Journey Instruments Passive Piezo Acoustic Pickup – EP001K Three Balanced German-Made Passive Pickup Elements – Piezo Pickup for Acoustic Guitars (Ceramic)

I bought one of these (3-piezo version) 8 months ago, and I don't know why, other than laziness, I have waited until today to install it. I put it into a dreadnought Ibanez solid top (aw54opn), and it sounds fantastic. Good representation of the guitar, especially from a passive transducer. Much nicer than an under saddle piezo. Feedback is an issue, but that is a function of having the piezo on the sound board of a resonant instrument, not the fault of Journey. EQ, phase reversal, automatic feedback suppression, playing at lower volume all can help here. Use the included blue tack and your ears to find and mark the locations you want to install the pickup, and then use gel super glue to put it in place. I ended up not using a template at all, rather I used a handful of golf tees in the pin holes to get my bearings, and then did it by braille. There is some danger of gluing your fingers, so be careful, or use some thin gloves that's still allow you to feel what's going on. As for the jack, the threaded section could have been a little bit longer. The tail of the Ibanez is ridiculously thick, and I ended up having to not use the interior cover for the output jack so things would fit. The drill bit I used was 31/64, and that fit perfectly. If you have a cable with a very thin quarter inch plug, the easiest way to get the jack installed is to thread that plug into the guitar, and use the cable to pull the jack through the hole. A rean nys series just fits.

great pickup for the price. the video for installation was really easy to follow. It lets the true sound of the guitar come through the speakers love this pickup.

Won't know what they sound like or if they even work, I have a couple broken bridge pins, new ones coming tomorrow. This review is all about the installation and issues I experienced. Not too hard but not as easy and smooth as the video makes it seem. Was super careful and dry fitted the piezos not once but twice. The first 2 glued in place fine. The 3rd one felt good with the guide sticks and glued up, only to find that it blocked one bridge pin hole so I had to push a drill bit thru the hole to break it off and reposition it. Keep in mind you're doing this totally by braille, even with the hole guide sticks that come in the kit, you have to go by feel and cross your fingers. The other problem is I had to unscrew the inside jack cover almost all the way back for the whole jack to stick out of the back of the guitar far enough per instructions. Only maybe 3 rings of thread left on the inside end of the jack for the cover to grip. The actual problem is that the piezo mini plug is too big to go into the end of the jack cover to connect to the plug. The cover is aluminum so I drilled the end opening larger for the mini plug to fit thru. One other thing to note, the plug is bent a little at an angle making it even more difficult to connect. I didn't want to try to straighten it out and possibly break it. They maybe should state these issues in their instructions, or make these to fit for different models like my Epiphone Hummingbird. Now I just hope they work or back to Amazon they go. 3/27/23 UPDATE, after all that, they work perfectly and sound great! The issues I encountered weren't all that hard to overcome if you're handy and somewhat mechanically inclined. The misplacement of one of the piezos was my fault, I got it right the 2nd time. I'm changing my review to 4 stars, you just need to look out for a few things that I encountered when you go to install them in your guitar. These pickups are a great deal!

Wow! I'm really impressed with these pickups. I put these in a J-45 Gibson that had been restored due to Gibson's failure at the time to properly reinforce the sound board. Man, these things are brilliant!!! Big, booming, clear sound from these pickups, and though it took a little time and patience to do it right, the installation was not really hard. Really converted that Gibson. Fantastic product.

What a upgrade! My acoustic guitar came with a basic Fishman pickup and preamp that I never really felt I could get a good sound from and after some research I discovered the K&K Pure Mini but after watching a comparison video I decided on the Journey for not only sounding better imo but also costing half the price. Fortunately, I could just plug out the old pickup and plug in the Journey directly into the preamp so didn't need to do any drilling. Amazing is all I can say! For the first time I actually enjoyed the sound from my guitar on the PA. It's a fantastic sounding pickup that I would recommend in a heartbeart

The Journey soundboard pickup gives me the best natural acoustic sound of any pickup that I tried. I do use a Boss AC-3 Acoustic Simulator in lieu of an internal pre-amp. I installed these pickups on several vintage/antique archtop guitars. A key feature is that the pickup can be glued to the soundboard and later removed if better amplification option is brought to market in the future without damaging the soundboard.

Pickups sound great. The plastic jig they send for the install is trash, make your own out of cardboard. I had a K&K in another acoustic, this sounds just as good.

Easy to install, sound great

Bättre än k&k tycker jag.

¡Excelente! Lo instalé en una Little Martin y la lleva a otro nivel. Nada de ruido y el sonido se mantiene fiel al de la guitarra al natural. Lo recomiendo totalmente.

Installata su una Yamaha 3/4. Riproduci realmente il suono della chitarra in tutti i suoi pregi e difetti. Lo ricomprerei

This pickup must be one of the best acoustic guitar pickups available in the market. It sounds so natural that it feels like the acoustic guitar is amplified via a microphone. No quack sound which is common with normal pizzo pickups. I have relatively inexpensive Cort branded solid top guitar. I have no doubt that it will instantly give a new life to any acoustic guitar. Few things to note for a successful installation: 1) Follow the instructional video from the manufacturer and make sure the the pizzo buttons will stay "in between strings" and under the saddle position when placed on the plastic place holder card. 2) use good amount of super glue for a good bonding. 3) use a good 12mm drill bit ( I used an augur type bit which made a perfect hole) while holding the guitar in the stable manner. 4) make sure the smaller threaded section stick out at the end pin position. Otherwise it will not mound the end pin cover properly.

La entrada no está centrada, incluso enroscando hasta el fondo. No quise doblar la placa porque corría el riesgo de romper la soldadura. Tuve que retirar la cubierta de metal y poner cinta aislante para dejarlo funcional.