The Electric Uke Thread

There is debatably a small impact to tone and volume by adding another pickup, even when that pickup is off, because you're basically placing a magnet close to magnetic strings. Although the theory makes sense, I don't see it play out in practice. People should choose based on the sounds they want and the look they want. The bridge pickup is certainly easier to get a classic aggressive "rock" tone out of, so if that's something you want easy access to, you should add a bridge pickup. It's hard to get a neck pickup to sound aggressive, especially on a low tension, short scale instrument like a ukulele. And even more so especially if your neck pickup is slammed right up near the neck - on most guitar designs, the neck pickup is on the bridge side of where the 24th fret would be - on a uke with a comparatively larger body and shorter fretboard, it's easy to unintentionally push the neck pickup further up the scale (relatively) than you intend to.

Negative effect on tone of having 2 magnetic pickups rather than 1 is quite negligible.
Sure, theoretically it makes sense... but plenty of industry standard 2 pickup guitars are used professionally and they are tone monsters.
In the big picture, I think it'll only be a very small factor impacting tone out of thousands of more significant factors such as choice of pickup and strings.

Having 1 pickup rather than 2 is probably more a decision related to costs than anything.
It is cheaper and easier to manufacture a whole lot of instruments with 1 pickup than 2.

Having 2 pickups certainly gives more versatility in available sounds. Bridge pickup is typically crunchier and punchier than the neck pickup (which tends to be fatter and mellower). On some Gibson 2 pickup guitars, the Bridge pickup is specifically referred to as "Solo" and the Neck pickup is referred to as "Rhythm" for that reason. And of course, you can blend the sounds of the 2 pickups, giving you yet even more options.

Personally I could live with a 1 pickup electric guitar/uke.
I can get a usable range of tone with just 1 pickup using amplifier settings and pedals.

Having 2 pickups is handy though. It just gives you a broader selection of tones.

Thank you guys! I then stick with a neck pickup, a bit a relief. Also Almuse have already winded and sent me dedicated pickup for the neck. So no more mind changing

DiAleksi said:

I'm designing a headless electric concert ukulele. But now I'm struggling in choosing double or single pickup version. Right now I'm with a single on the neck. It seems minimalistic and clean.

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What bridge tuners are those?