I need a little advice, please.

Nickie

Nickie

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We played a pretty nice set today for an Assisted Living facility audience.
We have a new sound system (Yamaha powered speakers), and it makes us sound the best we've ever sounded.
However, my uke with a K&K passive pickup will not play through the mixer.
Another's Mainland uke with a passive pickup will, however.
So, I had to route it directly into the powered speaker, which I don't care to do.
Our techie says I need a pre-amp to hook into the line to make this work properly.
Can anyone recommend one, that doesn't cost a whole lot?
Thanks
 
I don't have one but the Behringer ADI21 is often mentioned in this context. And at under $30, it's worth a shot.
 
Orchid Electronics also makes a couple of barebones but high-quality preamps that may address your needs.
 
I will 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th the Behringer AD121. I have one of these and a LR Baggs Venue DI which is literally 10x the price and I like the Behringer just as much. Members over at Acoustic Guitar Forum give the Behringer a lot of love and recommend it all the time. Those people are really fussy about tone.
 
Thanks Jim, John, Bill, David, Keith, Dave, and Jerry.
I have sent an email to Booli, but if I don't hear back from him, I'll go with your recommendations!
Uke on!
 
I have a K&K Pure preamp that I used with the K&K Twinspot in my Donaldson - works well, but I noticed that when I plugged into a passive DI box at the local open mic, it worked just as well...

So I got a couple of passive DI boxes. I also use them with my active pickups (MiSi, and L.R.Baggs). Now, I adjust the EQ at the sound board, rather than at my waist.

Behringer Ultra-DI DI400P Professional High-Performance Passive DI-Box

Behringer Ultra-DI DI600P Professional High-Performance Passive DI-Box


-Kurt​
 
In the end, a preamp may well be what you need, however what I'm reading is somewhat mixed up and I'd really like to get the information straight in order to give the best advice.

Also, as much as I'm happy to use Behringer gear, the ADI21 is NOT a preamp. Its a Direct Input box which is something else again.

Mixers have preamps, but how many preamps. Some channels on mixers may be line level stereo channels so no preamp. Your K&K pickup should at least produce some sound when running through a preamp channel but yes there won't be any volume through a line level stereo channel.

I've just given you MORE questions. Having your own preamp to go with the K&K Sound pickup is a good idea yet the Behringer ADI21 isn't a preamp. Its a Modelling Direct Input box. K&K Sound have preamps to work with their pickups as ukecaster wrote. There are other units on the market as well but definitely a preamp. Not just a DI.
 
Last edited:
Thanks Kurt, thanks Anthony....
We found a direct input, or a preamp lying in a drawer in our music room that works just fine! I'm not even sure what it is, it doesn't have a name on it, has a 9V battery, and goes between the uke pickup and the PA.
I feel very dumb about sound equipment, I just get lucky sometimes...
 
Just to correct something, the active Di boxes do function as an active preamp as well as a Di box.

Usually, if your instrument has an active preamp and you wish to plug into xlr you need a passive Di box. If you have an instrument with a passive pickup you would choose an active Di box.
 
Davoravo said:
Just to correct something, the active Di boxes do function as an active preamp as well as a Di box.

Usually, if your instrument has an active preamp and you wish to plug into xlr you need a passive Di box. If you have an instrument with a passive pickup you would choose an active Di box.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but this isn't necessarily true. Do SOME active DI's have a preamp function? Sure, some do but not all and if they do have a preamp function how good is it and how much pre-amplification.
So many questions and no simple answers.
 
Nickie said:
Thanks Kurt, thanks Anthony....
We found a direct input, or a preamp lying in a drawer in our music room that works just fine! I'm not even sure what it is, it doesn't have a name on it, has a 9V battery, and goes between the uke pickup and the PA.
I feel very dumb about sound equipment, I just get lucky sometimes...
Click to expand...

If it has a battery, but no volume or tone controls, it is most probably an active DI box, and should do everything you want. Just adjust the EQ on the sound board. If it has volume and tone controls, it is a preamp.

-Kurt​
 
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