K&K Tri-Star

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Chris Lounsbury
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K&K Tri-Star

Post by Chris Lounsbury »

Has anyone tried one of these preamps with the pure pickup? It includes level controls for each of the three pickup elements and low frequency rolloff; some for the D-G element and more for the B-E element. Does this provide a significant improvement over their basic system?
Chris Lounsbury
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Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2012 12:37 pm
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Re: K&K Tri-Star

Post by Chris Lounsbury »

I'll try bumping this once - has nobody used this yet?
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Greg Robinson
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Re: K&K Tri-Star

Post by Greg Robinson »

Hi Chris,
No, sorry, I don't have any personal experience with this preamp, but the K&K Mini is designed to be used with a 1Meg input impedance (which is standard for most amplifiers), so the preamp would make it more flexible, allowing you to use it with lower input impedance equipment like mixing desks, or using it with long cables without effecting the frequency response. It would also be easier to balance eq with a product designed specifically for the pickup elements.

To sum up, the K&K Mini works very, very well for a passive pickup system, but there are benefits to using an internal preamp.
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David King
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Re: K&K Tri-Star

Post by David King »

RMC also uses tuned (low rolloff) inputs for the individual saddles and I've found that to be an effective way to reduce the subsonic thumping I get with most piezo saddle systems without affecting the fundamentals of the low strings. If the cost is affordable I'd say it's worth a try.
Chris Lounsbury
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Re: K&K Tri-Star

Post by Chris Lounsbury »

Thank you Greg and David for your replies.

I think my original question did not really get to the heart of what I want to know... K&K offer some different preamps and in particular I am considering either their pre-phase or tristar pro. The pre-phase offers master volume and phase switching. The tristar pro takes these two features and, with an additional circuit board adds level controls for each of the three elements (with bass rolloff for the D-G and B-E sensors) and also 3-band eq for the overall output.

The additional cost of the tristar pro over the pre-phase is not insignificant at $140 and so I hoped to find someone who would share their experience with it.
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