Clip on Pickup?

DavidEuke

Member
Joined
May 4, 2012
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Is anyone aware of a decent use pickup that would be easy to clip on and off a soprano and tenor? If I really get into this, I'll buy an electric uke. But for now......

Thanks
 
I have a Dean Markley that I just keep around for shits'n'giggles, I wouldn't recommend it for pro use but it gets the job done... it sticks on with some kinda putty, you can move it around till you find a good sound and stick it on... I always take it off when I'm done and I have to use goo gone to clean the instrument right away or the putty leaves a mark... it's the little round one about the size of a quarter with a decent length of cord attached and 1/4" jack, I think I only payed about $15 for it.
 
If you get a headstock clip on pickup from ebay, it'll do the job. You don't even need putty or stick anything onto the sound board.

Just clip it on as you would a clip-on tuner.

I got mine from here since I live in Australia:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Clip-On-...AU_Instrument_Accessories&hash=item43aeab828f


But they are available for a lot cheaper elsewhere, such as here
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Guitar-A...l_Instruments_Instruments&hash=item3cc4475308

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Guitar-A...l_Instruments_Instruments&hash=item4aa60dce9c

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Great-Cl...003?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item2a0e837293




The piezo (at least on mine) is surprisingly sensitive and does pick up a good amount of tone. It actually works better than some of my cheaper ukes with built-in undersaddle pickups.

However, it is also sensitive to other percussive noises, such as bumping the soundboard with your hands, etc.
And the length of the cord is limited.. you sort of have to be standing/sitting right next to the amp.
 
I did not have a good experience with a clip-on.
In all fairness to the idea, I did buy a pretty cheap one.
It moved around and rattled and all the noise came through the amp.
I thought it would be a quick and easy way to have a pickup for any uke.
I have a stick-on that I am much happier with, but for the most part if I need to be plugged in I use one of my ukes with an installed pickup.
 
I might be wrong about this but I have always thought those clip on pickups were designed for one purpose: to plug into electronic tuners, I think that is also why the cord is so short... you see, in the olden days we didn't have clip on tuners, we just had these things called a 'Boss TU12' and it had a little condensor microphone built into it and a 1/4" phono jack... you could plug your electric guitar into it but for tuning acoustic instruments we had to balance the tuner on our knees and play into the mic... of course it picked up all the noise around you and made it near impossible to tune your instrument... then one day some genius came up with the clip on pickup so we could plug acoustic instruments right into the tuner, then some other genius more recently came up with the clip on tuner. :)
 
Top Bottom