All K&K guitar pickups are now available with the "Vintage Jack." Fits any starndard 1/4 inch endpin hole, no drilling required. The Vintage Jack will add $80 (not discountable) to the pickup price. Please CALL to special-order a Vintage Jack pickup system.

Read what our satisfied customers have to say about this product.

Pure Classic Manual (53 KB)