Installing electrics

I have some ukes that don't have much volume & was wondering if installing electrics into any of them would be worthwhile.

How difficult would it be to install the electrics?
To me, it looks like I would just cut the holes & screw them in place.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Depends on what kind of device you plan on getting, there are a great variety. The key part is the pickup which has a cable that goes to an output jack (passive system) or to a preamp with a battery and output jack (active system). Some are little microphones or piezo disks that tape inside the top, some are under saddle type where the bridge and saddle have to be cut to fit the pickup, a rather involved operation since the pickup has to be perfectly flat in the bridge under the saddle for the all strings to amplify equally. I prefer active with a preamp that has bass mid and treble adjusters (EQ) and a built in tuner.

Many thanks for your reply.

Yes, I was thinking more on the lines of an active system, but I may not be able to do that kind of work accurately enough, so I shall take a look at what 'clip on' systems are available.

There's another thread on installing a pickup. In it I said that I am an old lady with few diy skills and I out an active pickup (misi) in my baritone uke. Not hard. Check out HMS video on install. As for clip ons, I use a Cherub, super cheap (like $7 incl ship) clipped to my sopranos headstock.Better sound w/ Behringer DI box added (about $20). Old threads mentioned this.

Thanks for your replies folks, I shall head off & look through 'Tech' for more info.

The reason that I was asking is that I lack volume whilst recording, I bought a USB mic (Samson Meteor) but it doesn't seem to help much.
(I was thinking about my Makala ukes, or possibly my Kala SLNG, not expensive instruments.)

P.S. I have ordered 2 clip on type pickups to try out, should arrive next week.

You can find interior photos of installing a K&K Big Island transducer on my uke page:

http://www.bluestemstrings.com/pageUke1.html

I'm a big fan of a passive pickup routed externally to a pre-amp. Excess weight and hacking holes in an instrument are two objections.

The Big Island sounds great, is easy to install, and most importantly, doesn't detract for the acoustic tone of an instrument, plus you don't know it's there unless you look carefully.

Your "low volume when recording" is a whole other issue. Please check my "Home Recording" link at the top of the linked page at my website for an answer to your low recorded volume issue.

Thanks for your reply Rudy, but I'm sorry to say, nearly all of that goes over my head.