New Pono ATDC from Mim

NOTLguy

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Dropped by Mim's new place in Meadows of Dan VA yesterday on the way back to Canada and bought a Pono ATDC Acacia Tenor Deluxe Cutaway with gloss finish. What a beautiful instrument. Mim treated me great and I was able to pick up a nice hard case for it as well just before she took off for some relief from the snow.

When I get back home I want to install strap buttons (nervously) and look into a Mi-Si pickup as well. Anyone have any experience with the Mi-Si pickup on a Pono?

Regards,
Bill
 
Dropped by Mim's new place in Meadows of Dan VA yesterday on the way back to Canada and bought a Pono ATDC Acacia Tenor Deluxe Cutaway with gloss finish. What a beautiful instrument. Mim treated me great and I was able to pick up a nice hard case for it as well just before she took off for some relief from the snow.

When I get back home I want to install strap buttons (nervously) and look into a Mi-Si pickup as well. Anyone have any experience with the Mi-Si pickup on a Pono?

Regards,
Bill

I installed a MiSi in my Pono MBD. It was really quite simple. I'm trying to remember if I took any pictures and if so, if I posted a thread here...but I've slept several times since then.

Anyway, short version, I used an old bridge saddle to form an angle guide for drilling the angled hole in the end of the bridge saddle slot. I actually drilled an angled hole at each end of the bridge slot because that way I could tuck the loose end of the pickup ribbon into the second hole (I just fed maybe 1/4" of the free end into the hole - you don't want a long loose tail that could "rattle"). My thought behind this was two fold. One, it keeps the end of the pickup ribbon from springing out when you remove the saddle. Two, I figured if the ribbon was treated the same way at both ends of the saddle there was the best opportunity for the response to be as even as possible. Seems to have worked.

You do want to check where the internal bracing is and make sure that you are not going to be drilling through a brace. Adjust the angle you drill at as needed to ensure that you neither drill through a brace nor have the pickup ribbon exiting the bridge plate right next to a brace. Use a sharp-pointed hobby knife to clean up and flatten the bottom of the hole where it meets the bridge saddle slot. You want this area flat but not sharp, you want it rounded over from the bottom of the saddle slot into the hole.

Drilling for the end pin is simple but nerve-wracking. I use one of those bits that has the sharp points at the edges and cuts rather flat, with a smaller pilot bit at the end of it, I can't think of the name right now. The bit I have that is the correct size is kind of worn out and dull so I used one a little smaller and an ordinary hand taper reamer to finish off the hole. Use painter's tape over the wood before drilling so you don't tend to pull up chips.

Finally, I'm woodworking challenged so I think if I can pull off this installation probably anybody can.


John
 

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Dropped by Mim's new place in Meadows of Dan VA yesterday on the way back to Canada and bought a Pono ATDC Acacia Tenor Deluxe Cutaway with gloss finish. What a beautiful instrument. Mim treated me great and I was able to pick up a nice hard case for it as well just before she took off for some relief from the snow.

When I get back home I want to install strap buttons (nervously) and look into a Mi-Si pickup as well. Anyone have any experience with the Mi-Si pickup on a Pono?

Regards,
Bill

Congratulations, Pono Acacia Tenors are awesome! Congrats as well on being the very first customer of Mim's "brick-&-mortar" store. That's a distinction you will enjoy from now on. :)
 
Thanks for the excellent description of installing the pickup John. When I look at the beautiful finish on the Pono it is somewhat intimidating to think of drilling through it. First I have to get home and order the pickup.

What is the performance of the Mi-Si pickup?

Regards,
Bill
 
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Yup it was fun to be the first to buy a uke from Mim in her new VA location. The surrounding countryside is very beautiful and definitely rural. It is very close to the Blue Ridge Parkway and well worth the drive from I77.
 
Wow, that's cool! I'd love to go see her place, new uke or not! She's in the Orlando area, wish I had time to go see her and get into some mischief.....LOL
 
I should also note that the Pono was fitted with a wire wound C string and the rest were nylon I presume. Do all Pono's come with one wound string?

Bill
 
I use one of those bits that has the sharp points at the edges and cuts rather flat, with a smaller pilot bit at the end of it, I can't think of the name right now.

Forstner bit?

31FG4SVH3GL._SY300_.jpg
 
Forstner bit?

31FG4SVH3GL._SY300_.jpg

That's it, no doubt. Be sure to put some painter's tape (the blue stuff?) on the butt of the uke before you drill to prevent the bit from sliding and scarring the surface before it bites.

Be very careful of how you bundle the excess wire from p/u to endpin and where and how you secure them. This is very important. Refer to the MiSi install instructions and follow them carefully.

First and foremost, patience.
 
I should also note that the Pono was fitted with a wire wound C string and the rest were nylon I presume. Do all Pono's come with one wound string?

I think the standard strings are Koolau Mahana, which have a wound C in a high-G set.
 
Possibly an Auger?

From Diy Data.
Wood Auger bit
This is ideal when drilling large-diameter, deep holes in wood or thick man-made boards. Generally an Auger bit should only be used in a hand brace. The bit will cut a clean and deep, flat bottomed holes. The single spur cuts and defines the edge of the hole while the chisel-like cutting edge removes the waste within the previously cut circle. The threaded centre bites into the wood and pulls the bit into the timber. This 'pulling' action means that the bit is really unsuitable for use in a power drill.
h
 
Forstner bit?

31FG4SVH3GL._SY300_.jpg

That's the best choice but the local stores around here didn't have any and had never heard of them (real confidence builder, that). The bits I have are similar and give basically the same results but they are a twist drill just with a modified (almost flat) leading edge and a pilot point. The good thing about them is you can get them at Lowes or Home Depot.

I've only used a forstner bit once, years ago, and I think these are actually a little easer. It's been a long time but I remember the forstner bit wanting to rock and bind (it was borrowed, might have been a bit dull). A step bit also works really well for drilling holes for endpin jacks if you can find one with a long enough "step" between sizes to drill through the end block. So far I've had no luck finding one but I know they exist because I've seen them in how-to videos.

John
 
I should also note that the Pono was fitted with a wire wound C string and the rest were nylon I presume. Do all Pono's come with one wound string?

Bill

It wouldn't surprise me if most of the tenors do, but I don't know if they all do. Some string companies offer a variety of choices. In all three Ko'Olau lines (Mahana, Alohi, and Gold) you can get tenor sets with just a wound 3rd, wound 3rd and 4th, wound 4th, or all plain. It's nice to have so many choices.

John
 
What is the performance of the Mi-Si pickup?

I have MiSi pickups in three of my ukes (two tenors and the baritone) and under-soundboard pickups in most of the rest of them. The MiSi is a very nice little pickup for live performance, and extremely convenient. It has quite a bit of compression and a slight tendency to accentuate any "thudiness" of the uke but this is easily EQ'd out at the board or with an outboard pedal. The "thudiness" is more noticeable on a tenor than a baritone. (Note that all three of my MiSi pickups are the earlier "one size fits all instruments" model - the new ukulele-specific ones might have EQ built into the endpin preamp to reduce the thudiness, I don't know.)

Again, most under saddle pickups have this thudiness - it's really just amplifying part of the actual sound of the uke but it's a part that isn't as noticeable acoustically because the uke body tends not to be very responsive to frequencies in that range. The big difference is that some other uke pickups have preamps that are tweaked to reduce those frequencies - and, as I said, the newer MiSi uke models may well have that, too. In any case, it's very easy to tweak out.

In spite of having a fair amount of compression the MiSi actually sounds pretty natural live. Enough so that I never realized how much it was compressing until I bought a new condenser microphone and ran some recording tests with the microphone in one channel and the pickup in the other. Then the compression was pretty obvious.

For recording I prefer passive under-saddle pickups. They have much less compression and give a more natural, open sound. However, they are susceptible to noise (arm brushing against the top, inadvertent finger tapping, etc.) and feedback, so for live performance the under-saddle is the clear choice for me.

John
 
For the plug hole bit, I've used the step bit which is available at most stores. Works great


Step bit.jpg
 
For the plug hole bit, I've used the step bit which is available at most stores. Works great


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Where did you find one with a long step between sizes? The only ones I've been able to find look like the one on the left when something closer to the one on the right is needed to get through the tail block without the outside part of the hole starting on the next wider cut.

John
 
The one I have looks like the left one as well. Got it at Lowes. I got the 1/2 inch size so don't have to worry about overdrilling
 
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The one I have looks like the left one as well. Got it at Lowes. I got the 1/2 inch size so don't have to worry about overdrilling

Ahhh, that makes sense. When I was in Lowes here the only one they had was much bigger.

John
 
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