Is it possible my Kala uke doesn't take CR2032 batteries?

It is Oxband!

My reason for not responding is far more mundane: I didn't have the automatic notification on. I didn't think I had responses I guess.

I took the uke to a repair shop and they said it's not the batteries but they can't fix it. Well, they could but setting up a new pickup would be 300 and the uke was 200. Frustrating! I'm contacting Kala customer service but not optimistic.

Never got the banjolele....One day....

If a shop told me that as the solution, i.e., 'just broken, needs replacement' I'd never go back, and find another shop to get a second opinion and push for extreme details as to the reason for failure, like have them do actual work checking it out, maybe with both a multimeter and battery tester at the very least.

The upsell to install another pickup is bogus to me by that shop.

You can get the Mi-Si Trio for $120 or LR Baggs Five.0 for $150 online and do the install yourself which MIGHT take all of 20 mins since the holes for both the pickup element and endpin jack are already drilled in the uke...

Or skip those and do one of the K&K passive pickups for ~$75 or so, or one of JJB Electronics passive pickups for ~$30...but with these passive pickups, you MUST use a preamp to fix the impedance mismatch, like the Behringer ADI-21 ($29 everywhere)...
 
Great post with good advice. Aren't I lucky I came back to my thread!
 
If a shop told me that as the solution, i.e., 'just broken, needs replacement' I'd never go back, and find another shop to get a second opinion and push for extreme details as to the reason for failure, like have them do actual work checking it out, maybe with both a multimeter and battery tester at the very least.

The upsell to install another pickup is bogus to me by that shop.

You can get the Mi-Si Trio for $120 or LR Baggs Five.0 for $150 online and do the install yourself which MIGHT take all of 20 mins since the holes for both the pickup element and endpin jack are already drilled in the uke...

Or skip those and do one of the K&K passive pickups for ~$75 or so, or one of JJB Electronics passive pickups for ~$30...but with these passive pickups, you MUST use a preamp to fix the impedance mismatch, like the Behringer ADI-21 ($29 everywhere)...
I agree with Booli, I think $300 is pretty steep for installing a pickup. Like he says, a MiSi or a Baggs are top of the line, but if it is a $200 uke with a pickup and an EQ stuck in the side of the body, those are pretty generic. I bought a Joyo from Gitty for less than thirty dollars and stuck it in my cigarbox uke. It works fine. So if that is what you have, it wouldn't take much to put a new one in, and in all likelihood the piezo that is already under the saddle might plug right in to the EQ and you wouldn't have to even change that out. It wouldn't surprise me. Or you can upgrade. I mean, I'm just trying to help explore options.
 
One more thought... you can get the same preamp that is installed in your Kala for $20 or less and simply swap out one for the other. Kala uses readily available preamps that are made in China and can be purchased on eBay.

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One more thought... you can get the same preamp that is installed in your Kala for $20 or less and simply swap out one for the other. Kala uses readily available preamps that are made in China and can be purchased on eBay.

That's exactly what I would suggest. I've purchased many uke preamp/pickups for under $25 from China and installed them myself on ukes without any, but just swapping for a new matching one is easy enough.
 
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