I recently installed the K&K Mandolin Twin Internal in my mandolin, and I was really pleased with the results. Now that I’ve been doing regular solo acoustic shows, I decided that it was time to upgrade my acoustic with an internal pickup. I’ve been using the Duncan Woody for a few years, and while it certainly gets the job done at a fair price, it really doesn’t capture the acoustic sound of the instrument. I asked some friends who play acoustics live, and they recommended either the Fishman or L.R. Baggs systems. Nobody was recommending the K&K.

Given how pleased I was with the mandolin pickup, I thought I’d look into their offerings, and after watching this video I was sold! A passive pickups that sounds that much like a mic’d up acoustic? And it’s only $100?! I bought one on Amazon right away, and roughly 24 hours later it’s now in my guitar! I’ll be doing a full review of it after I’ve had a chance to try it live, but I’m quite pleased with it so far.

The installation was really easy. The pickup came with a little plastic jig and everything you needed to install it (except the super glue). It was a significantly easier installation than the mandolin pickup, as the sound hole of the guitar give you more room to work than trying to get everything through the f-holes on the mandolin. The whole process only took me an hour (including time sitting there waiting for the glue to set). You can watch me install it below, and hear a sample of the both the pure mini and the mandolin pickup.

Also, check out my high-tech overhead camera setup:

So I’m building my own pedals now! This was my first, the Classic Phaser from Build Your Own Clone. It’s a clone of a 70’s “script logo” Phase 90, but the kit includes an extra 22k resistor that, supposedly, turns it into a modern “block logo” pedal. This is a bit of an unusual kit from BYOC from what I can tell, because Keith apparently only sells kits for currently unavailable pedals. Word is when Bill Finnegan resumed production of the Klon Centaur (as the KTR), Keith pulled the Silver Pony kit from the website. The Phase 90 is stupid easy to get ahold of, even the vintage reissues, and for roughly the same price as this kit. Which brings me to my one, and really only, criticism of this kit: it doesn’t offer the same value as other diy kits because the pedal it copies is so readily available AND affordable. The kit cost me roughly $70 on sale, after shipping. That’s pretty much what reissue Phase 90s are going for on Reverb right now.

However, it IS a great phaser, and I’m satisfied with what I got for the price. The build was very simple and fun (you can watch the whole thing here). As I mentioned earlier, one of the really cool things about the kit is that it can be used to recreate an early spec version of the Phase 90 and the later spec (it’s just one resistor). In the video, I’ve rigged up some alligator clips (a little rig I usually use to hot swap tone caps when rewiring guitars) and clipped the extra resistor in to compare the sounds. In general, I prefer the extra resistor in there. There’s a bit more high end and volume in general, and the resonance peak seems to shift slightly higher with it in there. I also found the full-clockwise position to be a bit comical with the “script logo” spec compared to the “block logo”.

However, I could easily imagine myself preferring either in different situations. The vintage specs sound much better when playing Isletys, Jacksons, Zeppelin, or other classic 70’s recordings that feature a phaser part (be it guitar or keyboards). So my plan is to wire in a SPST toggle switch that will let me flip between the two versions. If Keith were to modify the kit to make that a standard feature, this kit would definitely be worth the price, as you’re getting both vintage and modern versions of a single pedal.

Not being a phaser fan, I was surprised at how much I liked this pedal. Maybe I’ve only tried crap phasers before, but this one sounds good to my ears. If you like how it sounds too you can buy the kit at the link below, but if you’ve already got a phaser, I’d recommend the Phase Royal or another phaser with more options.

Classic Phaser Kit