So I just ordered one of these Hot Plates for my National Style "N".

http://www.mikedowling.com/natRes.html

I currently have a great sounding transducer on the guitar from K&K Sound which sounds fantastic. Very natural sounding with lots of output for a passive pickup.

http://www.kksound.com/pureresonatorbb.html

Thing is, I have always wanted to run a good magnetic pickup from my National through my pedal board in order to blend a slightly overdriven sound with the natural acoustic sound just to explore the tonal possibilities (you all know how it is). I believe Bruce ****burn does this with his Dobro. Besides all this I'll now (hopefully) be able to run the magnetic pickup through the stage mix fairly loud without the feedback hassle.

Can't wait to see what a Lollar Tele pickup will sound like on my National. I'll let you know how it goes.

I have a K&K western mini in my Collings and always wondered how the reso pickup sounded. Any chance you might fill in more details?

About the K&K pickup - all I can tell you is that now my amplified National sounds almost identical to it's natural tone. I have been on this search for a long time. I tried the Highlander and it sounded like an amplified banjo. I tried the Schatten Design and it sounded ok amplified but it muffled the natural tone of the guitar significantly (you had to attach a transducer under the center of the cone with putty - the putty just killed the tone). I tried a design from the resident expert at Elderly which was a new bridge with a thin filament you had to stick to your cone - about the thickness of aluminum foil. It didn't compromise the tone of the cone but once my hand left contact with the guitar the pickup would be noisy. Hand contact acted as some sort of ground. Not a problem when playing but rather annoying otherwise.

The K&K just sounds natural. Last fall I played a gig in a 900 seat auditorium just me and the National, K&K pickup through the PA (no mics on the guitar). I could have sat there all night playing. It was just too inspiring. A couple months later I'm channel surfing and see myself playing the gig on the local access channel. The sound was great.

I know you're probably looking for more specifics. I don't know what to tell you, the highs were crisp but not ice pick, the lows were good. I am hoping the Hot Plate will allow me to boost my lows even more without feedback issues. The output is very good though I can't recall having many feedback issues. I plug it straight into a Radial passive DI and right into the PA.

Sounds great, and they're cheap!

quote:

Originally posted by Coldwater:
I know you're probably looking for more specifics. I don't know what to tell you, the highs were crisp but not ice pick, the lows were good. I am hoping the Hot Plate will allow me to boost my lows even more without feedback issues. The output is very good though I can't recall having many feedback issues. I plug it straight into a Radial passive DI and right into the PA.

Sounds great, and they're cheap!

Nope, that's good enough for me. Thanks for the review. I could have written a similar review for the K&K Western Mini on my Collings D2H. I have a Pure XLR Pre-Amp also but you don't need it if you're going into an amp.

If you don't mind me asking another question, do you go right from the jack to the board or do you put it through a stage preamp or effects. From the way you described, it sounds like you're going right into the house mix and letting the FOH do their thing.

Also, do you have any youtube of you playing with it. No sense in being bashfull

i plud straight into the pa via direct box. the sound guy puts some to the stage mix as needed and that's it.

no youtube clips.