PICK-UP or NO PICK-UP?

SoloRule

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My apology if this topic has already been discussed.

If you are buying an expensive uke (e.g. over $2,000), no plan to perform or jam. Would you still spend the money to install a pick-up ?

Like all electronic devices, hardware will eventually break down or becomes obsolete. Will it affect the value of the uke over time?
 
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I'd only get a ukulele with a pick-up if I performed publicly on a stage. For playing for myself, which is pretty much all of my playing, I don't need one. If I record something, for myself or for sharing, I'd just use a decent microphone or two.

My concern is the one you mentioned: electronics become obsolete. Pickup technology is still advancing at a fairly brisk pace, too.
 
Every topic has already been discussed. Don't let that stop you. I would say yes to the pickup. You say that you have no plans to perform or jam, but that could always change. Also, you don't have to perform or jam to have a good time with an amp, and eventually you might get one just to play around with. I have a Vox Mini3, and it has all kinds of effects built into it. I often times plug into it, put on a pair of earphones, and go nuts. It is fun. Maybe that is something you will want to do some day. Plus, a pickup usually means a strap button, so if you decide that you want to use a strap, you are ready. So my advise is get one, and if you don't use it, you're just out a little bit of money. But if you don't have one installed, you limit yourself in the future.

I'm not an expert on buying and selling ukuleles, but I would not buy one that didn't already have a pickup. I know that you can always have one installed later, but for me at least, it would be just too easy to buy one already installed. When the opportunity comes up, and you want to plug in, it is too late to go get one installed.
 
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I don't know if it would affect the overall value of the instrument over time. I would guess my concern would be if the wood around the control panel and the jack would chip or splinter over time. But proper maintenance and care would help with that.
 
Skip it if you don't want or need one. You can always add one later, then you have to buy an amp, cords, then probably microphones, more cords, cables, stuff...;-D
 
Everything that Rllink said X 2. Get the pickup installed at time of build by the builder and you will get the best result. It will.add to the resale value NOT take away from it. I had a pick up installed in my first custom and had no amp or chords and no desire for them

But I have them now and it is a blast, I would have regretted not getting a pick up installed because I plan on keeping this instrument. Are you going to trust some music store to do it if you want one installed in a year from now????
 
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Everything that Rllink said X 2. Get the pickup installed at time of build by the builder and you will get the best result. It will.add to the resale value NOT take away from it. I had a pick up installed in my first custom and had no amp or chords and no desire for them
But I do now and it is a blast, I would have regretted not getting a pick up installed because I plan on keeping this instrument. Are you going to trust some music store to do it if you want one install in a year from now????

Dave:
I was thinking of the Kamaka that is coming in two months time.
I don't think I need a pick up for the LfDM because it already has a side sound hole.
Rllink has a good point about the option of using a headphone. Never thought of that!
 
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Skip it if you don't want or need one. You can always add one later, then you have to buy an amp, cords, then probably microphones, more cords, cables, stuff...;-D

You are absolutely right ! There is no stopping once you started rolling ! It's a snowball effect! That's a great point!
 
Something to consider: if the luthier/builder installs the pickup at build-time, you have a single point of contact for support.

Some builders might refuse to install certain pickups or lack experience with certain pickups, so this can go either way, and may become problematic.

If you have it done later and something goes wrong, you may end up in a finger-pointing blame-game while not having the instrument to play while it all gets sorted out between the 3rd-party that is doing the install, and yourself and the original builder...

I've installed all my own pickups, so I assume full responsibility for everything. However, knowing that I can do this easily, I would not let the 'not having a pickup already' stop from from getting a certain uke. I'm NOT a luthier nor would claim to have luthery skills.

If you are not confident to do it yourself, then the aforementioned conditions may apply.
 
The only ukulele in which I have a pickup is my ultra-cheapo Rogue baritone. The pickup too, is of the low end variety...a simple passive piezo thing that I installed myself. Other than that, I seem to resist pickups altogether. My personal view (and nobody has to agree) is that the sound is nicer if you have the opportunity to use external mics to amplify the uke. However, I do see the value and usefulness of a good pickup. I just don't want one.
 
I'm using a Markley stick on (transducer), a Fishman pre-amp and a Behringer amp. This set up in on my Kala KA-SMHT now but I move it around to other ukes. My only concern is potential damage to the finish under the 'stickum', and so I haven't used it on my IZ.
Cheers,
R
 
I personally would not be spending that kind of money on a single uke, so I probably shouldn't comment, but what the heck.

No I wouldn't put electrics in it, I would buy a cheaper uke with pre installed electrics.

I think you would be paying money for a quality sound, & I think the best way to increase it would be by using quality microphones.

(Just my personal thoughts. :) )
 
I buy ready installed or install a pickup and preamp with tuner in all my ukes. I want to be ready for any possibility, but the tuner is my biggest reason. I have no concern what-so-ever about the wood, the cutouts are clean.

Take notice that pretty much every pro stage player from Jake to Aldrine to Sarah, etc. use a pickup and not a microphone.
 
Take notice that pretty much every pro stage player from Jake to Aldrine to Sarah, etc. use a pickup and not a microphone.

And pretty much every studio recording is done with microphones, and not with a pickup.
 
I'm using a Markley stick on (transducer), a Fishman pre-amp and a Behringer amp. This set up in on my Kala KA-SMHT now but I move it around to other ukes. My only concern is potential damage to the finish under the 'stickum', and so I haven't used it on my IZ.
Cheers,
R

Is it a gloss finish?

If so, buy a phone screen protector. The film kind. It's a static cling. Cut a square bit of it, and then stick that to the gloss, then stick the transducer to the film. That way anything in the stick-um doesn't actually contact your finish, but you can still stick away as much as you like.
 
If you are buying an expensive uke (e.g. over $2,000), no plan to perform or jam. Would you still spend the money to install a pick-up ?

I wouldn't install a pickup unless I performed on stage regularly or wanted to play through an amp and experiment with effects and such. None of my ukes have pickups, and the one or two times a year I play amplified or record, a mic does the job just fine.

When the discussion of getting pickups added came up in a uke group situation some time ago, the advice I was given was rather than add a pickup to a "good" uke, just buy a cheaper uke that comes with a pickup. Others in this thread have touched on sound quality issues that would be the reason for doing this.
 
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And pretty much every studio recording is done with microphones, and not with a pickup.

Having been a road manager for a couple of groups and spent a lot of time in recording studios, the guitars always plugged into the amps and then the amps were miced, but now a days with all the digital hook ups, the output could go directly to the board. I actually use an iRig HD to my Mac and record uke or bass with Garage Band.
 
There are pros and cons either way. For most people a pickup = under saddle piezo. My personal view is that even with a good quality one, they do not capture the true tone of your instrument and lead to all the instruments sounding samey. I've noticed this from going to open mics regularly and hearing lots of guitars with undersaddle pickups.

OTOH, a pickup is convenient if you are going through PA and are singing into a mic and if you are happy with the tone you get from your instrument. You just plug in and go.

If you are thinking of recording yourself, then similar arguments apply but I would suggest that recording through a mic is a better solution unless you want to use effects then a pickup is better.

For playing live, one alternative to a pickup is the single condenser mic technique that is used by a lot of Bluegrass bands. I've seen both Del Ray and Phil Doleman use this technique with a ukulele and it is excellent because you not only get their voice and instrument properly in balance and capture the true sound of their instrument but also with a good soundman, you are unaware they are amplified at all, yet they can be heard as clear as a bell without sounding loud.

For myself I have tried the single condenser technique with my Samson personal PA and it worked for me. You have more freedom of movement than with two SM58s (the usual approach) and it's easy to swap instruments (no unplugging one and plugging the other in).

For open mics I take a Risa solid - usually a tenor Uke'Ellie but I have used my concert "stick" as well. They have a good quality passive under saddle piezo so you do really need a preamp as the output is not usually enough to drive a typical desk so I take one along, though one venue has their own. I find that works well for me. I get pretty good tone and it's easy to just plug and go.

The Risas serve very well if I need to plug in so I've no intention of having a pickup fitted to any of my other ukes though I do have a microvox pickup of the miniature condenser mic type which works well but is a little more fuss as you have to have a psu clipped on to your belt or uke strap to power it. OTOH, it just "sticks" on with a little velcro pad and is unobtrusive and in terms of capturing the tone of the instrument is better than a piezo pickup. You - ie the soundman - does have to be a little careful with levels as they can be prone to feedback if the setup is less than ideal.

My views and personal preferences FWIW.
 
I recently had a pickup installed in a Kamaka baritone because it's the ukulele I play when my Wednesday evening ukulele class performs and the guy who runs the group wanted to plug me in so the baritone could be heard with all the other ukes in the group. While I was getting pickups, I had one installed on my Kamaka tenor, in case I ever do open mics, etc. Tthe pickups I ended up getting -- L.R. Baggs 5.0 -- are light and unobtrusive (the volume control is a little wheel installed inside the soundhole, not a panel on the side of the uke that would require removing some of the uke's wood) and they run on those little disc batteries. I already had a strap button on both ukes.

I have a Moore Bettah. It's the tenor I'd be most likely to perform with, and it has no pickup because it didn't have one when I bought it from its original owner. I'd consider installing one, but the only person I'd trust to install one in it is Chuck Moore, and I wouldn't bother him with that. Also, I'd be likely to perform with a tenor uke either by myself or with a small group (in which the uke could be miced or not), or with a large group in which we're all unamped, I don't feel that I need a pickup in that uke.

When I bought my Kamaka tenor in Kaua'i, Sam (the proprietor of the store in Kapa'a where I bought it and now the guy who runs Kamoa Ukulele) told me that he preferred the sound of an uke through a mic because pickup amplification was a digitalization of the strings vibrating the soundboard, while a mic was the amplification of an acoustic instrument. In other words, a mic picks up the sound the strings make and the sounds your fingers make when hitting the strings, while a pickup assigns an electronic sound to the soundboard's vibrations directly. He said that pickups only made sense when it would be difficult to stay in front of a mic, as when performers roam the stage while playing. I like the relative purity of the sound of an instrument being played through a mic, but with my class when we perform, we don't have enough mics to devote to the instruments so we plug in.
 
My apology if this topic has already been discussed.

If you are buying an expensive uke (e.g. over $2,000), no plan to perform or jam. Would you still spend the money to install a pick-up ?

Like all electronic devices, hardware will eventually break down or becomes obsolete. Will it affect the value of the uke over time?
Yes. I had one put in my Moore Bettah when it was built. You just never know when you need it.
 
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