Which uke pickup?

Markr1

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I want to put a pickup in my Tom Guy Bluegrass Walnut tenor. I'm not sure which to choose. I'm looking at the LR Baggs under saddle active with soundhole volume. About $149. But then I've been reading up a little on the MISI Trio. I'm a little confused about what I've read. When I googled it I saw a lot of sites featuring the MISI with an under saddle LR Baggs pickup. What's that all about? If I buy a MISI Trio is everything there including the pickup?
Thanks for any help.
Mark
 
MiSi combines their preamp with the LR Baggs pickup. And they just announced at NAMM a new version w/a shorter UST - still a LR Baggs, but shorter in length as the original used the standard guitar length guitar pickup. I'm wavering between the new LR Baggs Five.0 p/u w'the built in volume control & the new MiSi w/shorter length p/u.
 
Let me know which one you get Gmoney I was checking out the same LR Baggs your talking about. Most of my acoustic guitars have LR Baggs in them and I like them all.
 
I suggest a D-Tar Timberline for the most natural sound.
 
MiSi combines their preamp with the LR Baggs pickup. And they just announced at NAMM a new version w/a shorter UST - still a LR Baggs, but shorter in length as the original used the standard guitar length guitar pickup. I'm wavering between the new LR Baggs Five.0 p/u w'the built in volume control & the new MiSi w/shorter length p/u.

Ditto. I want to get that new 5-0 since it runs on a watch battery but I was debating between that and the new MiSi one.
 
Hey Mark. I installed a MiSi in my Tom Guy CBU quite some time ago and like it alot. The plug in recharger is very convenient and holds a charge for a long time.(MiSi says 14 hrs.) And the Baggs pickup works well. Down side is no volume control.
 
One thing to keep in mind is that with almost any UST on a uke you really will need some fairly heavy EQ to get rid of "thudiness" - some of the uke specific preamps have enough EQ "hardwired" in but the MiSi, for example, which is designed to work on any instrument, has very flat response. With those you either need an amp or mixer with good EQ on the input or an outboard EQ pedal.

Don't get me wrong, I love the MiSi trios and have them in two ukes, but don't expect to just plug in and play without a fair amount of knob fiddling to get really good tone.

I hadn't heard of the new MiSi with the shorter pickup - I wonder if they also adjusted the onboard components to EQ out the lower end - if so, that would be a big improvement for uke...

John
 
Hey John, what do you think about the LR Baggs 5.0 for the ukulele?
Thanks, Mark
 
My only thing on this subject so far is that the Mi-Si is really cool since you don't have to change the battery. I have a Mi-Si Cutless in one of my ukes and I like it. Hoping to get the L.R. Baggs soon to try also.
 
Hey John, what do you think about the LR Baggs 5.0 for the ukulele?
Thanks, Mark

I don't have any experience with that one. Like I mentioned, though, any UST has a tendency toward "thudiness" on high voiced instruments unless they have EQ in the preamp to filter that out. If the 5.0 is designed for the uke it may well have that EQ built in. One of the preamps Lanikai uses, for example, does an excellent job of eliminating the thud. I'd like to know who makes their preamps, because I suspect that they are just branded or licensed from Baggs or Fishman or whomever.

It's not a major issue, but if you are at the mercy of a parade of sound guys I recommend that if your onboard preamp doesn't EQ the thud out that you get an EQ pedal so you can send them a signal without the thudiness. Otherwise, you have to rely on them to filter it out without trashing your tone and some sound guys sadly don't have that great an ear. Some sound guys are great, but I've seen many whose only real claim to fame is that they can yank the gain down if a microphone starts to feed back... :(

The sound guy at UWC was good - I was a bit worried about using the MiSi in my mango tenor but I just told him before I went on stage that he'd need to trim the low end back some to clean up the thud and he did a great job - I had a couple of people tell me afterward that the uke basically just sounded like itself but louder - which, of course, is the idea with an AE instrument.

John
 
Just to add another burner to the stove top, I heard one of David Iriguchi's beautiful carved-back creations played through a PA system and it sounded really great and natural.
I believe David uses the K & K Twin Spot soundboard transducer (passive) pickup.
I don't have info on the PA system that was in use at the time, but there was no separate sound-shaping apparatus (pedals or pre-amps) -- just the gorgeous uke and the PA.
 
Buy the Mi-Si or the new 5.0, LR Baggs is the BEST.
The Mi-Si is so easy to just power up and play. Very straight forward bro. The new 5.0 has great tone and the volume control which I don't use...LOL
 
Thanks for all the help. I think I'll probably go with the LR Baggs. I have thought a few times of putting a pickup in my Kamaka HF-3 I just got but can't bring myself to change anything on it. I guess that mindset comes from all my guitar playing days and knowing not to change things on them due to the loss in value. I don't know if the same goes with ukulele or not. It seems like the nice ones go like hot cakes regardless if pickups have been added later or not.
 
I install both the Misi Trio and the Baggs 5-0. To my ear it's a toss up which sounds best. As has been noted before, both systems use the Baggs UST. The 5-0 does come with a volume control pre-wired. A volume and tone control is available for the Misi which must be soldered on.
The pickup wire on the 5-0 is still too long for my likes so I wind up making at least one or two loops and securing them. Other people probably wouldn't bother but I don't want that wire contacting the body at all. Also, I like to mount a pickup battery on the head block but the 5-0 battery wire is too short (on a tenor) unless you want to see the wire running right through the middle of the sound hole. That limits the battery's position to the inside upper bout which may or may not be a hassle for some players.
I have not yet installed a new Misi with the shortened wire. I'm expecting that it will still be too long though.
The bottom line for me, all other things being equal, is simplicity. If you don't need a volume control you can't get any more simple than the Misi. I just think the battery-less technology is super convenient. If you are prone to losing things though, like the charger, you might be better off with the 5-0. It's battery life is rated at 300 hours; not real long but adequate for most people.
Toss a coin. You can't go wrong with either.
 
Re: losing the charger for a MiSi - not too big a deal, actually. You can charge the thing with an instrument cord and a battery! You plug the cord into the pickup jack, and hold a nine volt battery against the other end. With a fresh battery it charges the MiSi in about twice the time the charger will do it (i.e. a minute or two vs 30 seconds or so).

Kinda cool because if you're playing with other people and anyone has a live 9V battery you can borrow for a minute you're back in business - you can give them their battery back and both of you can rock on. Kind of like sharing a diving tank! LOL

John
 
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