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)...