Installing K&K Twin With Hide Glue

[cartershilts]

I'm interested to hear if anyone has ever tried using hide glue to seal a piezo in their mando. I've used the K&K Twin with three different mandos in the past several years, but the adhesive tape that K&K provides never seems to hold and I find the piezos jarring loose after a year or so.

I know that Loctite is a popular alternative for gluing piezos in, but I would imagine that hide glue would provide an even tighter, closer seal. The main thing I'd worry about would be the hide glue coming loose in high humidity.

Anybody tried this? Would love to hear your experience. Thanks!

[j. condino]

Hot hide glue won't hold very well to the brass discs on the outside of the K&K.

The supplied sticky tape is supposed to let you try out several different locations to find the sweet spot. They used to always recommend thick superglue for best adhesion. You'll also notice about 30% better signal transfer when they are glued in position.

I've never considered the K&K systems something that you would pull off and use on multiple instruments....

[pops1]

I used the tape, but I glued the tape to the pickup, glued another piece of tape to that tape and glued that to the mandolin. Super glue gel is the preferred glue. I used the tape to take a little edge off. Did some experimenting years ago and kept Deiter and K&K in the loop.The two pieces of tape in their instructions come from that. I just took it a step further so it would not come off in a gig.

[cartershilts]

Sorry, I should have clarified. I've used three separate K&K pickups. I'm not daring enough to try to swap a pickup between multiple mandos, haha! Thanks for the info. I may just use CA glue. I'm running impulse responses in my chain, so signal transfer is the name of the game. I'll post an update after the installation is done!

[Steve Ostrander]

I'm interested to hear if anyone has ever tried using hide glue to seal a piezo in their mando. I've used the K&K Twin with three different mandos in the past several years, but the adhesive tape that K&K provides never seems to hold and I find the piezos jarring loose after a year or so.

I know that Loctite is a popular alternative for gluing piezos in, but I would imagine that hide glue would provide an even tighter, closer seal. The main thing I'd worry about would be the hide glue coming loose in high humidity.

Anybody tried this? Would love to hear your experience. Thanks!

A few years ago I had a K&K Twin installed in my Breedlove American ff. The luthier at Elderly used the K&K supplied tape. Shortly after I was playing an outdoor gig and one of the discs let go from the inside top. I used duct tape to secure it and finish the gig.

I took it back to Elderly and the luthier fixed it using CA glue. But now I can tell the difference between the two discs. The CA glued disc is hotter and brighter. I asked that the other disc with the tape be glued the same way, but I was told that there is a danger of damaging the disc by removing it. Understandable, but I still can hear the difference in tone and volume, and I prefer the CA glued disc. But of course that disc has not let go.

In summary, I think the CA glue is a better adhesive to use. I’ve never heard of anyone using hide glue. If the other disc let’s go I’ll definitely have it CA glued. If I ever have another K&K installed I will Request they not use the tape.

[pops1]

I have removed at least a dozen of them super glued without breaking one, the tape should be an easy removal.

[Dave Richard]

Pops1, just curious, what caused you to remove a dozen of the K&K p/us?

[pops1]

Pops1, just curious, what caused you to remove a dozen of the K&K p/us?

Dave, I was talking with Deiter at K&K years ago and was trying to find what would sound best for my mandolin. Seeing that I couldn't afford to buy a lot of mandolins and pickups I would put them in and change positions to find what I liked best. I did use a couple of mandolins and did a magnetic pickup too. Tape didn't sound like glued in pickups so I glued them all in. I made a couple of tools to aid in removal and did end up breaking one, but not taking it out of the mandolin. I did have an X braced Gibson, (a 60's that I bought that way) and I couldn't find anyplace where it would sound good. I ended up with them on top of the X brace as it was the only place it sounded good. I didn't glue to the top, but the thin tape I didn't trust. I used a thick double sided tape from 3M that I stuck to my flannel shirt a couple of times before putting it on the mandolin. I didn't want that much adhesion. I played that mandolin on summer cruises on the Mississippi for 3 years in high heat and humidity without the tape coming off, but took it off this year as there are no music cruises. The thicker tape warmed the sound quite a bit, it also lowered the output, but with the RedEye it still had plenty of oomph. I may consider using the thick tape inside sometime in the future.