k & k mini

I hear lots of good things about the K&K mini.  I'm glad its working out for you.

I find that when I play into an acoustic amp a passive pick-up works pretty good.
The amp gives you more control to shape the sound, and works at a lower signal level.

But it just doesn't give me enough signal or control for a PA system. When I play out it is always into a PA unless I supply the amp.

@sleigh, I was thinking the same thing.

btw, just tried to do some recording with it and the feedback issue required a sound hole cover

This is my situation too.  A passive pick up just won't work for me.  Not only do I need the strong signal from a powered preamp, but I need a really high quality DI box as well because the signal has to be pushed over a 100 feet in distance to the PA system.

We tried using a few passive pick ups before and passive DI boxes as well for that matter.  It worked, but barely.  Once the other instruments were going, the passive system was lost cuz it just couldn't put out enough signal.

But for solo gigs with your own amp and even recording (at home where your distance is minimal) the passive pickups can work great for a very small investment.

Schaller used to make some very decent passive pickups.  Wonder if they still make 'em now?

Derick -- Now that's a genuine comparison (though I wish he had an LR Baggs M80 in the mix, as I've been kinda looking at that...) Some of the blends were tremendous, which almost makes me want to consider doing the same on my Guild OM-140, where I really don't care for the sound of the undersaddle piezo.

That's not weird -- I thought the iSolo sounded pretty decent myself, though there was a bit of feedback creeping in here and there.  The one I liked least was the L.R. Baggs Lyric.