Eq

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I am playing lead uke in a small uke band ( 5 ukes a guitar and a U-bass) I am going to buy 2 new ukes with built in pickups. My question is what kind of equalizers do you ( or know that works well) use?

I have an appointment with the folks at Renos Music in Fishers, Indiana to try a bunch of ukes with built in pickup but from the onesI have tried so far seem like they needed a little extra Eq.
 
Bottom line: you shouldn't have to buy a pedal to go along with the pickup. If you are spending money on a uke with a pickup it should sound great out of the gate. Period. Don't bother if it doesn't. Even something as simple as an EQ pedal makes your life a lot more complicated onstage. You might as well put your money towards a better 'ukulele or pickup.

If you must EQ, ideally you can get it from the mixing board and the sound guy knows what he's doing. But I used a MXR 6-band EQ with great success to cure a few pickup problems I had. It's small, cheap, and looks super badass (glows in the dark!).

Also, make sure you are trying out the 'ukuleles with acoustic amps or PAs. An electric guitar amp is going to trash the natural sound of a pickup and will definitely need EQ no matter what.
 
Rooms can vary week-to-week, and even set-to-set, depending on the number of people in the audience, your stage mates and your monitoring needs. You want the flexibility to adapt, which means EQ.

I prefer passive pickups with an off-board preamp with EQ. Yes, it means one extra cord and one extra belt clip box or floor pedal, but I can't always count on having a sound person.

I currently have a SansAmp Tech 21 (which I love) that I use for all my pickups except a few K&Ks, for which I have a K&K preamp, which does the job OK, but there are better.
 
As a sound engineer and performer, I truly wish there was a single bottom line. Yes, some pickup/preamp combinations do better than others. I bring along several active and passive D.I. boxes' along with several types of microphones to prepare for most situations when I'm running sound. An active EQ will make most sound issues better. An active parametric EQ D.I. box will also help match the high impedence output of piezoelectric pickups to the low impedence inputs of guitar and acoustic guitar amps. Active D.I. boxes also have a balanced XLR ourput for running through long lines, such as snakes, with minimal signal and/or frequency loss. I'm not discounting your response based on your personal experience, Hippie guy. You're giving sage advice. I'm just adding a sound engineer's slant. Ric
 
Rooms can vary week-to-week, and even set-to-set, depending on the number of people in the audience, your stage mates and your monitoring needs. You want the flexibility to adapt, which means EQ.

I prefer passive pickups with an off-board preamp with EQ. Yes, it means one extra cord and one extra belt clip box or floor pedal, but I can't always count on having a sound person.

Same here, BigMamaJ40. Passive pickups add almost insignificant weight to small instruments, like an ukulele. Some type of active parametric EQ D.I. or active EQ will give us better control for the sound we desire. Ric
 
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