Kinman K9 NoSoldering Harness

1 volume control, 1 master tone control, 1 five way pickup selector switch, 1 push/push dual purpose contol knob that can blend in any desired amount of the neck pickup regardless of what position the pickup selector is in AND switch the middle pickup from series to parallel with the bridge pickup for added thickness/sustain/crumch.
I actually had a set of Kinman Woodstock Plus pickups in my No.1 guitar for several years. Chris Kinman was able to modify my pickups to be compatible with the new K9 solderless harness for a nominal fee allowing me to keep my existing Kinman pickup set. Al things considered If I was purchasing the K9 harness with a new set of Kinmans I would still consider that a great value for the money when you consider the outstanding quality of the Kinman products.

This K9 setup is installed in my 2004 Am Deluxe Fender Srtat. The Kinman woodstocks were installed originaly in 2005 with the Kinman K7 no solder harnes (also a great product) but the added versatility of the K9 setup was what enticed me to upgrade to the new setup. All pickups, volume and tone pots are now "solder free" the just plug in using mini male/female jacks that make installation a snap. The entire swap out from removing strings/installing the K9 kit/ restinging and adjusting the float of the trem arm took no more than 20 mins. Can't really ask for a more simple effectife design.

The biggest thing for me when I decided to upgrade to the K9 harness was I wanted my original 7 different pickup combinations of the k7 to remain intact and unchanged. I am happy to report that every sound I had before is still there like nothing ever changed. BUT now I have the added functionality of blending in any amount of the neck pickup AND pushing in on the K9 blend pot puts in me a territory of fullness/crunch that was never a possiblity before.

To sum it up I still have a Strat that sounds like a Strat but can now sound like a Telecaster - with the added bonus of sustain/crunch of most humbucker equipped guitars I have played while retaining the Single coil attack and bite.
Did I mention the pickups are totaly noiseless?.
Truth is I was finaly able to sell my big heavy Les Paul. Not that I have anything against the Les Paul design - I just didn't need it anymore and my back is much happier.

As an opener let me say I love this harness and pickups coz I've been able to create my own original trademark sounds. Real 250K pots as measured (that???s real important). Gets 9 different sounds from 3 Strat pickups but the controls look stock standard, no added obvious switches or anything that look foreign on a Strat. I like that because it's simple to use BUT opens a whole new dimension/library of sounds for a Stratocaster. As Kinman states it adds a Les Paul Jnr into a Strat.

I wanted to avoid soldering my new Kinman pickups in coz that's when things sometimes go wrong. I was absolutely over the moon when I unpacked this thing, talk about a work of art and an engineered masterpiece. Pickups and harness completely install with NO soldering. Yes!!! that's ZERO soldering. I didn't have to get my soldering iron out of the box, sheer genius. I've been messing around with guitars for 20+ years and never seen anything like this harness before. I gotta hand it to Chris Kinman he sure knows how to improve on basic original products. Kinman pickups sound top notch and you'd never know they are noiseless just by listening and this harness makes sure you get the best out of your pickups.

One thing that attracted me to this K9 harness is Chris Kinman gets his pots made specially so they actually measure 250K which is the best value for Strat pickups to sound their best. Ive had dull, lackluster sounding (noisy) single coils before so I got to thinking the pots did not meet the 250K spec so I took my trusty multimeter and measured my pots. I was shocked to discover ohmage of 210K to 220k for all three pots. I tried to improve and ordered new ones from Allparts but dismally those also didn't meet the 250K spec either. Chris explains on his site that stock pots are made cheaply due to tolerance range of minus 30% and my experience confirms this.

I'm running a Fender blackface 20watt reverb with a single 12. I don't use effect boxes, I am a guitar direct to amp kinda guy. I love mostly clean sounds with plenty of dynamics and a lot for blues use mild natural crunch. I have never enjoyed my sound as much before installing the K9.

Popping the K9 control to the OUT position when the selector switch in position 2 (bridge n middle) gives me a nice boost and just the right fattening of the tone for crunch. Doing this puts the bridge and middle pups into series, this doubles the output and makes the sound more like a P-90/Humbucker particularly in that the treble strings take on a fatter, less crystal sound similar to a P-90 pickup. These sounds just sing so effortlessly.

Another great sound is the above with the K9 control rolled back to 0. This adds the neck pickup in parallel to the bridge middle in series and the sound stakes on a hollowish cranked sound that I love for a whole range of playing styles. Like I said before I love this harness coz I've been able to create my own trademark tones that were not possible with stock pickups and controls.

All 9 sounds are different and useable, and it's pretty easy to use. I can jump from a crystal clean sound to a high output crunch sound in less then a blink.

I also tried the Fender S1 but I found a lot of the sounds were samish, not much distinction between a lot of settings. Also I kept on forgetting what I had selected and that's not good in the heat of moments on stage. Not so with the K9 which I found very user friendly.

With Kinman pickups and K9 No Soldering harness I have risen to new heights with my guitar playing, simply inspirational. And a walk in the part to install, I'd give an 11 like Jimi's volume knob but a 10 will have to do.