K&K FanTaStick Western Premium Undersaddle Pickup w/Volume Control

FanTaStick Undersaddle Pickup

The FanTaStick is a premium undersaddle transducer that was developed to stay true to K&K's mission of capturing the most natural guitar sound possible.

Other undersaddle pickups tend to overemphasize the signal from the strings and lose the corpus vibrations that makes a guitar unique. We created a super-light production technique to solve this problem: Only ultra-thin material surrounds the piezo-crystals to ensure that the corpus vibrations reach the crystals with virtually no interference. This means that electronic post-processing to improve the sound is not required. Additional, this production method also has the benefit of making the FanTaStick extremely flexible to fit any arched base.

To balance the volume of each string, we measure each crystal separately within a nano-inch range. Only six crystals of exactly the same height are combined in one FanTaStick. Each crystal is fit in according to a defined direction of polarization. Even playing in "open tunings" is possible, because the FanTaStick can function with lower string pressure than many of its competitors.

The FanTaStick can be directly connected to an amplifier or mixer. However, we highly recommend one of our K&K preamps for optimum adaptation of impedance of this extremely high-ohmic pickup to standard line or amplifier inputs.

Volume Control

Our Volume Control is a non-destructive, plug-and-play addition to any single-source passive internal transducer system, like a Pure Pickup, FanTaStick, Twin Spot, or Big Twin.

You can order it as an integrated element with any single-source passive pickup, or as an Add-On for an existing pickup. Simply unscrew the existing endpin jack, remove it from the endpin hole, and plug it into the 1/4" plug of the Volume Control Add-On. The 1/4" plug has a self-adhesive fastener, which can be secured inside the guitar. The lightweight thumbwheel control mounts with a peel-and-stick installation to the inner edge of the soundhole. Mount the new endpin jack into the endpin hole, and you're done!

This passive volume control works without a battery. It does not boost the volume, but it allows you to turn the pickup signal down.

It functions best when the input impedance of the device you plug your guitar into is 1 Mega Ohm (preamp/amp or mixing board-channel). If this input impedance deviates by a large amount (i.e. 100 Kilo Ohms or 10 Mega Ohms), you may experience diminished range (from "full volume" to "off" within a 1/3rd rotation) or, in extreme cases, a slight hum when the potentiometer is at middle position. This is a normal phenomenon when passive potentiometers are used with piezo based pickups. At "full-on" or "full-off" it will always be noise-free. A lot of customers use the Volume Control like an extended on/off switch.