Need information about building an electric ukulele, any help is much appreciated.

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theudaykaranvirk

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I'm sure there a thousand other posts like this, but for some reason I haven't been able to find any concrete information as to what parts work best and how I could put them together. I've spent weeks now trying to finalize a build plan to start the project (i'm still stuck). I'm not into music just into building things and this is a gift for a musician so I would really appreciate a good sound and less disturbance.

SO THE PARTS:

PICKUPS => I want to use a magnetic pickup but like the ones on electric guitars, but I believe they're made for six strings? my plan has 4 strings, does it matter if I just a normal guitar pickup? or are there special ukulele ones available (Links would be really helpful).

PRE-AMP => preferably want to use an active pickup system on the ukulele, is there a schematic I could find to DIY build an inbuilt pre-amp with volume/tone dials?
Purchasing is also an option, but haven't been able to find ones made for a ukulele (that isn't just an ugly panel on the side).

The reason I need to use an active pickup with a preamp, is because I have seen people add 3.5mm headphone jacks to the body as well. NO RESOURCES ABOUT THIS WHATSOEVER ONLINE. Is there a way to do that? I understand that the signal from the pickups aren't strong enough for headphones, but there must be a way?

BODY => planning to 3-D print the body (mostly solid), does that change the acoustics of the sound in regards to an electric ukulele (I just need the audio signal to be good enough). And if so, does it matter that much? I dont have the option to go for a wooden body (I dont have my own workshop).

BRIDGE => is there a specific type I need to use or any? I like the ones on electric guitars that swivels a bit I think, but then again made for 6 strings.

STRINGS and TUNING => if I remember correctly, I would need steel strings (electric guitar strings) to use a magnetic pickup. Right?
if so, what strings do I use from the whole set of 6 that is for the guitar, in which order do I put them on.

Steel strings also cause structural issues according what I've read online, are there thinner strings I could use? does that effect the sound?

This is a lot of information I need to even start planning the build, I'm sorry for all these questions.
All the information out there is either not about what I need, or just tooooo complex for someone domino this for the first time. I'm good with electronics and DIY in general, would really appreciate links to products if you have any that solve my dilemma.
 
Follow standard electric guitar building practices. A magnetic pick-up ukulele build is closer to an electric guitar build than to an acoustic ukulele build. I'd also look closely at cigar-box guitar builds and resources. They're a great way to get started and can range from bog-simple to as complex as any electric guitar. Parts are readily available for 4-string instruments.

PICKUPs: You can get 4-string pickups designed for cigar-box guitars from sites such as https://cbgitty.com . Guitar and bass pickups will work, but are unwieldly large for a uke body. As a maker good with electronics, you may want to look into winding your own.

PRE-AMP: Look for one designed for electric guitar or bass, not one for an acoustic instrument. The big ugly plastic ones you mention are for acoustics. If you want to roll your own there are many electric guitar headphone amp circuit designs and PCBs available (e.g. https://www.instructables.com/Built-in-Guitar-Headphone-Amp/ ). Just make sure you get one that you can fit in the body. You can also scavenge the electronics from a turnkey system such as the Vox Amplug.

BODY & NECK: 3-D print is fine for the body. Almost all of the tone will come from your pickups. It's more questionable for the neck and fingerboard, but people have done it. You will need reinforcement to handle the string tension. I wouldn't expect 3d-printed plastic to hold up to string tension on its own. I'd run a carbon fiber rod or two through neck and body, as well as a truss ro a cavityd in the neck. You don't need a complicated workshop to make these from wood. You can use hand tools to cut a simple body, and hand tools are preferred by many to shape the neck.

BRIDGE: You can get a 4 string electric bridge from CBGitty. 4 string bass bridges will have too wide a string spacing. A big advantage of metal bridges is that they're easy to ground. You can use an acoustic style bridge, but then you'll need to find somewhere else to ground them.

STRINGS: You need steel strings for magnetic pickups. They won't cause structural issues on an instrument designed for them. The problem is that they are significantly higher tension than nylon strings and so can cause problems on an instrument designed for nylons. The high or middle four strings from an electric guitar set will work. Exactly which ones will depend on your scale length and personal preference. I use the high strings from a set of 9s on my tenor. Others prefer the middle strings.
 
Arcy said:
Follow standard electric guitar building practices. A magnetic pick-up ukulele build is closer to an electric guitar build than to an acoustic ukulele build. I'd also look closely at cigar-box guitar builds and resources. They're a great way to get started and can range from bog-simple to as complex as any electric guitar. Parts are readily available for 4-string instruments.

PICKUPs: You can get 4-string pickups designed for cigar-box guitars from sites such as https://cbgitty.com . Guitar and bass pickups will work, but are unwieldly large for a uke body. As a maker good with electronics, you may want to look into winding your own.

PRE-AMP: Look for one designed for electric guitar or bass, not one for an acoustic instrument. The big ugly plastic ones you mention are for acoustics. If you want to roll your own there are many electric guitar headphone amp circuit designs and PCBs available (e.g. https://www.instructables.com/Built-in-Guitar-Headphone-Amp/ ). Just make sure you get one that you can fit in the body. You can also scavenge the electronics from a turnkey system such as the Vox Amplug.

BODY & NECK: 3-D print is fine for the body. Almost all of the tone will come from your pickups. It's more questionable for the neck and fingerboard, but people have done it. You will need reinforcement to handle the string tension. I wouldn't expect 3d-printed plastic to hold up to string tension on its own. I'd run a carbon fiber rod or two through neck and body, as well as a truss ro a cavityd in the neck. You don't need a complicated workshop to make these from wood. You can use hand tools to cut a simple body, and hand tools are preferred by many to shape the neck.

BRIDGE: You can get a 4 string electric bridge from CBGitty. 4 string bass bridges will have too wide a string spacing. A big advantage of metal bridges is that they're easy to ground. You can use an acoustic style bridge, but then you'll need to find somewhere else to ground them.

STRINGS: You need steel strings for magnetic pickups. They won't cause structural issues on an instrument designed for them. The problem is that they are significantly higher tension than nylon strings and so can cause problems on an instrument designed for nylons. The high or middle four strings from an electric guitar set will work. Exactly which ones will depend on your scale length and personal preference. I use the high strings from a set of 9s on my tenor. Others prefer the middle strings.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much, I was looking for the answers for so long. there is so much varying info out there.
You pretty much cleared whatever doubts I had. I was planning to add either a carbonfiber rod or a steel rod, depending on how light body would be and how the balance is. The neck I was going to get online probably (building a soprano sized one I guess, of that would be 35cm scale?) and ill model the body around that, which ill print. I've heard most cheap necks come unfinished, you got any ideas for what give wood a good finish? like while shaping it, as well as coating it.

I'll look into winding my own pickups, if not i'm sure a cigar box pickup should be good enough.
I'll go take a look at those links. the headphone jack look do-able.

I do have a few other doubts, but we'll cross that bridge when it comes to it.
 
There are no standards for ukulele sized steel string pickups yet there are numerous proprietary options.
The first sticking point is usually that standard ukulele string spacing is wider than guitar spacing so some use proprietary bridges and blade guitar pickups.
A simpler option however, if not the neatest and most professional looking option is to use an electric Tenor guitar bridge (a generic telecaster bridge for 4 strings), and a standard single coil guitar pickup, and the spacing will work just fine. If you can't find the tenor guitar bridge easily on eBay or other sources, then you can (EDIT: just use) a generic Telecaster bridge and remove the outer saddles.
Tremolo bridges will be FAR too complicated, unless you are really up for some hard work.
Steel string guitar pickups are for the most part passive. Yes you can get active electric guitar pickups yet now its getting expensive and complicated. Any headphone jacks will have to be an external affair unless you are up for the expense of EMG pickups and some custom wiring for an internal headphone amp.
I would put some fixed reenforcement in the neck but it doesn't have to be too complicated.

So, use a Tenor guitar, telecaster style bridge that's spaced at standard guitar spacing plus standard guitar pickups. Standard guitar tuners and either the lightest 4, or middle 4 strings from a standard set of 10-46 steel guitar strings, depending on scale length and what tension you are after.
I've used both options and there really isn't a definitive right or wrong answer.
 
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Is this the type of bridge you're looking for?
Electric guitar style fixed bridge that's adjustable for string height and intonation but sized for a ukulele.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175355190182 (Dimesnsions in listing photo's)
uke bridge.jpg

As for pickups... I've put some thought into this as I also would like to build a solid body electric uke, It may be possible to use bass pickups as they are 4 pole, but mount them at an angle so the poles are under the strings? But NOT P-Bass pickups as the poles are too close together.
 
Last edited:
anthonyg said:
There are no standards for ukulele sized steel string pickups yet there are numerous proprietary options.
The first sticking point is usually that standard ukulele string spacing is wider than guitar spacing so some use proprietary bridges and blade guitar pickups.
A simpler option however, if not the neatest and most professional looking option is to use an electric Tenor guitar bridge (a generic telecaster bridge for 4 strings), and a standard single coil guitar pickup, and the spacing will work just fine. If you can't find the tenor guitar bridge easily on eBay or other sources, then you can (EDIT: just use) a generic Telecaster bridge and remove the outer saddles.
Tremolo bridges will be FAR too complicated, unless you are really up for some hard work.
Steel string guitar pickups are for the most part passive. Yes you can get active electric guitar pickups yet now its getting expensive and complicated. Any headphone jacks will have to be an external affair unless you are up for the expense of EMG pickups and some custom wiring for an internal headphone amp.
I would put some fixed reenforcement in the neck but it doesn't have to be too complicated.

So, use a Tenor guitar, telecaster style bridge that's spaced at standard guitar spacing plus standard guitar pickups. Standard guitar tuners and either the lightest 4, or middle 4 strings from a standard set of 10-46 steel guitar strings, depending on scale length and what tension you are after.
I've used both options and there really isn't a definitive right or wrong answer.
Click to expand...
thank you for the information, all I've been doing for a while is just reading a millions forums and posts about all this.

so is it not worth it to have an active pickup with the pro-amp and "volume and tone" control? if not, a passive pickup straight to the jack sounds like the easier and much more affordable option right now.
 
Paul1973UK said:
Is this the type of bridge you're looking for?
Electric guitar style fixed bridge that's adjustable for string height and intonation but sized for a ukulele.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175355190182 (Dimesnsions in listing photo's)
View attachment 142879

As for pickups... I've put some thought into this as I also would like to build a solid body electric uke, It may be possible to use bass pickups as they are 4 pole, but mount them at an angle so the poles are under the strings? But NOT P-Bass pickups as the poles are too close together.
Click to expand...
yeah these look like the ones I was thinking about, thank you.
about the pickups, I think I might get a band style pickup. so I wouldn't have to line it up perfectly.
 
theudaykaranvirk said:
thank you for the information, all I've been doing for a while is just reading a millions forums and posts about all this.

so is it not worth it to have an active pickup with the pro-amp and "volume and tone" control? if not, a passive pickup straight to the jack sounds like the easier and much more affordable option right now.
Click to expand...
Steel string electric guitars, mostly have "Passive" volume and tone controls. That's the standard with guitars, so no trouble fitting passive controls. EMG pickups with "Active" controls are rare on guitars and a little expensive.

The bridge that Paul1973UK has just pictured, is the Tenor Guitar bridge that I and others are talking about and it has narrow guitar spacing, not wide ukulele spacing, so it works with standard pole piece guitar pickups out of the box. No need for blade pickups or bass guitar pickups which actually WON'T work with this particular bridge.
On one of my steel strung solid ukuleles, the builder used a standard guitar bridge of this style, and just left the two outer saddles off.
 
I have built a few. the Cigar box guitar hardware that can be found @ CBGitty and ebay and places work fine. I also split the split Pbass pickups and while they don't match the spacing precisely they seem to work fine as long as they are centered reasonably well. my first attempt resulted in a silent A string which was exacerbated by having a fully covered pickup so I didn't see where the poles were until a bit of steel wool fluff got stuck to them. Once I sorted out that my pickup was off center by too much I was able to fix the issue relatively easily.
 
Titchtheclown said:
I have built a few. the Cigar box guitar hardware that can be found @ CBGitty and ebay and places work fine. I also split the split Pbass pickups and while they don't match the spacing precisely they seem to work fine as long as they are centered reasonably well. my first attempt resulted in a silent A string which was exacerbated by having a fully covered pickup so I didn't see where the poles were until a bit of steel wool fluff got stuck to them. Once I sorted out that my pickup was off center by too much I was able to fix the issue relatively easily.
Click to expand...
What bridge are you using Titch?
If you use the Tenor guitar bridge (or something like it) that we have discussed above, then STANDARD guitar pickups are the right choice.
Bass pickups would be clearly wrong.
If you have worked out some custom ukulele spaced bridge, then yes, this is where the standard guitar pickups don't work and a bass pickup, may be an option.
Personally I would go for a blade guitar pickup first.
 
anthonyg said:
What bridge are you using Titch?
If you use the Tenor guitar bridge (or something like it) that we have discussed above, then STANDARD guitar pickups are the right choice.
Bass pickups would be clearly wrong.
If you have worked out some custom ukulele spaced bridge, then yes, this is where the standard guitar pickups don't work and a bass pickup, may be an option.
Personally I would go for a blade guitar pickup first.
Click to expand...
I have just used the hard tail adjustable cbg style tail piece like this listing
www.aliexpress.com

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Splitting a pbass pickup seems to work for the likes of me.
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This is the sound I get.




A few more Aliexpress options.

4 string pickup cigar - Buy 4 string pickup cigar with free shipping on AliExpress

Quality 4 string pickup cigar with free worldwide shipping on AliExpress
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I did buy a couple of this type I haven't used them yet. They appear to be 6 string pickups with the two outer poles not installed. the spacing is about 2mm wider than the split pbass pickups.
www.aliexpress.com

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Brian Fanner makes proper electric ukes
 
OK, if that works for you it works. That bridge you're using though is spaced for standard guitar pickups. The guitar pickups are wider of course but the pole pieces will line up for the middle 4.
I suspect that there will be a difference in sound but I don't know what.
 
Don't stress the pickup spacing too much, just make sure that you position it so that you get a balanced output.

The pickup's magnetic field is fairly broad and not narrowly focused on the poles. The strings and poles don't need to line up exactly, and many guitars (I'd guess most multiple pickup instruments do - Strats are in this category) don't line up precisely. Some builders (I think Rickenbacker has done this, though not universally) use the same pickups for 4, 5, and 6 string instruments, and some use different size poles to shape the field differently for the treble and bass strings.

You may get a different sound with different spacing, but there’s no well defined good or bad sound out of a pickup. A lot of electric guitar (and ukulele) music depends on abusing the edges of the electronics to generate desired effects.

If you have a specific sound in mind then make choices that lead to it. If not, and especially for a casual build, pick what’s available and what sounds good to you.
 
You might not be interested, but a few weeks ago I bought a StewMac mini guitar kit and put it together. It has the scale length of a tenor ukulele. It has the string spacing of an electric guitar. It also comes with a gig-bag. It has everything for $100 plus shipping. You could make it as is... just tuned A-a or you could cannibalize it for the parts you need. You would have a fretboard to a tenor scale and then just spend time shaping it for a four string instrument. Change the nut, figure out your own bridge, etc. They have a Tele and Strat style that are both going for $100 and a Les Paul style for something like $150. Really hard to beat the price.
 
necessaryrooster said:
Sorry, this is a little off-topic, but did you have any issues with your high e string breaking?
Click to expand...
No. I put a set of 10's on it and tuned A-a. To be honest, they're a little floppy. If it was tuned E-e like they suggest, I can see the e string breaking. I wanted this to be like a guilele/guitalele hence tuning A-a. I built it just before going into the hospital and wasn't able to mess with it. I got home yesterday and one of the things on my list is to string it with a set of 11's and see how the tension is tuned A-a.

HTH
 
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