K&K Quantum Trinity Maccaferri System or Trinity Maccaferri System??

Gadjo_Jazz

Hi everyone,

I have come across a couple of good posts about the Trinity Maccaferri System and by the sounds of it, it looks to be a great buy, but I have discovered you can "upgrade" this system to use the Quantum Blender PreAmp instead.

There is roughly a $300 price difference between the two (although the price I have is for the standard Quantum Trinity System, not the Maccaferri one)

I know the Quantum Blender has the benefits of Phase control and effects loops (not that you really need that for Gypsy Jazz)

My question is basically, do people think it's worth the extra $300 to go for the Quantum Blender over the standard Trinity System?

I will mainly be using it for recording, with the occasional gig out and about.

Thanks in advance,

Owen

Buco

I see you asked about the similar system in the other thread.
I never saw anything about k&k trinity system around here but people have used pure macaffery and have been pleased with it.
I don't think you can go wrong with the trinity though and the samples on their site sound convincing although it's a different style of acoustic guitar.
I personally would choose an outboard 2 channels DI box over quantum system if you need more control.

Buco

Gadjo_Jazz

Thanks Buco,

Yeah I've been toying over this idea for a while now.

I'm hoping to buy a new guitar in the next couple of months and have decided to put a bigtone/piezo/Pure Mac in it.

I am undecided as yet, although I am shifting towards the Pure Mac as it seems to produce the most natural sound. I am just concerned about feedback as I have read a lot of people having issues when playing at loud volumes.

I would mix this with an Audio Technica Mike I have already to add colour and try to give it the most natural sound possible, but in order to do this I will need a blender, or possibly a DI as you have suggested.

I'm pretty certain I've opted against the Quantum Blender as it doesn't offer enough to justify it's price.

There is the DTar Solstice for around $300 which looks to be a good contender or the Schertler Yellow Blender, but this is serious money now!! Cheapest I have found in the UK is £535. But it does look the business and would do everything I need for both live and recording

And now there is the Schatten Preamp-DI Max which I just found after your suggestion Buco...

Too much choice out there

Buco

I just learned about headway edb-1 from another forum member. Looks like a great piece, check it out.
It's discontinued but I've seen them come up on ebay and the manufacturer still sells the old stock for £179.

Even piezo will feedback if pushed loud.
I used k&k floating bridge piezo and while I was happy enough with how it sounded I had a feedback problem. I'd find a setting on Fishman platinum eq pro where the feedback would be gonne during soundcheck but the same setting and volume level would give me feedback when the room would fill up so I would have to fiddle with it again during show.

You're right about too much choice.

Gadjo_Jazz

It's surprising how much a room full of people can alter the acoustics isn't it!

I looked at the edb-1, and it looks pretty decent and a good price, but it doesn't have the capability of eq'ing the mic and line tracks individually. This would be massively important to getting a decent sound from the blend as you would want to focus the big tone/piezo on the lows /mids and the mic of the mids/highs.

Thanks for the advice though Buco.

I think for what I need it's going to have to be either the D-Tar Solstice or the Schertler Yellow Blender.

And I think from sounds clips I have found on the net, I prefer the sound of the Pure Maccaferri to the BigTone.

Would be nice if someone who has both could do a video comparison for us all to see

Buco

And then there's this outhere too, piezo/mic combo with a blender:
http://www.leri-amplification.com/

Gadjo_Jazz

Yes I saw that with the Dennis Chang thread and followed it through to find the most up to date videos of it.

It does sound really nice.

I've been spending so much time looking at all the different possibilities.

I'm even thinking of completely changing my mind and going for something like the Guzz series 2.

Has a lovely natural sound through the AER on the video clips, but also sounds great through the Stimer Amp of the 40's.

https://www.guzzguitar.com/ACOUSTIC_PICKUP.html

Half way down the page is a little sound cloud clip of it through a Stimer.

Not seen many reviews on here about them though, be interested to hear what people who have them think about them...

I need to see them, feel them and hear them otherwise I'm just going to keep going around in circles!!

Samois isn't far away now, so not much longer to wait

Mandobart

The K&K is a 3-head piezo pickup. Looks like their suggested retail is over $600 USD. I installed a K&K twin head in a mandolin and it sounded just fine, then I heard about JJB. I have used JJB PPS 220 piezo twin head in three fiddles, one mandolin, two octave mandolins, a mandocello, 12 string guitar, upright bass and my Altamira. The price has just gone up from $19 to $22 USD. If you really want three heads you could get the 220 in a three head setup (Jessie is very easy to work with there). Or you could go with the Prestige 3-Head model which includes a switchjack type endpin jack (the standard jacks on the PPS are too short for a guitar tail block). I have nothing against K&K products, but the JJB's are every bit as good for a much lower price. I have no financial interest in the company but have had excellent service and performance from the JJB products for the past 5 years.

Edit: Just noticed the original K&K product discussed includes a mic and pre-amp/blender, so it's not a straight up comparison between this K&K and JJB. However, the JJB remains a very good, inexpensive product for anyone looking at a piezo p'up.

Al Watsky

OK two posts this afternoon, I must be officially goofing off
The K&K product sounds fine and I'll bet that the JJB sound good too.
The thing to remember when installing these soundboard transducer piezo's to the top of the guitar is that they turn your guitar top into a drum head.
Every tap or touch to the guitar top is essentially like touching the diaphragm of a microphone . It can get noisy . Handling noise becomes a problem. Also the resonant pitch of the top will feed back as well as the cavity resonance. So thats always a problem with contact system. They really are only useful in medium volume situations.
They can sound great but they have their drawbacks.
I like them best in combination with other sound sources, either electro mag or mic or under saddle or saddle pickup.
A Big Tone type or K&K can sound good together.
Usually with acoustic guitar sound reinforcement to achieve the best sound you need a layered approach.
I have people working professionally that use as many as 3 sound sources from any single guitar.
Then you need to eq that and mix that , so it gets complicated.
If your willing to go the whole 9 yards though it can sound good.