pickup for Kala longneck soprano

I’m looking for advice on a pickup to have installed in my Kala KA-SLNG (longneck soprano, mahogany laminate). I’m wondering if a K&K (Aloha Twin or Big Spot) would work, but I’m open to anything that is less than $100. I have a Baggs Para D.I. and a K&K Pure Preamp in case they would be needed, although I’d prefer to not need one — not sure if that is realistic, though.

I’d be using this on cold/dry days that I don’t want to take my solid-wood concert (with Baggs pickup) out of the house.

I’d be paying someone to install the pickup, as I am quite incompetent (in this category, at least). Thanks.

DaveY said:

I’m looking for advice on a pickup to have installed in my Kala KA-SLNG (longneck soprano, mahogany laminate). I’m wondering if a K&K (Aloha Twin or Big Spot) would work, but I’m open to anything that is less than $100. I have a Baggs Para D.I. and a K&K Pure Preamp in case they would be needed, although I’d prefer to not need one — not sure if that is realistic, though.

I’d be using this on cold/dry days that I don’t want to take my solid-wood concert (with Baggs pickup) out of the house.

I’d be paying someone to install the pickup, as I am quite incompetent (in this category, at least). Thanks.

Click to expand...

Those are BOTH great preamps. I understand the desire to schlep as little equipment as possible, but to not use them would both be a shame, as well as a disservice to your audience.

The reason being for both is that passive piezo pickups require the use of a preamp due to what is called 'impedance mismatch', and the short version is that without a preamp, a piezo pickup acts as a high-pass filter and sounds quacky and tinny.

I've actually written on this topic in depth here on UU (in nearly 100 threads over the past 3 yrs), detailed explanations how it all works, which you can see if you search the forum for the word 'impedance' (without the quotes) and see if that helps you.

Please understand that I am not being rude or lazy by referring you to the search, but this same question has been answered by me in detail already numerous times and retyping it again here is just painful when the text already exists in both concise as well as detailed form in other threads...

I've not used a K&K lately and preferred to either use a Mi-Si, which has an active pre-amp built-in and uses a rechargable capacitor instead of a battery that never needs replacing, and if not a Mi-Si, I have build my own pickups from PVDF piezo film with various different external preamps, but have used MANY different kinds of acoustic pickups that are similar to the K&K or JJB for guitars, mando, violin, ukulele, upright bass, etc in my work as a sound engineer for the past 30 yrs, and really to get the best bang for the buck, and not punish your audience with harsh and brittle sound, you really HAVE TO use a preamp to correct the impedance mismatch that exists with ALL piezo pickups due to physics, electricity and chemistry.

Please search for 'impedance', and read those threads, and I'd be happy to answer any other questions once you have done that....

However, if you prefer to not learn how and why, then the ultra-simple facts are:

A passive pickup REQUIRES a preamp, otherwise sound is BAD due to ignoring impedance mismatch.

Good Luck :music:

Thanks for your reply, Booli. I'm fine with using an external preamp if it's needed, and I trust you that it is. I'm familiar with the MiSi (and Baggs), but want to keep the cost down, and I've already invested in the external preamps. If you (or anyone) has an idea on K&K Big Spot vs. K&K Aloha Twin vs. JJB vs. anything else, I'll gladly take it.

I'm also wondering if the size or other aspects of this particular ukulele (see http://www.theukulelesite.com/kala-ka-slng-gloss-soprano-longneck.html ) suggest one pickup over another.

DaveY said:

Thanks for your reply, Booli. I'm fine with using an external preamp if it's needed, and I trust you that it is. I'm familiar with the MiSi (and Baggs), but want to keep the cost down, and I've already invested in the external preamps. If you (or anyone) has an idea on K&K Big Spot vs. K&K Aloha Twin vs. JJB vs. anything else, I'll gladly take it.

I'm also wondering if the size or other aspects of this particular ukulele (see http://www.theukulelesite.com/kala-ka-slng-gloss-soprano-longneck.html ) suggest one pickup over another.

Click to expand...

I have the KA-sSLNG, same as yours but with the solid spruce top. I too have also thought about a pickup.

I know you said you are going to have it professionally installed, so please bear with my thought process, for I would do this install myself and save the $75 labor and only takes about 15 mins to do, very carefully, but I've installed dozens of pickups already so I am pretty confident in these procedures...

Definitely a passive one, both for cost and also to keep it light and only a hole for the endpin jack. Problem is getting your fingers far back enough to install a surface transducer under the bridge plate, which is the 'ideal' location, however on other ukes, I've had good sound by placing the pickup as far back as I can get from the sound hole, just past the brace between the sound hole and bridge, but as close to the bridge as possible. Not too boomy, nor too quacky with the external preamp.

For a soprano, I think you can get by with a smaller 15-20mm single transducer, since a larger 25-35mm transducer may have trouble fitting between the top's braces on a soprano if attached anywhere besides the bridge plate...

I think that some luthers and guitar techs have this well-kept secret of a magical jig-caul-lever thingy that lets them somehow cantilever-install a surface transducer to the bottom of the bridge plate FROM the sound hole.

I've seen tons of videos on how this is done with guitars and most of them have a sound hole wide enough to get your hand fully inside and you can feel for the right location, but every uke I have, you'd need hands no more than those of the width of a cabbage patch kid to get inside the body.

Having said that a 'twin spot' or 'dual head' transducer might be ok with each transducer head is small enough, like 15mm, otherwise you would run afoul of the braces under the top to find a spot wide enough, but I have not looked inside my KA-sSLNG with a mirror and flashlight to see the bracing pattern...therefore this is just general speculation...

The other thing is that the sound is likely to be different between a single vs. a dual-head pickup, but not necessarily louder, and if they are wired in parallel, then they will have lower impedance vs, if they are wired in series, but likely not enough difference in the impedance from they typical 1M (million) Ohms of a single head piezo vs 2M ohms for a series pair, or 500K
ohms for a parallel pair to matter, in that a pre-amp is still going to be required since anything that is looking for a guitar input is expecting betw 10k to 100k ohms input and anything that is looking for a mic input is expecting betw 150 to 1k ohms input...

But without understanding the impedance matching, none of this is going to matter...

For simplicity and cost saving, for my own KA-sSLNG I'd likely just go with a single transducer, and because I am a frugal SOB, likely one from JJB Electronics, which is half the price of the K&K, but since I'd prefer the endping jack, (already have a strap pin on my ukes) you need to make sure that you specify the endpin jack when ordering as opposed to the 'standard' offering of the 1/4" 'panel-mount' jack if you order from JJB...

I know I'm kind of rambling, but I hope this helps any way...

Thanks for all that info, including the installation instructions. But believe me, installing a pickup myself is as likely to succeed as me trying to successfully juggle seven flaming chainsaws – it's not just where my skills and brain(s) lie. I think the install would be less than $75 where I live, but in any case I'll consider the Big Spot and the JJB (Prestige 110? that's what their website says). I'm going to take a shot at the impedance readings and hope that the dormant science part of my brain doesn't impede me with the impedance.