Electric ukulele. Why?

Ok, I´ll try to make this sound as not judgmental as possible (because I´m not, but I realize some people have strong feelings about electric ukes and some of the things I will say can be taken and said in different ways).

I play acoustic ukulele and some acoustic guitar. I understand them as very different instruments, regardless of having some similarities. I get what the reentrant tuning, limited range and four strings offer. I also play some electric guitar (or used to, I had to seel it, but will buy another one soon), which I understand as completely different from an acoustic guitar.

Now, I have a mild case of UAS, and I may at some point be tempted to buy an electric ukulele (they look so cute, specially the LPs!), but with my income I have to be realistic about the benefit it would be for me.

The thing is that I don´t see an electric uke as something substantially different from an electric guitar, and I would like to hear from you and see if I´m right or wrong in my view, and if I would regret allowing myself to be tempted into buying an electric uke.

I understand why some people who only play the ukulele would want the sound of an electric guitar without having to learn to play the guitar. That´s very respectable, but it´s not important for me, as I play the guitar as good (or as bad) as I play the ukulele.

I also understand they can be good for silent practice, but that is not a concern for me.

If portability is the concern (which is not mine nowadays, but that may change), I´m not entirely sure if a travel guitar wouldn´t do the job at least as good. But anyways, portability is not a concern for me right now.

So that leaves us with music, and that is mostly why (ignoring the aforementioned aspects) I´m not sure of what the point of an electric ukulele would be for me. I´ve watched a lot of videos of people playing them, and none of them did anything different than what they could have done with an electric guitar. If that is really it, I will just get a new electric guitar when I have the chance (and some other acoustic ukes, maybe a banjolele).

Of course people uploading videos on youtube are only a fraction of the electric ukulele players universe.

Do you know (or better yet, are you) anyone who plays their electric ukulele in a way that it doesn´t sound like either an acoustic uke or an electric guitar?

What can be done with electric ukuleles that would make them irreplaceable?

Please don´t hate me, I tried to word this this as objectively as possible and clearly referring to my personal priorities.

Here's my simple take on it. Two reasons.

For fun. Because it is.
For volume when performing.

I don't "perform." But I've got and Epi LP and a little 15W plug-in-only acoustic amp and it's just fun. And you can play very softly with much nuance (yea, like I can do that) and still hear it.

Uke and amp = about $150 - $175. UAS fun.

This horse has been beaten repeatedly on this forum... But in response to your questions, I play my steel string, electric ukulele every day. When I play, it sounds nothing like when I play either acoustic ukulele OR electric guitar. As far as I'm concerned, ukuleles (of all types) are just tools with which we make music... and my electric ukulele is a great tool for me.

I don't have an electric ukulele to take the place of an electric guitar. I have a couple of those - and quite frankly, I can play the hell out of them. I have an electric ukulele to sound like an electric ukulele.

I came close to playing a couple of numbers with my Kamoa Evolve at an international jazz festival (with a huge name in Jazz) earlier this year, but my real job got in the way... so that pretty much legitimizes my tool selection, in my book...... not that I really need any validation.

How about "Why Not?" A fine hollow bodied uke, with a fine pickup, and a fine "acoustic" amplifier does not sound like an electric guitar, any more than a fine acoustic guitar with those qualifications sounds like an electric guitar. Lots of valid reasons, including "I want my uke to sound like an electric guitar." Whatever floats your boat...........as long as you are having fun and enjoying the music you are making.

Nobody should own an electric ukulele. Anyone that does is wrong. It is a well known fact that people that own and play electric ukuleles mistreat their dogs.

Wicked said:

This horse has been beaten repeatedly on this forum... But in response to your questions, I play my steel string, electric ukulele every day. When I play, it sounds nothing like when I play either acoustic ukulele OR electric guitar. As far as I'm concerned, ukuleles (of all types) are just tools with which we make music... and my electric ukulele is a great tool for me.

I don't have an electric ukulele to take the place of an electric guitar. I have a couple of those - and quite frankly, I can play the hell out of them. I have an electric ukulele to sound like an electric ukulele.

I came close to playing a couple of numbers with my Kamoa Evolve at an international jazz festival (with a huge name in Jazz) earlier this year, but my real job got in the way... so that pretty much legitimizes my tool selection, in my book...... not that I really need any validation.

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Of course you don´t need validation. I´m just looking to hear from people with different views, and hopefully also find some electric ukulele players that do something I find interesting and educational. Where can I listen to you playing your electric uke?

PhilUSAFRet said:

How about "Why Not?" A fine hollow bodied uke, with a fine pickup, and a fine "acoustic" amplifier does not sound like an electric guitar, any more than a fine acoustic guitar with those qualifications sounds like an electric guitar. Lots of valid reasons, including "I want my uke to sound like an electric guitar." Whatever floats your boat...........as long as you are having fun and enjoying the music you are making.

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I should probably have been clearer in that I was referring to steel string electric ukuleles. While "I want my uke to sound like an electric guitar" seems to be a very common reason, it´s not one that would work for me. As I´ve said, I´m more interested in it not sounding like an electric guitar, and I haven´t seen a lot of that (I probably should mention that electric ukuleles are not sold where I live, so I´m only judging by what I have been able to find on youtube).

allanr said:

Nobody should own an electric ukulele. Anyone that does is wrong. It is a well known fact that people that own and play electric ukuleles mistreat their dogs.

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Erm... I don´t know if that´s because of me or because of other people critizicing electric ukuleles. I´m not implying anything like that, so please don´t go there, I´m asking a honest question about a certain aspects of electric ukuleles.

I'd say it boils down to whether or not you actually NEED amplification. Most of us don't.

allanr said:

Nobody should own an electric ukulele. Anyone that does is wrong. It is a well known fact that people that own and play electric ukuleles mistreat their dogs.

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:troll:

Pretty sure that was intended as a joke Fermin.

But since you clarified about steel string electric, I have to say I mostly agree with you that that has little appeal to me even though I have two nylon string acoustic ukes with pickups and another in the pipeline. To me, the only advantage of that format would be the shorter scale of the uke and tuning like a "normal" uke.

i own two concert acou/elec ukes. the reason i bought them was to try out uke and reverb. i recently tuned in to my husbands love of surf music and thought we might be able to come up with some surf-y duets, but unless i'm plugged in, too, i can be heard over his jazzmaster. so having the ability to also plug in gives me more utlilty with the uke.

thats why. and they sound like louder ukes, not electic guitars.

I want an electric Uke purely for the fact that I used to be what my wife described as a "widdly widdly" guitarist...Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Gary Moore, Jeff Beck type stuff...and I'd like a Uke that I can shred on. I have Guitar Rig 5 and Overloud TH2 on my PC, and when the mood takes me and I feel like making my neighbours' ears bleed, I'd like a Uke I can do it on, instead of picking up my Patrick Eggle Berlin Pro.

I'm determined to have one built with a locking trem on it though (Kahler make bass trems, which I reckon will work). In the meantime, I'm after either an Epiphone Mandobird 4 or a Risa Tenor Les Paul.

I have a Risa semi-hollow bodied tenor with twin lipsticks. I tried to learn guitar and failed, so now, if I want to play "electric guitar", I have a little, red, 4 stringed one that sounds like a big one. Makes perfect sense. Popular Pop song a few years back, "whatever maaaaaaaaaaakes you happy? A uke is just a small, 4 stringed instrument capable of much more than it's original developers intended. Some people look at an electric uke and say why? I say why not? (although I must admit I don't play it often)

Fermin said:

Of course you don´t need validation. I´m just looking to hear from people with different views, and hopefully also find some electric ukulele players that do something I find interesting and educational. Where can I listen to you playing your electric?

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Fermin, I just re-read my response, and believe I owe you an apology for my tone. I did not intend to come across so snidely. You were asking legitimate questions, and my response reads like some kind of challenge.

Unfortunately, I don't post anything online - so I cannot point you to an example of my playing.

An electric uke (and NOT an acoustic uke with a pickup) will be a different thing. For myself, I have a slew of effect pedals that play nicer with a solid bodied electric uke over an acoustic with a pickup (and trust me, I've tried!).

So it goes back to the OP's comparison between an acoustic guitar and an electric guitar. Both are tuned the same and in the same family, but they both serve different roles and give different timbres and tones. It all comes down to what sounds you want to make.

Wicked said:

Fermin, I just re-read my response, and believe I owe you an apology for my tone. I did not intend to come across so snidely. You were asking legitimate questions, and my response reads like some kind of challenge.

Unfortunately, I don't post anything online - so I cannot point you to an example of my playing.

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No apology needed, I didn´t take it that way. The communication experience over a text only medium is very limited.

Can you point me to an example of someone else playing an electric uke not like an electric guitar? My efforts so far to find that have failed.

One Bad Monkey said:

An electric uke (and NOT an acoustic uke with a pickup) will be a different thing. For myself, I have a slew of effect pedals that play nicer with a solid bodied electric uke over an acoustic with a pickup (and trust me, I've tried!).

So it goes back to the OP's comparison between an acoustic guitar and an electric guitar. Both are tuned the same and in the same family, but they both serve different roles and give different timbres and tones. It all comes down to what sounds you want to make.

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Well, my intention wasn´t really to make a statement, or to compare an electric uke to an acoustic one, but to compare it to an electric guitar and challenge my current limited perception of that comparison.

I really don't see what all the fuss is about.

It's actually quite simple.
Having an electric instrument with the playability of an ukulele opens up endless new possibilities with the instrument.
Why shouldn't it exist *shrugs*

I think too many people assume that just because an electric guitar and electric ukulele are both "electric", that they would sound and feel the same.

To me, this assumption is as big as saying "what's the point of a ukulele when you can just play classical guitar". The tuning, scale length, neck profile, instrument size, pickups, etc make all the difference.

ukemunga said:

Here's my simple take on it.
For fun. Because it is...

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:agree:

I have a Risa "stick" so still a nylon string instrument and with a piezo pickup rather than a magnetic one. However, it is definitely a different instrument from a plugged in acoustic and it opens a range of different possibilities, particularly the use of effects which is just not the same with an acoustic uke fitted with a pickup.

True that these are effects that were developed for electric guitar but an electric uke still sounds different; even something like a Risa LP (steel strings with twin humbucker pickups). The ukulele lacks bass (even with low G, the lowest note is G below middle C) and the shorter strings mean less natural sustain - again even with steel strings. These guys do a fantastic job on Sultans of Swing even to playing Mark Knopfler's solos on a solid Risa (predecessor to their current LP range) but they still don't sound like a guitars. Notice particularly no real bass on the lead instrument and less sustain. Also a slightly "thinner" sound - and that's not meant as a criticism.

So you treat your electric uke as what it is, an electric uke not a pale imitation of an electric guitar. For all that you can still have fun by using effects units designed for electric guitar, so you can experiment with distortion/overdrive sounds, chorus, delay etc, etc and they work.

Here are a couple of my efforts

Lucille: Alternates between an overdrive sound for solos and a "clean" sound for accompaniment.

I Can't Get Used to Losing You: Uses a chorused sound on the uke.

For both of these I used a Vox Stomplab IG effects unit.

In the first case, I plugged the Risa directly into my mixer and recorded the mixer output, together with vocals using an Edirol R09 digital recorder

In the second case, I played the uke through a Vox AC1 micro amp and recorded directly using the Edirol's built in mics. (It was actually the bass version of the AC1 which I bought for my U-Bass but it does a pretty good job with the Risa and played directly, you can get quite a good "acoustic" tone with suitable adjustment of the controls)

In both cases I then edited the recordings using Audacity.

In neither case, do I sound like an electric guitar, though the first probably comes closer.

The Big Kahuna said:

In the meantime, I'm after either an Epiphone Mandobird 4 or a Risa Tenor Les Paul.

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There's a Mandobird 4 for sale ($180 plus shipping) at https://www.fleamarketmusic.com/marketplace/default.asp -- don't know if being out of the U.S. will make the shipping too much.

(Oh, and here, too: "http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/...86-FS-Classic-Epiphone-Electric-Mandobird-IV" )

Because I only have four fingers on my fretting hand and I want to be Johnny Marr

Well, I confess to wondering why anyone would want to amp their uke except for a stage performance. So, I just bought a les paul epiphone a couple of weeks ago. "How could I do such a thing?" I love the sound of acoustics-both guitar and uke. I tried guitar and I didn't like the steel strings and also I couldn't get my fingers to comply with my mind. Being an old guy, I at least had a chance with a uke. Hmmmmm, why would I want an electric uke when I don't like metal, heavy rock, etc.. Well, I like some of the old stuff like "Apache", "Johnny Be Good", etc.. I already knew what effects are from playing with my sound software and I heard V30's sound samples and that sold me. Realistically, it's just a toy for me. Heck, the multi-effects processor cost more than the uke! I am going to try and see what kind of a bass sound I can get out of it to possibly play something with our uke group. I might sell the stuff later on, but for now, I'm having fun. YMMV