Fitting a K&K mini to an acoustic - now fitted, with a couple of questions

TheOtherDennis

Finally got around to starting to fit a K&K mini pick up for the Levinson 12 string and I'm having the inevitable trouble with it.

All I really need to know is how to get the jack through the hole I've drilled for it. My arm is too thick to reach down through the soundhole, and while the instructions suggest using something like a chop stick to guide the jeck pin down through the end hole either I'm doing it wrong (the usual answer) or it's supposed to be a colossal pita.

I've checked a couple of youtube vids, but they always seem to pass over that bit (or, as ever, I'm looking at the wrong ones).

Does anyone have any advice?

SteveRobinson

I have the shaft part of a jack plug soldered to a length of braided cable.

 I push it in through the end hole and out of the sound hole. Plug it in the jack and pull it out through the end hole, drawing the jack with it. 

You may need to repeat a few times to get the exposed length of thread correct.

ICBM

Run a length of strong thread into the guitar through the endpin hole from the outside (stand the guitar on its headstock and feed it in).

Tie this through one of the small holes in the threaded end of the jack (these are for putting a crossbar into while tightening the jack nut).

Put the chopstick into the endpin hole and get the jack onto the end of it. Pull the thread tight.

Carefully pull the chopstick and the thread back out through the hole at the same time.


If this fails, employ the services of a child .

I also have a tool like Steve made, but I've employed the child in the past for a really tricky one!

TheOtherDennis

Sigh. I just knew it would be something blindingly obvious. The thread thing is a technique I've employed for other things myself in the past - how I could be so thick as to not spot it for myself I don't know.

I'll try the soldering one if the thread doesn't work.

Thank you gentlemen.

TheOtherDennis

The string theory worked, thanks. So does the amp, though mine is the one without a volume control so I have to crank the amp a bit to hear the amp above the guitar.

However, two questions.

First, inevitably it didn't go completely smoothly. I only noticed afterwards  that I managed to get some superglue (used as recommended by K&K) on the edge of the sound hole. It makes no difference to the sound, obviously, but it is a visible crinkly blob, about an inch or so long. Is there anything I can use to safely get rid of it?

And second, I don't have a dedicated acoustic amp - do I really, really need one for pub gigs, or will my old Fender Princetone (not the valve one, the solid state one) do?

ICBM

TheOtherDennis said:

First, inevitably it didn't go completely smoothly. I only noticed afterwards  that I managed to get some superglue (used as recommended by K&K) on the edge of the sound hole. It makes no difference to the sound, obviously, but it is a visible crinkly blob, about an inch or so long. Is there anything I can use to safely get rid of it?

Solvents can be risky because they can attack the finish as much as the superglue.

What I would probably do is mask around it fairly closely, sand it down until it's almost gone, take the last bit off with wire wool and then polish it up with T-cut.

TheOtherDennis said:

And second, I don't have a dedicated acoustic amp - do I really, really need one for pub gigs, or will my old Fender Princetone (not the valve one, the solid state one) do?

Yes, it will do. It won't sound great, but if you turn up the treble and keep the bass below half it will work. Or possibly try the drive channel with the gain very low - if you can keep it clean, the EQ is more flexible and might help to get it sounding good.

Kurt Cobain used a Fender Twin for his acoustic on Live In New York…

Strangely a Boss AC-2 (the older one, not the newer AC-3 I am reliably informed!) 'Acoustic Simulator' pedal actually works quite well as an acoustic guitar preamp into an electric amp.

TheOtherDennis

Ta for that.