Hi Mooserman40,
Welcome to UU!
If you don’t want to modify your uke, the simplest way is to have a mic on a stand in front of you, and play
into that mic.
Most standard 'vocal' mics will do fine since the frequency range of the ukulele is actually within the same range of the human singing voice. You want to make sure to use a 'cardioid' or similar mic which simply means that it is MOST sensitive right in front of the mic, and less sensitive on the sides and back, as opposed to an OMNI-directional mic which picks up sound in 360 degrees, and will have issues with feedback that need to be dealt with. Popular examples of such cardioid mics are like the Shure SM58, PG48, etc and SM57, PG47 etc.
The main downside of a mic is that you cannot move around otherwise you will be away from the sweet spot of the mic picking you up, and you will not be heard through the PA.
If you don’t mind standing in place when you play, the least expensive and least complicated solution is to have whomever is running the PA sound system for the marching band, provide you with such a mic, on an adjustable stand, and to be able to do a sound-check so that the sound-guy can set your levels properly.
Otherwise, to install MANY under-saddle pickups (UST), passive or active, they require 2 or 3 holes to be drilled for installation and 'that's it'...
If you have a standard passive 'rod' piezo UST with an endpin jack, you can get them at places like
http://cbgitty.com for as low as $17, and it requires only 2 holes, and NO SOLDERING.
You can see this item here:
http://www.cbgitty.com/cigar-box-gu...zo-endpin-jack-harness-no-soldering-required/
The installation is similar to the Mi-Si below, but with only 1 hole required in the saddle slot, and you can either have the slot routed deeper (as in the Uke Minute video below) or shave the saddle itself down to accommodate the 2-3mm increase in height from the pickup element, otherwise your action might be too high, and your intonation will change (usually for the worse).
If you have an active 'ribbon' piezo UST such as the Mi-Si Acoustic Trio (which does not require batteries, but has a rechargeable capacitor), or the LR Baggs Five.0 (which uses a CR2032 battery), your installation will in fact require 3 holes for proper installation.
See the video below for an example of the Mi-Si installation process:
http://ukuleleunderground.com/2009/11/uke-minutes-69-how-to-install-an-ukulele-pickup/
The LR Baggs is similar for how to properly install it.
Note that both of these pickups have a preamp. Without a preamp, any piezo pickup, whether surface transducer or under-saddle transducer, is going to sound tinny and 'quacky', and have a lower volume output due to a problem that is called 'impedance mismatch', which is typically corrected when using a proper preamp.
Impedance matching can be a long subject, so I wont go into detail now, but you can search wikipedia for info...
However for a
passive piezo, MANY folks here on UU have had great success with an EXTERNAL preamp made by Behringer, in the ADI-21 model (~$30), as seen here:
http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/ADI21.aspx
There are TONS of videos of the Behringer on YouTube showing how it works, and the advantage of an external preamp is that you can use it on another instrument, for example if you get another uke later on, no need for a preamp to be installed, since you already have the ADI-21...
Also, while a surface transducer is useful too, many folks do not like the fact that they also pickup ALL the surface handling noise of the instrument, NOT just the strings, every tap, knock, scratch, moving against your body is picked up by surface transducers, and even with a preamp, feedback tends to be a problem. There are ways to mitigate feedback, but it adds some complexity to your setup, and there are ways to mitigate the surface handling noise, but this requires a strict discipline in adjusting your playing technique.
While this is a review for a different instrument, an example of the surface noise can be seen in this video by fellow UU brother BazMaz, which I've indexed to start @ 6:34 where he demonstrates how the pickup sounds and shows the surface noise:
https://youtu.be/BFFVtiEAdDg?t=6m34s
Here is another helpful link for a video done by Hawaii Music Supply where they compare 5 different ukulele pickups:
https://vimeo.com/63940107
This might give you an idea of the sound difference (best to listen with headphones).
I might have missed something, but hopefully this will be enough info to get you started in the right direction.
You can alse use the search function here for the words 'pickup', 'preamp', behringer' (without the quotes) and you will find lots of previous discussions on these topics...for which there is no one 'perfect' answer -- Just opinions on what folks like for themselves.
If you need more info, please ask, as many folks here on UU have been down this same path and are typically willing to offer help and advice.
-Booli
