ukulele pickups

[Kasey]

Better option - acoustic-electric ukulele or normal ukulele with an attached pickup?

of either one, can someone give me some good recommendations?

[notCardio]

I can honestly say I have never seen that question before, which is a rarity in these parts.


Congratulations on actually coming up with a new question.

I didn't even know there were acoustic-electric ukes.

[Anfontan]

I think slidey just bought a uke lately, you might send him a few questions about it.

[Light]

Tiny Tim just used a contact style piezo pickup (I think he was using a Fishman of some sort, but I could be mistaken. After all, we haven't seen any of his ukes since he died). Fishman makes a couple of them, as do most of the other pickup manufacturers. I don't recall seeing any undersaddle pickups for uke, I'm afraid.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

[faderbug]

ovation makes an acoustic-electric uke.

[zorf]

Amplifiing acoustic instruments is a subject for a huge thread in itself, but here's a couple of uke links that include pickup info. I've been unhappy with my piezo that i stuck on my uke. Buy a uke with a built in. Ukes are cheap.
Or, if you are playing with a loud band, go solid body with a bridge transducer. It will actually sound MORE acoustic without resonence spikes from the body plus no feedback. Acoustic instruments that have low volume and sound boxy with tops that don't vibrate much, often sound great amplified.

http://www.fleamarketmusic.com/uke-yak/
and my favorite:
http://www.ukuleleworld.com/

[ggunn]

Originally Posted by zorf

Amplifiing acoustic instruments is a subject for a huge thread in itself, but here's a couple of uke links that include pickup info. I've been unhappy with my piezo that i stuck on my uke. Buy a uke with a built in. Ukes are cheap.
Or, if you are playing with a loud band, go solid body with a bridge transducer. It will actually sound MORE acoustic without resonence spikes from the body plus no feedback. Acoustic instruments that have low volume and sound boxy with tops that don't vibrate much, often sound great amplified.

http://www.fleamarketmusic.com/uke-yak/
and my favorite:
http://www.ukuleleworld.com/

I dunno, but the idea of playing a ukelele in a loud band made me LOL. Ukelele Punk!! I can just see it; can't you? Fat Hawaiian guys in flowered shirts and leis, with spiked hair and electric ukes through Marshall stacks on 11, jumping all over the stage screaming out punked up interpretations of "Tiny Bubbles" and "Aloha Oe".

Made my day... ;^)

[Crash ©]

LONG LIVE THE UKE..!!! There's a cult following on Ukes that's starting to really come back to life.. There's a guy I know that makes a "build it yourself Uke kit". He provides everything but the cigar box it's built around (even a few tools) for $35.. He takes a pile of these to festivals and sells out every time...

Anyroads.. Back to the question.. Pick-ups... I heard someone say NO PIEZOS.. I say go for it..

I've got a cigar box guitar I finished at home last night with a couple of .6" piezos daisy chained under the bridge and a couple of the 2" daisied and glued to the neck inside the box.. The .6's have a very trebley sound and the 2's are VERY mellow.. Can blend them together to get a really good sound through individual volume pots..

Cost for the setup was about $10 in parts and about 3 hours trying to figure out how to wire the pots right (like a Jazz Bass).. For that price, I don't think you can really go wrong if you're just trying to get some more volume..

http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bi..._Elements.html

Rob

[zorf]

You didn't mention what context you were amping your uke for.

For recording, even a $100 mic is way better of course than a piezo.
For live, a mic is tough. For gain before feedback, piezo.
Problem with piezos: quack and general unnatural sound. If you can get
a hotter signal before your preamp, you get less impedance buffering and phasing issues.
I prefer the pickup close to the bridge for this application. Putting piezos
farther from the bridge increases handling noise. My tech 21 acoustic di helps a little too.
Again, even though it sounds counter-intuitive, a solid body with a bridge
piezo can sound more natural in an amplified setting. Or, second choice, buy a uke with
a built in pickup and preamp. These tend to be a little heavier because of the battery, and have a little less acoustic volume. A little reverb helps too.
Ukes are really pretty cheap compared to guitars. You can have one for
playing acoustically and recording, and one for playing amplified.
My favorite uke cost $40 brand new!

[Kasey]

Originally Posted by zorf

You didn't mention what context you were amping your uke for.

For recording, even a $100 mic is way better of course than a piezo.
For live, a mic is tough. For gain before feedback, piezo.
Problem with piezos: quack and general unnatural sound. If you can get
a hotter signal before your preamp, you get less impedance buffering and phasing issues.
I prefer the pickup close to the bridge for this application. Putting piezos
farther from the bridge increases handling noise. My tech 21 acoustic di helps a little too.
Again, even though it sounds counter-intuitive, a solid body with a bridge
piezo can sound more natural in an amplified setting. Or, second choice, buy a uke with
a built in pickup and preamp. These tend to be a little heavier because of the battery, and have a little less acoustic volume. A little reverb helps too.
Ukes are really pretty cheap compared to guitars. You can have one for
playing acoustically and recording, and one for playing amplified.
My favorite uke cost $40 brand new!

I'm using this for recording and live, but of course i want the pickup for the live setting. which option would you think is best? i guess i just need the best option for less than $150.

[ez_willis]

I had to check 3 times to make sure this wasn't a walters post.

[zorf]

Hi Kasey,
Let's start over.
Tell us a bit about what kind of music you are or would like to play on the uke, what other instruments are/would be involved, and describe the types/ sizes of venues you are likely to play in.

[cello_pudding]

i just got a pup to be a universal violin, cello, guitar one.

with guitar i blend it with my rare earth and it sounds freaking awesome.

i use a sound checker original. i boost its signal a bit before it goes to a board, but it works really well.

i got it for 30 bucks off ebay. i'm sure its still being sold at the ebay store i got it from

[Kasey]

Originally Posted by zorf

Hi Kasey,
Let's start over.
Tell us a bit about what kind of music you are or would like to play on the uke, what other instruments are/would be involved, and describe the types/ sizes of venues you are likely to play in.

music - folk/indiepop/stuff.... think the microphones or sufjan stevens or maybe even neutral milk hotel

other instruments would go from the typical drums bass guitar but also synths and bells and keys and cello.

generally small venues, playing for 50 to a 100 people type thing.

[Kasey]

Originally Posted by zorf

Hi Kasey,
Let's start over.
Tell us a bit about what kind of music you are or would like to play on the uke, what other instruments are/would be involved, and describe the types/ sizes of venues you are likely to play in.

music - folk/indiepop/stuff.... think the microphones or sufjan stevens or maybe even neutral milk hotel

other instruments would go from the typical drums bass guitar but also synths and bells and keys and cello.

generally small venues, playing for 50 to a 100 people type thing.

im looking at different options but i have no idea what im looking for really.

[ukenstein]

Ukuleleworld.com and Elderly Instruments are both fine choices for ukes.

I just bought a Risa Uke Solid electric (maple hand craftsmanship from Europe). Also own Flea and Fluke acoustic ukes (made in the USA, great projection and highly regarded). Each about $150.

There are some nice solid wood ukes from $100 to 3,000 - each have their own voices.

Sorry zorf, don't mean to sound snooty but $40 ukes are usually in the toy catagory in terms of intonation, action and tone. My pov.
But I've heard some really cheapo plywood gut boxes sing in the hands of some players. So a lot comes from within the person.

[zorf]

Hi,
i actually prefer my $40 uke to the $200 uke, it just has something that
draws me back. The shop where i bought has a ton of ukes. The owner
will play every one in a shipment and keep just the best ones of the batch,
sending the rest back. If you ordered something online at that price point,
you would most likely get a piece of junk. But $150 to $200 range- pretty decent.
But i think Kasey would do great with a solid like the Risa.
I think they're pretty cheap, considering. Not common so you have to
order online and take a chance, but you could resell it easily enough if it didn't work for you. If fact, pm me if you don't like it, and i'll buy it from you.
You could install your own piezo if you like, but i haven't had good results
myself. again, a solid instrument can sometimes sound more acoustic at anything more than moderate volume.
In any case uke is my main instrument, and i play all kinds of music on it.
They are small and inexpensive. Bring a couple to the gig for a different flavor and backup.
good luck!

[ukenstein]

Great Info zorf all the way around toward kasey's needs.

Hey man I didn't mean any offense toward your $40 uke, I've got some inexpensive instruments that have "it". Due to a back and spine injury the uke has also become my main axe. Oh yea and what you mentioned about mail order is so right on. It's a very iffey deal at any price point to buy an instrument sight unseen. However Elderly is known for top notch set-ups (always included) and also they are great about returns. So worse case is really just the cost of shipping to the consumer. In my area of the world the uke shelves are pretty sparse so the mail order deal is kinda how it goes. uke-on.