GK-3 & Acoustic Guitar?

Started by chamav, April 15, 2008, 01:12:04 AM

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BDH

Quote from:  paults on April 13, 2011, 07:59:00 AM
If you do a forum search for "Ovation", you'll see my previous posts, including a link to a Recording using the Reso model.
Thanks Paul, I listened your songs. Pretty good stuff I enjoyed it.
Brian

Zummooz

Quote from:  gumtown on April 12, 2011, 09:51:13 PM
No-one's setup could be worse than what i tried..
Oh Yeah gumtown.....what about this one  :o

How about this hand built acoustic, hand made in the 1950's by my very late grandfather.

Just having a little trouble getting everything set-up correctly thou  :P    Ha Ha Ha Ha......

Still awaiting for my GR-55
But seriously, I've got a spare GK-3 that I'm about to toss on a Takamine elc/aco which the electric part never
wants to work properly anyway. Just tossed in a Seymour Duncan SA-1 pickup into it so can at least record it now.
So why not, toss a GK-3 on it. Might as well I say !

Cheers......... nothing like a good'ol hard laugh.  ;D ;D ;D

The  Fact  Is......"We  are  all  tactile  creatures  &  physical  interaction  has  always  been  a  big  part  of  making  music"

ddlooping

Diaz Guitars (work in progress)

midiman

I think you may need to raise the action a little  ;D

cptncatholic

#29
I finally got to play with my GR-55 today. I installed the GK-3 on my Alvarez acoustic using the sticky tape. And got to play with it a little bit.

A couple concerns I have are:
1. The Low E string - this one seems to be tracking the worst and I think it has to do with distance from the pickup. Not sure how to adjust that without shaving down the saddle a little or putting a spacer underneath that side of the pickup. Any thoughts?

Edit: Let me work through page 10 of the manual before anyone responds to this. ;)

2. The guitar case. The GK-3 makes it a tight squeeze inside the case. I'm wondering if I need to get a new case so that I don't put too much pressure on the guitar.

Beirne

I use some 3m putty...the kind you use to stick things to a wall or keep knicknacks from falling offof a shelf.
Easy to adjust the pickup height too , holds really well and comes off without hurting the finish.
www.intangiblesny.com
www.facebook.com/intangiblesband

gumtown

You may have noticed the GK-3 pickup has a tiny adjustment screw right in the middle to set the curvature of the pickup poles.
You should be able to flatten it out at bit.
Free "GR-55 FloorBoard" editor software from https://sourceforge.net/projects/grfloorboard/

cptncatholic

Thanks for the tips! I tweaked the adjustment screw a little bit but I will keep working with it to see if I can get some better tracking. Going through the setup steps on page 10 helped tremendously. I really feel stoo-ped for not doing that first. ;)

martintillyer

#33
Hi All,

First post to this forum but I have been reading all the tips and tricks with interest. I completed my first gig with my GR-55 with the GK kit installed into my Takamine acoustic guitar. I have had the kit installed with all of the buttons up near the Takamine pre-amp to allow me to keep control of the volume and blends easily. I have attached a video below that someone took for anyone that's interested.

Thanks for all the advice! :-)

Martin


tekrytor

Nice sound Martin. Thank you for posting.

Have you posted any photos of your Takamine in the GK guitars area? It would be interesting to see where the GK buttons and pot are.

I clamped a GK-3 on my Ibanez acoustic "sorta-strat-like" AZ-10, but it is not pretty. Built in would be much nicer of course.

Cheers!
SY-300/BeatBuddy/VoiceLive 3/GR-55(v1.50)/33/1/50/700/VGA-7/V-Bass, Yam-G10, GPK-4, DIY X-Bee HighlyLiquidCPU "Cozy-Lil-Footie", FCB-1010, other MIDI stuff, Godin Freeway SA and various other GK equipped controllers, Sonar X1, Audacity, KXstudio, Misc devices

martintillyer

Hiya,

Please find a few photos attached so you can see where I put the relevant pots and switches. I'm really enjoying using it and it is really handy to be able to blend the Takamine pickup with the GR55 so that I don't lose the guitar's tone. I'm still putting the finishing touches to some of my patches but I've got a nice strings patch which just simply adds strings to the existing Takamine pickup.

All very exciting!  :)

Martin

melodymann

Nice Martin!
I'm very curious about the visual effect that seems to be responding to your music
on the tv monitor behind you. Where is it getting input from? I've tried with out
any success to get various visualizers in media players to react to a live sound. Any
info would be helpful.

Thanks

Terry

martintillyer

Hiya Terry,

I wish I could be able to show off an impressive way of display graphics to music in this post but the reality is, it's just a DVD playing on loop in the bar.

Sorry,
Martin

Deacon Blue

Nice! I've always been a big Sting fan!
"When your project isn't working, look for the part that you didn't think was important"
www.Bandmix.com/katylyst

Dmerrick

#39
Wanting to get a GK pick up on a acoustic guitar. Was think about getting a Taylor as sweet water is having a 18 same as cash deal going. I have a Luther in my family who can install a GK PU and has on several of my guitars. My question is is a gk PU gonna work on this as the bridge is quit a ways away from the GK saddles. Http://www.sweetwater.com/guitargallery/electric/custom/s2111161076/  an body have a suggestion on how they would mount a GK PU on this? How would the distance affect my GK PU VG 88 or 8 combo? I have each.

Elantric

#40
Show this to your Luthier - as a reference for GK-3 PU location.


I would use the GK-3 External and avoid drilling any holes in the top for controls.

In general  -its important to remember  Acoustic guitars with GK-3 ( or Piezo) hex pickups present a problem in live use when the connected GR/VG device is performing Alt Tunings - (for obvious reasons)


Dmerrick

Yeah I have a VG 8 and two 88 and four guitars with internal GK's my question is how important is it to have the gk PU from the bridge? Like the picture you have the PU is far away from where the bridge saddles are. Is this yours ? How well does it work?

Elantric

#42
That was a factory 2003 Martin Alternative-X GK guitar.
http://www.elderly.com/vintage/items/10U-3876.htm
The GK pickup on that guitar is not too far away from the bridge at all - probably less than 20mm. its closer than many GK Strat installs Ive seen.


tomtheguitarguy

Quote from:  Dmerrick on February 18, 2012, 02:27:25 PM
Wanting to get a GK pick up on a acoustic guitar. Was think about getting a Taylor as sweet water is having a 18 same as cash deal going. I have a Luther in my family who can install a GK PU and has on several of my guitars. My question is is a gk PU gonna work on this as the bridge is quit a ways away from the GK saddles. http://www.sweetwater.com/guitargallery/electric/custom/s2111161076/  an body have a suggestion on how they would mount a GK PU on this? How would the distance affect my GK PU VG 88 or 8 combo? I have each.

I think you're confusing the bridge pins (the ones that hold the strings in the guitar), with the bridge itself - which is the bone (or plastic) saddle nut that he strings are crossing.  Putting the GK-3 right next to the bridge would but the saddle within required distance from the looks of it.

Tom
http://www.tomtheguitarguy.com ~ http://www.tomcatsband.com
CIJ Blue Floral w/ McVay G Bender
G & L Will Ray Signature ASAT w/ Hipshot B Bender
JTV-69 James Tyler Variax
Fishman TriplePlay ~ Roland GR-55
Dr. Z RxES 2x12
Quilter MicroPro200 10" ~ Quilter Aviator 8" ~ Quilter Steelaire
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songwriter24

#44
Hi guys,
Okay, I suppose this must have been broached at some point in the past so please forgive me if it's been tackled in depth, but I promise you I've "had a good look round" and have'nt found a relevant thread!

I'd love, if it were possible, to fit my spare GK-2 onto my lovely Takamine Acoustic, but I just can't convince myself that it would work! :-)
Has anyone tried, or, even better, is anyone actually USING a GR-55 with an acoustic guitar?

As always, any help/advice would be gratefully received.......especially if it's of the positive kind, 'cos I really would love to find that I actually could create the sounds I'm so desperate to hear.

Thanks a million all.

Take it easy


gumtown

it works very well, so long as you don't use nylon strings.
You can temporarily fit the GK-3 with some 'blutack' (plastercine putty).
Watch out for feedback using hi-gain models and drive.
Free "GR-55 FloorBoard" editor software from https://sourceforge.net/projects/grfloorboard/

Elantric

#47
http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=145364

Quote
I am using a GK-3 mounted on a Martin OM-28 to drive a Roalnd GR-33 synth. Works fine but I found that using PB strings that I could not get enough signal into the pickup from all strings as the radius of the pickup and the radius of the saddle are different so the low E and A strings in particular were a bit too far from the pickup. I have put DR Zebra strings on the guitar and that has solved the problem and tracking is now much better, but that has been at the cost of less impressive acoustic sound. It's a trade-off I can live with.






songwriter24

ELANTRIC, GUMTOWN, and CRICKET.........Thank you all, so very much, for taking the time to help me out!    :)
Appreciate it very much - and, Elantric, special thanks for the reassuring pics!  :)

Take it easy

germanicus

ive had good success with a gk3 on an 'acoustic' variax 700 strung with acoustic guitar strings.
This was done with 3m mounting tape. Can be removed without any trace and is solid as a rock.

My albums done with modeling/guitar synth at http://music.steamtheory.com

JTV69/59P/Godin LGXT/Multiac ACS/Variax 700 AC
Helix/FTP/GP10/VG99/SY1000
Traynor k4