Need opinion on where to get a Mi-Si pick up installed

Hey all..

Need your opinion. I broke down and ordered a mi-si pickup for my koaloha ukulele. Im too freaked out about drilling a hole in my uke so I've decided to get it installed. I called McCabe's guitar shop and spoke to a guy that said that he's never installed a misi setup before but "it cant be too hard". Then I called another local luthier that normally doesnt work on ukes but came recommended from a friend then he said.. never installed a pick up on a uke but looks simple enough.

I guess what Im asking is.. Do you guys / gals think i should just pick one or keep looking. Living is Socal, I really dont have much options so I figured that a veteran luthier that doesnt normally work on a uke is better than "me" trying to install a pick up.. sorry for rambling

Thanks in advance

generem said:

Hey all..

Need your opinion. I broke down and ordered a mi-si pickup for my koaloha ukulele. Im too freaked out about drilling a hole in my uke so I've decided to get it installed. I called McCabe's guitar shop and spoke to a guy that said that he's never installed a misi setup before but "it cant be too hard". Then I called another local luthier that normally doesnt work on ukes but came recommended from a friend then he said.. never installed a pick up on a uke but looks simple enough.

I guess what Im asking is.. Do you guys / gals think i should just pick one or keep looking. Living is Socal, I really dont have much options so I figured that a veteran luthier that doesnt normally work on a uke is better than "me" trying to install a pick up.. sorry for rambling

Thanks in advance

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keep lookin dude, even if you need to send your uke off somewhere, im planning on installing that exact pickup next year to my kanilea will only ever do it/let someone do it who have installed pickups before on ukes...

Have you tried True Tone Music in Santa Monica? I know they have a few ukes, but mostly a guitar store. They put on my strap buttons without any problems, and were more reasonable in their pricing than McCabes was for the same procedure. They have a lot of famous clients in the music biz. And guitar experience might help for the uke install.

–Lori

Mike at McCabe's installed my MiSi pickup in my Kamaka. They had never seen one before, but he did a pretty good job. It cost $75 and took about 2 or three days average to get a pickup installed -- mine took two but I bugged him on the phone constantly.

wickedwahine11 said:

Mike at McCabe's installed my MiSi pickup in my Kamaka. They had never seen one before, but he did a pretty good job. It cost $75 and took about 2 or three days average to get a pickup installed -- mine took two but I bugged him on the phone constantly.

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I think I spoke to Matt. He pretty much said the same thing except he said to call to make an appt and it should be the same day.. Im still shopping around but $75 seems pretty steep..

Thanks for the input tho

generem said:

I think I spoke to Matt. He pretty much said the same thing except he said to call to make an appt and it should be the same day.. Im still shopping around but $75 seems pretty steep..

Thanks for the input tho

Click to expand...

IMO McCabe's isn't the place to take it. Matt did some great work on an electric guitar of mine, but ukes aren't his thing. I asked a while back about putting a pickup into a soprano and they all looked at each other like it was the weirdest thing they'd heard, and then said sopranos are "too small" for that, and they never heard of putting stick-ons on ukes and didn't carry them anyway, blah blah...

I would ask Mike at Mainland if he could do it, but then there's the waiting and shipping costs. My Mainland has a topnotch install of the MiSi, perfectly balanced.

I am going be doing a Mi-si install in the next week or so. I am going to do it myself but I don't have an expensive "k" to worry about ruining.... it's a KPK but it's no "k"

The install looks straight forward to me and there is enough info on the web to give you a good idea of how to do it. Maybe you can ask one of those people you mentioned to drill the holes for you and you do the rest. I'm sure they know how to do that much.

http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14734

A couple of things to clarify and some very hard earned advice.
First off, Mi-Si is a preamp, the pickup is a LR Baggs Element.
http://www.mi-si.com/trio.html
http://www.lrbaggs.com/html/products/systems_element.shtml

The Element is an under saddle transducer and this type of pickup should not be installed by anyone who hasn't done it before (either on a guitar or an ukulele). The BIGGEST installation issue with this pickup is to make sure the saddle slot and the bottom of the saddle are perfectly FLAT. If either is not flat, you will have major string to string balance issues. The Mi-Si is part of the endpin so it's installation is easy once the endblock is drilled for it.

I can't imagine in SoCal that you don't have luthiers that have installed these under saddle pickups like the Element or Fishman Matrix Infinity. The install is the same on an ukulele as it is on a guitar.

Jimmy