Highlander question...

[gaucho]

This may be a dumb question, but here goes…. I have a NRP (early Radio tone) That came with a Highlander pickup, sounds awesome! I also have a modern Parlor with a K and K Pure pickup and a K and K Pure Mini pre-amp (9v battery, volume, bass, mid and treble controls) which also sounds awesome. My question is, can I use the K and K preamp in place of the battery box for the Highlander? I know I'd need to use the special stereo cable between the guitar and the box (is it a pre-amp as well or just a battery holder?). I'd be nice to only need to cart around one of the 2 plus the volume and tone controls would be a bonus for the Highlander. I'm afraid to just plug it in and go for it, for fear of burning something out. Thanks in advance….

[washboardchris]

Hi, I have a Highlander in my National& I have a K&K pure western in one guitar and a Trinty system in another.The Trinty preamp system works as a preamp on one channel & a power supply for the microphone in the other. used with a stereo lead (one channel for the preamp & one to power the condenser microphone.I suspect that your Highlander just wont work with the K&K preamp that you have .The K&K has quite a high output & will work very well without a preamp (you could cut down on a box by just going straight into the desk & eq ing from there. Hope this helps

[snakehips]

See post below !

[snakehips]

Hi there !

You should be able to use your K&K pre-amp BUT you will need to take the Highlander pre-amp (and battery box) OUT of the equation.
ie. open up your Nationals and unplug the pickup cable's phono plug from the pre-amp, and remove the pre-amp and the jack socket from the guitar (that is soldered to the preamp via a (internally hard-wired) cable coming out of the other end of the pre-amp.

You could cut off or de-solder the phono plug from the pickup cable and solder a mono jack socket directly to the pickup cable.
Then all you need is a regular mono jack-jack cable to connect your National to your pre-amp of choice (ie. K&K)

Cutting or de-soldering the phone plug from the Highlander pickup cable might be a bad idea though (especially if you are initially sounding out whether to go down this route or not) - as re-soldering the phono plug back on to the Highlander pickup cable is not easy !!!!!

Instead, buy a cheap phono EXTENSION cable - one with the female phono socket on one end (or better, on both ends).
Cut the cable half way along - so you have two cables (one for your guitar and one spare !).
Solder a mono jack socket onto the cut end and connect the Highlander pickup to this cable and fit the jack socket to your guitar.

You will now have the Highlander pickup but without it's own pre-amp - leaving you free to try out different preamps.

I know a VERY good blues musician who does this with all his Nationals and used an Orchid Electronics custom-made pre-amp for his guitars.
His Nationals sound great through a PA system.

[Michael Messer]

Hi Gaucho,

I am only going on one thing that you have said...."I have a NRP (early Radio tone) that came with a Highlander pickup, sounds awesome!"... If it sounds awesome, leave it alone!

I know Orchid's stuff and various other hi fi preamps that are wonderful, and there is no question that they are wonderful, but so is the Highlander preamp that took years to develop and get just right for a National guitar. Richard is correct and I know many people that use Orchid and other similar handmade preamps, but IMO the Highlander one is excellent.

If a guitar has an awesome sound.....DON'T TOUCH IT!

....just my opinion

Shine On
Michael

[snakehips]

Hi again !

I do agree that the Highlander preamps sound good.

I have found myself needing to experiment with external preamps though because I have had a number of Highlander preamps fail on me - some from virtually brand new, in hindsight.

I think I have had 5 Highlander preamps fail on me. Most were failing intermitantly though - so for at least a couple of years with each guitar I was assuming the stereo cables were failing (cables or the actual jacks) or that the jack sockets (soldered wires) on the guitar were failing. I quickly ruled out the battery boxes and batteries as they are robust and soldered expertly, with thick wire.
I bought new quality stereo cables. As the faults were intermittant, the new cables seemed to solve the problems - until they occured again.

I had actually installed many of the Highlanders myself - but not all of them ! It's not rocket science. The only bit I found difficult was soldering the tiny wires from the actual pickup cable onto the tiny solder terminals inside the phono plug. These two terminals are so close together, it is difficult keeping the blobs of solder from each wire terminal from contacting each other and shorting the thing. Perhaps that is why the preamps started misbehaving ? I asked someone knowledgable about electronics - and they dismissed that idea of damage to the preamps.
I took two of my Highlander equipped Nationals to a guitar tech to have a look at my soldering. He replaced the cheap phono plugs that come with the pickups, and replaced them with higher grade phono plugs with better isolated wire terminals and redid the soldering on the jack sockets.

Result ? No improvement.
Thus we started to think the preamps were at fault.
I started swapping cones with Highlander pickups in them from guitars that had fully working pickup systems to find which preamps were faulty.

4 single-cone Highlanders and one Magnaphonic tricone pickup preamps in total - and possibly a few others that I've since sold on, that had occasional drop outs of sound.

The pickup part themselves seem to be pretty robust.
I have a Fishman external preamp sitting around unused that I've had for years - so have been able to test he pickup part of the Highlander systems.

After asking a luthier who fits a lot of Highlander pickups, he told me that the Highlander people admitted to having had a batch of pickups that were faulty.
Looks like I was unlucky. I bought a bunch of them in one go !

[gaucho]

Sounds like a good plan Michael! I was just looking to "simplify" my road kit, but the (very detailed, thanks!) plan than Snake outlined sounds anything but simple. I'll leave it be.

[snakehips]

Hi again !

I agree - if they sound good already AND work, leave 'em alone !!!

[gaucho]

Thanks for the replies. I guess I was thinking of it wrong. I thought the little box was the pre-amp, but from Richard's excellent post it seems to be in the guitar. The box just houses the battery apparently.