Kepma Acoustics now feature
“supernatural” power

Now’s the time to go Supernatural…

We couldn’t be more pleased to now offer the new Supernatural Premium Pickup Systems designed by Bradley Clark on select Kepma Elite series instruments. The Clark Supernatural pickup system delivers the most natural acoustic sound to date for live performance with its ingenious “out of the box” design and engineering.

Who is this Brad Clark?

Clark is the former CEO of Maton guitars and co-founder of Cole-Clark guitars, both based in Australia.  Under both companies, Clark’s products were known for the exceptional performance of his pickup designs and associations with noted players including Tommy Emmanuel, Eric Johnson, Keith Urban, Jack Johnson, Ben Harper and more.

What makes the Supernatural Different?

The new Supernatural Pickup System ushers in a new level of natural acoustic sound for live performance, reproducing all of the nuance and acoustic character of the guitar when plugged into an amp or stage rig. The new Supernatural pickup system is comprised of two main sensors inputted into a preamplifier. The sounds are “tuned” to match the design, wood and performance of each Kepma Elite series guitar model and the profiles are pre-stored into the preamp unit for recall. There are four presets of sounds to please most guitarists, venues and playing styles, and an onboard 3-band EQ for fine tuning the sound to the venue. The Supernatural delivers unprecedented realism and flexibility when performing live and when recording.

Six individual Piezo pickups in the sensor block

First, the main pickup component isn’t just an undersaddle piezo — it’s six individual piezo pickups mounted into the Discreet Power Bridge sensor block and “output adjusted” for optimum output and balance across the entire string set and frequency spectrum of the instrument. Each pickup is fine-tuned and adjusted to ensure that the nuance of the performer’s style and technique is accurately reproduced — something you won’t find on traditional “ribbon” style undersaddle pickups.

Face Sensor or Condenser Mic

The second input source is either the Supernatural Face Sensor vibration sensor plate, or the shock mount isolation condenser microphone. The Supernatural Face Sensor is installed on the underside of the instrument top behind the bridge and toward the lower bout. This placement picks up the movement of the top of the instrument without hindering the performance of the instrument or tone interference. This, when combined with the output of the Discreet Power Bridge sensor provides an amazing level of realism and natural tone without feedback for consistent, dependable performance.

The Shock-Mount 30° ISO Condenser Microphone input was actually designed by the engineers at Mercedes who are responsible for cockpit sound — meaning the system used for “in-car” audio capturing for voice commands and cellular/bluetooth input. It features a unique isolation design and a secure-grip footing that stays in place under the most demanding performances. But don’t let its small form fool you — this mic is all “studio” when it comes to capturing the full rich sound and air of the guitar. The fixed balance between the bridge pickup and microphone is optimized for each guitar model to provide the maximum “airiness” of the guitar without feedback even in high volume situations.

Low Mid High Master Tone — the Human Interface

The Clark Supernatural human interface consists of 3 bands of EQ sliders — L to R: Low, Mid, High — a master volume slider (duh, the last slider on the right) and a tone preset selector button. The interface is elegantly simple, but very intuitive and makes for quick fine-tuning and adjustment on the fly. The controls are neatly hidden from plain sight tucked just below the horizon of the sound hole, but easily accessible and viewable from the player perspective (unless you play like Hendrix).

4 tone “starter” points

So Brad actually “tunes” each pickup system to the guitar, and provides 4 unique “tone” preset starter points. The guys over at Auden Guitars in the UK describe them as “Thick Strum, Finger pick, Solo, Thin Strum” and we kind of like those descriptions. It’s also super easy to determine which preset you’re using — there’s an LED that flashes when you push the preset button, get this, the same number of times as what the preset number is. So when you’re on preset #1 and push the button to go to preset #2, the LED flashes twice… 3 times for #3 and so on. You will find that each preset has a distinct starting point character, and you adjust the EQ to fine tune your sound to your preference in the venue you’re playing (if needed).

A Battery’s life

The Clark Supernatural runs on a standard 9V battery found at most gas stations and should give you around 20-30 hours of playing time. This of course will vary depending upon your power requirements, but when the battery gets weak, the internal LED that shows you which preset you’re using will illuminate red indicating that you’ve got anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour or so of playable time left in the battery. Always keep spares in your case — it’s the right thing to do.

When it’s time to change the battery, the Supernatural comes with a handy (and we think patented) battery changing handle which allows you to swap out batteries in 5 seconds or less without having to slack the strings. Again, something the “other” guys really didn’t think about.

Available now on Select Kepma Elite Models

For the solid top Kepma models (currently the D2, GA2 and OM2 series models), the two sensors include the Supernatural Discrete Power Bridge sensor and Supernatural Face Sensor which picks up the natural vibrations of the top of the guitar yielding a warm, powerful sound great for hard pickers and tappers alike.

The all solid Kepma models (currently the D1, GA1 and OM1 series models) use the Super Discrete Power bridge sensor in combination with the Supernatural custom 30-degree isolation microphone.

So if you’re into going all natural, make it super… Supernatural that is.