About $260 for a pickup installed?

I will be headed to Ukulele Source since I'm in the area tomorrow. Been fooling around with the idea of getting a Flea Concert with a pickup as my travel uke but I know my wife would frown on another uke in such a short timespan. Then I thought maybe I can just add a pickup to my Mainland Soprano. It's quite small, I like it, and a few character scratches wouldn't hurt. (though one day I gotta have me a Tiki uke!)

Called the store and they don't install, so it would be $150 or $160 for an LL Baggs or MiSi pickup, plus $100 for the install. That seems a bit pricey. Is that average?

B-Band with the tuner actually sounds like a cool idea to me but I'd have to find a local dealer and/or installer.


Any feedback appreciated.

Mainland installs for free

The two places in the San Jose area that can install uke pickups are C. B Perkins Luthiery in South San Jose and Gryphon Strings in Palo Alto. IIRC, Perkins charges $200 for the MiSi with installation and the Baggs 5.0 with installation goes for $225.

Gillian said:

The two places in the San Jose area that can install uke pickups are C. B Perkins Luthiery in South San Jose and Gryphon Strings in Palo Alto. IIRC, Perkins charges $200 for the MiSi with installation and the Baggs 5.0 with installation goes for $225.

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Hi Gillian

does Perkins do the installation while you wait?..i know Gryphon would take awhile too get to it...couple of weeks?

I spent the weekend installing my second one on a new Kala Cedar Acacia Tenor. I have a workshop, some experience and some decent tools... Still it took me about 5 hours to do it slowly and methodically. So $100 sounds like a deal to have installed! Of course, i buy my Belcat preamps (U-300T and U-400T) from china with piezo pickup for only $20 ea! They sound great and work great, btw! The hardest part by far is routing the bridge slot lower by about .125"! for the pickup to sit into, then it requires some saddle filing and work. The rest goes a bit easier.

I had a problem with my jig that I had made for acoustic guitars and the router jumped, so I had to install a little piece of rosewood to fill the slot back in. All in all it worked out great and the uke plays and sounds amazing! Plugged or unplugged. Plus it's nice to have a tuner built in!

Here is my recent link to my install: Uke pickup installation

Good luck and I hope you get what you need!

In Los Angeles, the price to install a pickup is around $50 - $75 plus pickup price.

Wow Patrick nice job. I'm pretty handy but no such experience and much less time.

Nongdam - yes my local shop said $60 "assuming it's a simple install" but I don't get the sense that they do much on ukuleles specifically. So I assume the store in San Jose sends it out to the luthier and charges to do so, which is fair and of course would come out nicely done.

Still, it seems that for $200 - $300 I could get a whole new/used uke with pickup for less hassle. Kinda wish I could trade mine into Mainland for one with a pickup installed. That way my wife would be happy(er).

hawaii 50 said:

Hi Gillian

does Perkins do the installation while you wait?..i know Gryphon would take awhile too get to it...couple of weeks?

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If Eric has to order the pickup, then I think it would take a couple of weeks, same as at Gryphon. If you already have the pickup, don't know if he would install it while you wait. Maybe if you sang him a hard-up sob story, he might...

I was about to post almost the exact same story as flyingace. Buy my electronics from China's Aliexpress.com for less than half the price in the states, and more choices too. I've swapped out four preamps for ones with tuners built in, and added one from scratch, which I did not route the bridge therefore it will not accommodate the piezo pickup and the saddle. I might just take it to my luthier to correct. But otherwise, they all work great.