Do You Have Pickups in Your Ukes?

About half of my ukuleles have pickups. It about evenly distributed between passive and active.

I quite like the Pono passive pickup. My new MP custom will have a K&K Aloha Twin passive pickup installed. The Baggs 5.0 active is okay, it doesn't rock me. I'll be getting my first MiSi soon. So they run the gamut. Someday, I'll invest in an aNueNue Air. I've been told they are great.

I play acoustic 95% of the time. Mostly I plug in at open mike night for my ukulele club. We had to play amplified so people can hear us in a room with about 100 people. It always surprises the sound guy if I am playing a uke with a passive pickup. Actives do make it easier to adjust the volume if someone else is running the mixer/PA. I have played a couple of gigs using a uke with a Baggs 5.0 active.

Also have two electric ukes. A RISA stick tenor, and a Godin tenor Multiuke.

Nickie said:

Raftergirl,
We play in the Shriner's Children's hospital twice a month. We always play/sing acoustically. No lugging amps and mics and power chords around, and we're loud enough.
We've decided we will never plug in to play there or for our hospice patients, even when only 2 of us go.

I have one uke with active pickup, one with a K&K passive pickup (which I won't buy again) and my banjouke has a passive pickup.
We do plug in for open mics and shows for ALF crowds. We spent a LOT of money for the equipment, and it works very well, but it's a lot to lug around and hook up. We have just as much money in sound equipment as we do in ukuleles!

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Our music therapy folks have a full sound set-up, with amps & mics. We have professional acts that come in from time to time to entertain (Imagine Dragons came last year), so they have the capability of turning the music room into a small stage. Since this will be filmed & broadcast to patient rooms, I think we will be using mics, but I like having the option to plug in if needed.

The only pick-ups I've used are MiSi active pick-ups. No battery involved to add weight & the hassle of changing batteries. I've been playing at church for almost 2 years now, plugging into the PA system, and I think it sounds great. I haven't noticed any finger noise when playing. I use a Boss TU-3 tuner pedal that acts as both a tuner & a mute switch so that I don't get handling noise between songs. I recently added a Boss AD-2 acoustic pre-amp pedal to play around with sound & reverb a little.

I did try out the iRig mic (still have it & should sell it). Too fiddly for me, and I did have handling & finger noise with that mic.

We have a mic and an amp at my monthly ukulele groups. Either works, but plugging in seems simpler to me than readjusting the mic (some folks stand, some sit for open mic). I think it sounds better plugged in. I took my Clara to one of my groups last month. I wasn't planning on playing a solo, but ended up doing one. The group leader asked if I could plug in, but I couldn't with the Clara. So he messed around with the mic to adjust it for me, and it worked ok. I wished I could have plugged in though.

I bought a couple of cheap passive undersaddle pickups a while ago and had my local luthier fit them to my two main sopranos. I use them a lot as I play in a band, but at home I almost never plug in. Talking to the luthier recently about fitting another passive pickup to a sopranino, he said that all the piezo undersaddle pickups work the same way so it's not worth paying for an expensive one. I decided in the end not to bother electrifying the sopranino, as I don't suppose I'll ever use it for public performance. I've found that using an iRig acoustic stage with the pickup plugged in to the Aux input and no mic works great. We just play pop/disco/funk etc, so a super authentic acoustic sound isn't too important.

kkimura said:

I've never had pickups in my ukes but I have had, on occasion, ukes in my pickup.

(Sorry, I really tried hard but couldn't resist posting that.)

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tenletters

ksiegel said:

My Fluke Tenor came with a B-Band pickup installed, my Les Paul has whatever piezo pickup Epiphone put in those ukes, my Donaldson Concert has a K&K Twinspot transducer (passive), the Ohana Low-G has a MiSi active, and the eucalyptus Ohana has an L.R. Baggs active pickup.

I can play mic'ed or plugged in. If I'm doing my own setup, I use both mic, and plugged-in. I like being able to balance the sound between the pickup and the mic on my mixer.

-Kurt​

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Hey Kurt,

How are you?! Doing a little lurking and saw your name.

gyosh said:

Hey Kurt,

How are you?! Doing a little lurking and saw your name.

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Doing well, Gary. Starting a new job on Monday as a secretary at the School District Central office, teaching spinning classes at a yarn shop, playing a few gigs (Farmers Markets Pay me! Plus tips!) and dealing with elderly parents. My in-laws have both passed on, so the California trips a few and far between. Life is good for you and yours, I hope?

I have one with a pickup... my Kiwaya KTS-4 has a Baggs 5.0 installed by ( or for ) the previous owner.
I’m seriously considering taking it out. I never use it, the spare wire slops around inside the uke, and I’m bothered by the notion that the bone saddle is not in contact with the bridge because of the pickup. Not that I’m sure it will sound better with full saddle/bridge contact, but I hate seeing that gap between the bone and the rosewood and the saddle tilts a little because it does not go to the bottom of the slot.

For anyone who performs a lot, are passive pickups good? I have one but I have to carry a DI box/preamp too

Davoravo said:

For anyone who performs a lot, are passive pickups good? I have one but I have to carry a DI box/preamp too

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Passive pickups are no better or worse than active, but yes you do need to run them through a preamp to tame the sound. An active pickup is simply the same sort of pickup, but with the preamp installed in the instrument.

Preamps (both onboard and external) vary in quality a lot. Behringer's ADI21 works, but I find it clips the sound from my pickup. I find the iRig Acoustic Stage using only the Aux input works very well.

The "DI" part of the preamp converts the extremely high impedance from the pickup to the low impedance needed to run the signal to the PA, sometimes along quite a long cable. Without it the distinctive piezo "quack" will most likely be worse.

An alternative to a preamp is to use an "acoustic" amplifier which is designed to take the high impedance input and to emulate the acoustic sound. If that also has a DI output, then you can connect that to the PA while using the amp effectively as an on stage monitor.

So many choices..!

All the Ukes I had commissioned had pickups installed. Most are MiSi Trio’s with one MiSi Air and one Anuenue Air (the Air’s have an under saddle piezo strip and a mic so that you can balance the two. The Anuenue requires a battery, the MiSi’s use a rechargeable capacitor good for 8-16 hours of playing. When I play in Perth I play amped every week. I Melbourne not so much so far. I really enjoy using the efx pedalboards I’ve put together.

When I first started watching YouTubes of ukulele players, it seemed like everyone was playing plugged in, and using effects.
I was kind of under the impression that it was a necessity to really be able to play music with a ukulele.

But, I don't know anything about those type of things, and decided to see if I would stick with trying to learn ukulele first before spending additional $ on all the electronics. Of course, I learned that I don't need all the electronics, (I don't play out and about), so in the end, I've never had a ukulele with a pickup or used any electronics, and so far, don't intend to do so.

The acoustic ukulele sure has taken a hold on me, though.

I bought my Makala with a passive amp from eBay for cheap ($68) specifically to see if I wanted to play an amplified uke. After borrowing a friend's amp to mess around, my wonderful better half bought a Roland Cube as a Christmas present.

The Makala wound up being a great buy. It's perfect to take to group performances where we don't have a PA. I use it as our monitor, if you will, so the entire group can stay on time.

Besides that, it's a very good knock around player. It's my go-to when we're playing anywhere I'd not chance taking my Martin.

I replaced the lousy stock tuners with Grovers and it works great.

Also, the Roland is a fantastic little amp if you want something portable and don't need to overpower a room. I recommend it as an entry-level amp since it offers decent effects, is inexpensive, and doesn't force you to buy an active pickup for your instruments. They can be heavy and clumsy, from my understanding.

If I decided to amplify other ukes, I'd get an iRig stage setup. It gets high marks from Baz and others.

I have none with pickups.

For playing by my self or by a camp fire, or for recording at home, I dont need that.

There is the down side, that if I ever have to play on a stage I need to buy a new ukulele with one.

But there is that good side effect, that then I would need to buy a new ukulele.

(I know, I could just install a pickup in an ukulele I allready have, but my wife doesnt know that)

My tenors have misi pick ups with the exception of the kamaka, LFDM and my beater. My concert has a passive pick up but I don't use that out of the house. I like having the option of a good pick up, and it helps at open mics where I play with an accompanying singer, but isn't a necessity (as long as they are equipped with mics).

Andrew at The Ukulele Site recommended an L.R. Baggs 5.0 pickup for a uke I was buying a few years ago, and I liked the sound of it. Since then, every uke I've ordered from them has included a Baggs pickup installed. The L.R. Baggs 5.0 sounds very natural and the batteries last a long time, as little as I use them.

The 7th member of the ukulele 'ohana arrives tomorrow; it's a Ko'olau CE-2! I'm so excited to test it out. I'm definitely going to have to practice more.

I have two ukuleles with pickups, a Córdoba Tenor with an LR Baggs, a Kala Cedar topped Baritone with a K & K Aloha Twin spot. The L R Baggs is active the K & K is passive. Both sound great to my ears, although the K & K needs a pre-amp to bring out it’s full potential.

OK, I decided to share my experimental journey. I built a Bass'nBari flipper. (Pictured) Bass on one side and Baritone on the other.
I thought that the bass with nylon wound strings would drive it enough to match the baritone with Worths, Not loud enough to use with vocals on a mic. I tried acoustic mics inside (lapel clip on) too much feedback. Piezo stickies on both sides with mercury switches to swap inputs, no pop when flipping but too harsh for my taste. A Misi was tried under each bridge but produced dominance on the side installed. I currently have it mounted on a cross brace below but not touching the sound board in the middle. Picks up both sides equally, but needs volume as my Ibanez Troubadour is cranked way up. I'm currently rebuilding the pick up mounting to get more out of it.View attachment 120617View attachment 120618

I have a Vorson so yes and my first uke was an acoustic/electric. Also used a piezo pick up, very cheap and works well enough. I have a ukulele amp but it barely amplifies so some effects are necessary to boost the sound. Otherwise a micro amp.

I never had a pickup in any uke until recently, I got an Epiphone hummingbird tenor. Been playing it through a cool little Blackstar 10 V2, it's been fun practicing with! Now thinking I "need" a pickup in my Kanile'a, which I keep with high G. Probably a Misi, which seems to be popular on here and recommended by a couple professional friends, although it costs a little more. I also have some expert assistance with installation.