Semi Acoustic Uke??

UkuLeLesReggAe

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
5,507
Reaction score
14
Location
Australia, Sydney to Newcastle
NOt sure what you call them ukuleles like Jakes, where you can plug in the amp thing like jakes.

Anyway, my question is... Aldrine is your semi acoustic or is it just a ukulele??
I dont think i have ever seen the back of it, and i don't think that it is..

As you all may know, I like his ukulele, better than Jakes even... Although i can't go out and buy one and do all these mods.

What was the ukulele before you customized it?? I ask so many of these questions to you, makes me feel like you think i am an idiot :D! BUt im more interested in your uke than school right now ^^

What is the ukulele called stock? Because you said you bought it stock, is it just the normal Kamaka Tenor??

anyways, thanks.. :)
 
I guess everyone who is playing on the stage has to have a pick up and an amp. Otherwise you wont just hear the Ukulele play. But its still an acoustic ukulele. It's just being amplified.

Semi acoustic would be the Risa Electric. It's an electric Ukulele with "sound chambers". I don'T know the exact purpose of them, as I never had one in my hand (would really be cool to have one).
http://www.ukulele.de/menu/ But the characteristics of a semi-acoustic would be that it can'T be really played without amplification.
Well I can ask the producer of RISA what the purpose of those sound chambers are, if you want. Hes active in the German Ukuleleclub.
 
I think what you guys are referring to are more along the lines of "acoustic electric."
Semi-acoustic falls more along the lines of hollow body guitars, where the sound holes just provide for some more amplification that you can't get from a solid body guitar (such as when playing an electric guitar without it being plugged in).
Acoustic Electrics are acoustic guitars that have electronics in them, but still sound as they would unplugged.

I don't know much about Aldrine or his uke, except that I thought he got his built by a manufacturer in the Phillipines.

And to bof - as far as not being able to hear the acoustic ukulele playing if someone were doing a live performance...how about a microphone?
 
I think what you guys are referring to are more along the lines of "acoustic electric."
Semi-acoustic falls more along the lines of hollow body guitars, where the sound holes just provide for some more amplification that you can't get from a solid body guitar (such as when playing an electric guitar without it being plugged in).
Acoustic Electrics are acoustic guitars that have electronics in them, but still sound as they would unplugged.

I don't know much about Aldrine or his uke, except that I thought he got his built by a manufacturer in the Phillipines.

And to bof - as far as not being able to hear the acoustic ukulele playing if someone were doing a live performance...how about a microphone?

Well for a microphone - If you have a Kondensator Microphone, there might be the problem of acoustic feedback.
 
Yeah Jake and Aldrine both play whats called 'Acoustic Electric' ukuleles. They're regular ukuleles with pickups installed so they can be amplified on amps or PA systems.
 
Well for a microphone - If you have a Kondensator Microphone, there might be the problem of acoustic feedback.

Well, with any microphone you could run into feedback issues but sound engineers with a proper set up will be able to notch out the frequencies that are causing feedback. Before any show, the engineer forces the microphone to feedback by cupping their hands or their mouth over the microphone causing sound to bounce right back through the microphone and create a feed back loop, and if they have a good ear they could tell which frequency it is and use the system's EQ to get rid of the frequency causing feedback.

I think a good microphone could amplify your ukulele even better than the onboard electronics because sometimes, cheap pickups can cause humming and buzzing and whatnot. The downside would be limited movement in order to retain proper projection into the microphone, but this shouldn't be a problem unless you're the grooving type like Jake.

In a recording situation, you would probably use both a microphone on the ukulele, and a direct input from the uke's pickups if it were acoustic electric. Then you could blend the two sounds together to find what you're looking for.

Sorry to derail, I just thought I should clear some things up.
 
yeah I know that if you have a tone engineer with you or just a good djay who can use the eq very well, mic won't be any problem.
But first you need a good mic, and thats not cheap either. So what speaks against buying a good pick up or a ukulele with a good pick-up already build in?

If I'm recording at home I really prefer my Rode NT1a.
 
yeah I know that if you have a tone engineer with you or just a good djay who can use the eq very well, mic won't be any problem.
But first you need a good mic, and thats not cheap either. So what speaks against buying a good pick up or a ukulele with a good pick-up already build in?

If I'm recording at home I really prefer my Rode NT1a.
Bof, From my personal experience, to mic a guitar or uke on stage and for the audience to hear it at a "decent" level is only possible with your main speakers very far away from the source (the guitar or uke) and the mic at a very high gain. In fact the better the mic the more problems you will have with feedback. Additional, if you move the mic an inch or so out of the sweet spot (which is not very sweet to begin with) on the uke you will lose most (if not all) of the little volume that you have attained. Move your body left or right, again, it's gone. In the old days, there were no built-in piezo pickups. You would play on stage with the PA speaker way, way out to the side..far away from the guitar, without moving your body, and without any monitors. Any small club was a serious feedback venue. Eq guru or not, it would be best to abandon all hope of using a mic to ampilfer an acoustic instrument in a practical situation. It's a deadend road. A piezo pickup at this time is still the best volume to tone to feedback ratio on the market today. thanks,....e.lo...

Note: Using a mic on a uke in a studio is totally different than live amplifcation. The sound booth is totally isolated from the instrument therefore zero feedback....thanks, e.lo...
 
Last edited:
Oh yeah I see e-lo... Havnt much life performance experience yet.. But yeah using my rode live wouldnt be a good idea, thats true.
 
Oh yeah I see e-lo... Havnt much life performance experience yet.. But yeah using my rode live wouldnt be a good idea, thats true.
Bof, glad to talk to someone from Germany (I mean... Deutschland!). I played over there when I was 17 years old for about 8 months. Came straight from Hawaii (where I lived at the time) to Luxenburg to Frankfort to Recklinghausen where I had a little 3 piece i.e. Hendrix/Cream band. Stayed until the dead of winter when we ran out of food and money. Played a bit in Bonn, Frankfort, and Recklinghausen. Lived across the street from a city park with a castle surrounded by a moat! Very cool country, and the audiences were friendly also!....nice to meet ya brother, e.lo.....
 
Last edited:
Haha nice. I live in the southern part of Germany. Munich where the good beer is from :cool:. If you want to come to Germany for Ukulele reasons, come this August. The European Ukulele festival will take place. http://www.u-cool-ele.de/
But I guess its a bit expensive and in Hawaii, you can see ukulele live acts regularly anyways.

Well for the Semi Acoustic discussion, I will buy the Risa Electric in some month and try it out. I will certainly report about it here, but currently my budget is pretty small. So you have to be patient
 
Bof, wish I could make the Germany uke fest this August, but that would be a big order. Yeah, don't live in Hawaii anymore. Somewhere along the way and ended up in Lexington, KY! Not a good move for me. Boy did I get lost! haaha....see ya,...e.lo...
 
Top Bottom