ukulele pick-ups

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can u guys give me other good pick ups beside the misi that gives the pure acoustic sound of the ukulele when plugged in? I'm saving for a pick up once I get my kamoa spruce top.
 
Brian Benevente from KoAloha recommended that I put an L.R. Baggs Element Active pickup on my KoAloha Tenor. Now that I've read more about the MiSi I've got quite a decision to make. :)
 
the misi pick up do sound good against shadow active but how does it compared to others. I know aldrine has a good sounding pick up in his kamaka n kanilea. Well I don't really know much about the pick ups so I'm here to learn. Also later on when I install it in my uke I won't have no problem which one to choose because like ukulele there are so many options out there.
 
Aww I'm somewhat disapointed I was hopeing this thread was about members of the opposit sex being attracted to ukulele players based on the title :)
 
Brian Benevente from KoAloha recommended that I put an L.R. Baggs Element Active pickup on my KoAloha Tenor. Now that I've read more about the MiSi I've got quite a decision to make. :)

That would be my choice.
 
Personally I'm a fan of Shadow pickups - I have found them reliable for ukes across the years.
But that's also taking into account cost-effectiveness. They tend to be affordable :)

Apparently Fishman are supposed to sound very good. It appears both Aldrine and Jake use Fishman?
 
Personally I'm a fan of Shadow pickups - I have found them reliable for ukes across the years.
But that's also taking into account cost-effectiveness. They tend to be affordable :)

the shadow undersaddle ukulele pickup is 69.95 at musicians friend. the fishman pickup is 79.95. i would go with fishman personally. its a 10 dollar difference and i would trust the fishman a lot more
 
the shadow undersaddle ukulele pickup is 69.95 at musicians friend. the fishman pickup is 79.95. i would go with fishman personally. its a 10 dollar difference and i would trust the fishman a lot more

Ah fair enough.
I thought I saw Fishman pickups that were a lot more expensive.
I think they have different models, the better ones costing a lot more.
 
I could be wrong but I think Jake and Aldrine use the Fishman Infinity Matrix Pickup. That would go for $139.95. I could be mistaken but I thought I read that somewhere.
 
Some great suggestions. Baggs, Misi, Fishman - all great. Shadow's elements are also much better than they get credit for - don't write them off.

That said, the OP asked about pure acoustic tone. Well, IMHO you will not get a "pure", faithful reproduction of an instrument's acoustic tone from any piezo element. You can get a good tone - an acceptable approximation - but if you have a great sounding uke, some of its character will be lost in amplification. Too many links in the chain twixt instrument and ear: pickup element, preamp, amplifier, speaker etc.

On stage I used to play into a condenser mic: a Shure PG81 on a mic stand. Then, quite recently I started using an undersaddle pickup for the convenience it offered. I could move around, and it was easier to avoid feedback. The tone was pretty good, but it wasn't a real acoustic tone.

In the last few months I've gone back to playing into the mic. There's just nothing to beat it if you want the closest thing to the natural sound and character of your instrument.

YMMV.
 
I have to agree with BuddhUU on this one, there are some great pick ups but none of them will ever faithfully recreate the true acoustic sound. I recently purchased a little clip on pick up, ( a real cheapy Cherub I think I paid about £5 and it works really well ) purely for the hell of it and so that I could still use my little microcube practice amp, I run this through a Digitech pedal board and play around with the settings get some great effects and even some nice warm tones I love playing with the wah pedal too again great fun but for recording and performing I think a mic set up captures the true sound a great deal better. My son is getting a Haden MoFo amp head and Orange Cabinet delivered today, I cant wait to play my uke through a proper valve amp and cab set up.....it's going to be a noisy house today.
 
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I think the electric tone has an appeal of its own though.
It's a different sound to natural acoustic, but not a bad sound :)
 
BuddhUU always has great advice on this issue. Loads of experience there. My Mainland has the Baggs MiSi. I found that after I got the LRBaggs ParaAcoustic direct box, the tone improved 500%, particularly on notes high on the fretboard - they "speak" much better. Before that I shaped the sound with a Boss 7 band EQ, which got me by until the DI got into the chain. I sometimes split the signal to a Fender Twin amp to fill out the stage sound and the difference with and without the DI is huge - less feedback, better tone, etc. But BuddhUU is right about amplification - once you get it into a signal path, it's basically an electric instrument, and has to be approached as such. All kinds of new possibilies open up, many of which need to be "tamed" if you will - unwanted (or wanted) thumps, feedback issues, sound board operators. Once you get the hang of it all, it's worth the investment in a good direct box. I still remember the first gig where someone said the uke was too loud! Now, I'm still in the can't-quite-pull-the-trigger stage in springing for the high-end cables, but that's a different thread...
 
I've installed yesterday a shadow pick-up (under-saddle passive) on my kala acacia tenor and it sounds just great (without a special preamp).
One of the most important things for me was to do as few modifications as possible to my uke and the installation was quite easy.
 
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