2 Topics: 1- Why the *** pre-amp? 2- Baggs Anthem?

bellgamin

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Topic #1 - Passive?
I spotted an acoustic-electric tenor on EBAY, all-solid hog, at a very nice price. I have been looking for an electric that also plays good un-amped, & this tenor looks like it's worth taking a chance on. The only thing that gives me pause is that the electronics are "passive."

I have read that passive means I will need a pre-amp. Why? My amp has knobs for low, mid, high, etc. So why do I need a pre-amp to tweak the sound from a passive pick-up?

Topic #2 - It's in the Baggs
The L R Baggs Anthem Pickup is highly regarded for guitars. It combines a condenser microphone with a piezo pickup to deliver the sound of a studio-mic’d instrument. I heard a sound sample and it is really really good.

QUESTION: Has anyone tried a Baggs Anthem on a ukulele? If so, do you recommend it?

Alternative QUESTION: Does anyone know of a GOOD mic'd pickup that is specifically designed for a uke?
 
Topic #1 - Passive?
I spotted an acoustic-electric tenor on EBAY, all-solid hog, at a very nice price. I have been looking for an electric that also plays good un-amped, & this tenor looks like it's worth taking a chance on. The only thing that gives me pause is that the electronics are "passive."

I have read that passive means I will need a pre-amp. Why? My amp has knobs for low, mid, high, etc. So why do I need a pre-amp to tweak the sound from a passive pick-up?

Topic #2 - It's in the Baggs
The L R Baggs Anthem Pickup is highly regarded for guitars. It combines a condenser microphone with a piezo pickup to deliver the sound of a studio-mic’d instrument. I heard a sound sample and it is really really good.

QUESTION: Has anyone tried a Baggs Anthem on a ukulele? If so, do you recommend it?

Alternative QUESTION: Does anyone know of a GOOD mic'd pickup that is specifically designed for a uke?


The new one by Anunue, I forget the name is a piezo with internal mic. Andrew at HMS really liked them and has them, it is very new. Give him a shout.
 
I use K&K twinspots on my personal ukulele and install them for my customers who want pickups. I have a Roland AC 60 amp and have never felt that a preamp was necessary. Would it sound better with a preamp, probably but I don’t think it is necessary. That said, different amp-pickup combinations will vary.
Bradford
 
Bellgamin, my theory should be taken with a grain of salt, as I am far from proficient in matters of electronics, but as I understand it, the purpose of using a pre-amp when you have a passive pickup is to "beef up" the strength of the signal that you're sending into your main amplifier, so that the various controls on the main amplifier (bass, middle, treble, etc.) will "have more to work with" and thus give you a cleaner and better-defined sound without having to over-crank the volume. Perhaps Bradford or one of our other friends here on the forum can chime in as to whether that's a fairly reasonable way to put it... And having said that, it has also been my experience that using a passive pickup straight into the amp often works pretty darn nicely, especially if you're playing solo in a small setting.
 
Hey Bill, you have it exactly right. It is all about the signal to noise ratio. Piezo pickups generally produce a fairly small signal. So depending on the particular pickup and the amplifier, you may or may not need a preamp.
 
Thanks, Bradford. It's also helpful that you've confirmed that there's not really an across-the-board answer to the pre-amp question, and that it kind of needs to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
 
I use K&K twinspots on my personal ukulele and install them for my customers who want pickups. I have a Roland AC 60 amp and have never felt that a preamp was necessary. Would it sound better with a preamp, probably but I don’t think it is necessary. That said, different amp-pickup combinations will vary.
Bradford

Buzz, I'm kinda new to all this, but I thought the Roland AC 60 has a built-in preamp. I wound up getting a Boss Acoustic Singer Live, Boss is a sister company of Roland's. It has a built-in preamp so I don't have to use one with my passive acoustic/electric ukes. It works well with active pickups as well.

But maybe yours is a different model Roland amp than the ones I looked at.
 
Kenn, my AC 60 is at least 14 years old and as far as I know it does not have a built in preamp, but I could be wrong. But, here on Kauai, I am using a Roland Cube Street with similar results and I just checked the manual on it with no mention of a built in preamp. Obviously it does not have anywhere near the headroom of the AC 60, but it currently serves my needs without an external preamp.
Bradford
 
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