What removable pickup ?

Hi,

I am starting to buy my first ukulele (maybe a kit) in the $50-$100 pricerange. I'd like to buy a not very expensive but usable pickuep that will be used to :
-Keep track of how I play every week, to see if I'm getting better
-Send the files to some distant friends so we can mix with vocals
The pickup has to be easily added / removed (I want my uke to stay a "piece of wood" when I don't record, which is 99% of the time). Also I'd like to be able to use it on my girlfriend's uke (and maybe on my martin D-41 )

My only pickup for now is a WM-61A panasonic electret which is well suited for loudspeaker mesurement. ($2 for the mic, plus $20 for a diy amplifier). Do you know if there is a not to expensive mic that would do a better job than this for recording ukulele ?

Regards,
John.

If that's all you need a pickup for, then you don't need a pickup... you need a mic. Pretty much any halfway decent microphone is going to sound better than a pickup, IMHO.

I recently got a Blue Snowball, which I like a lot. It has the advantage of being able to plug right into the USB port. But if you've already got some sort of audio interface for your computer, then any mic will do. You could probably get a basic condenser mic for $50 or so.

JJ

I just bought a cheap Cherub WCP-60G guitar pickup to fart around with since it only cost $11.95. I have always been acoustic unamplified kind of guy up my latest UAS purchase came with a piezo pickup so I bought a Danelectro Honeytone amp to play (hasn't arrived yet) and thought "what the hell" and bought this el cheapo clip-on pickup to play with my other ukuleles and guitar and the new amp. If nothing works out it was a very small investment. I'll let you know how it sounds when the amp arrives.

I have a $65. Dualie stick-on pick-up I used to use, but I got tired of it landing on my foot. My husband installed a Shadow pick-up in my uke and I'm happy. The Shadow sounds very good for a $60 investment.

I like the Dean Markley Artist Transducer. A little gaffer's tape goes a long way. Might even install it inside my Flea, once I figure out how to wire it to a female jack.

Ukulele JJ said:

If that's all you need a pickup for, then you don't need a pickup... you need a mic. Pretty much any halfway decent microphone is going to sound better than a pickup, IMHO.

Click to expand...

I totally agree. (I'd just agree but that's less then 10 characters.)

cpatch said:

I totally agree. (I'd just agree but that's less then 10 characters.)

Click to expand...

Unless you move around a lot when you play.

Thanks you for all you advices

So finally, I'll stay with my high quality home-made electret. Maybe I'll make a kind of clip so I can hang it to the soundhole (maybe with some brass wire, covered with a layer of transparent silicone), add a ver small / soft wire for the first 2', then a normal wire which reaches the amp.

John.