Solid body ukulele benefits

Piecomics

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What are the benefits of a solid body vs non for an electric instrument? I’ve used a godin as my primary instrument for forever and I love it, but I just played an amazing guitar, a solid body custom PRS, and it made me want a uke w better electronics and got me thinking about acoustic/electric vs chambered vs solid body
 
As far as I know the purpose of a solid-body uke is pretty basic. I think it it just simpler to build, and if you're mainly going to play it amplified via the pickup, it's not going to sound that different than a hollow body would. If anything it might sound better as it may be a cleaner sound. However if you already have a Godin Multiuke that is already an extremely clean sound.
 
Solid body doesn't allow for hearing hand movements etc, through the body, & are only going to be used plugged in, except for when you want near silent practicing.
 
Are you thinking of a steel string or nylon string instrument?

(Using nylon as a generic term for polymer strings)
 
In terms of nylon vs steel I’m open either way.
 
I have a solid bodied Risa uke, it looks like a mini Fender Stratocaster and sounds like one when fed into my amp via my pedal board.

Its great for quiet practice.

No faffing with tuning, the steel strings hold tune far better than plastic strings.

Solid bodied uke makes a great addition to your uke collection.

Short demo via link

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fqvOK_He0Wc
 
You can look like a rock star playing a mini guitar. That's fun.
 
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In terms of nylon vs steel I’m open either way.

They are two VERY different sounds and instruments. Making a choice between one or the other will improve the quality and relevancy of any answers you get here. Because it's two different styles of pickups there are many differences and pros/cons.
 
Are you comparing a Godin Multiuke with a PRS solid-body electric guitar? The big difference there (other than the scale-length and number of strings - duh ;) ) is piezo pickup vs. magnetic pickup. The piezo on your Multiuke picks up acoustic vibrations, works with any strings, and will sound acoustically and natural. The magnetic pickup in most solid-body electric guitars picks up the movement of steel strings and sounds completely different (even before distortion). The difference between the Godin's chambered body and the PRS's solid body will be swamped by the more significant differences elsewhere

From what I understand, you aren't going to find anything that significantly improves upon the Godin system for an acoustic pickup. There are several solid-body ukes available with magnetic pickups (Risa, Vorson/Clearwater, several smaller luthiers on etsy &c) to look at. They can't really be compared as better or worse than the Godin: they're completely different.

There are a few gotaukulele reviews you might want to look at:
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Tahoma,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]https://www.gotaukulele.com/2019/03/risa-lp-tenor-electric-ukulele-review.html
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial,Tahoma,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]https://www.gotaukulele.com/2019/06/vorson-flpuk-2-lp-clearwater-ucwlvs.html[/FONT]
 
I was very surprised to see that you have a Godin Multiuke and looking for a solid body. When I got my Multiuke, I stopped even thinking about another electric. Previously I bought two steel string ukes with magnetic pickups, an archtop and a solid body and shortly after sold each. The Multiuke is head and shoulders above them.


This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly West near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 11 solid body bass ukes, 9 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 34)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers
 
BTW

PRS are very good guitars but have you tried any others?

The difference in feel and especially tone is huge.

Same thing with solid bodied ukes, there is a vast difference in available tones so do please consider this.

Two pickups, a three position selector switch and volume and tone controls open up a vast array to available tones even before feeding the output into a guitar pedal setup and amp.

As an example my Gibson LP guitar has two pickups a selector switch that operates the bridge, neck or both pickups, individual tone and volume controls per pickup with the effect that a huge array to tones is available. Its similar with my Risa, many varied tones are available so if you do buy a solid bodied uke do not skimp on price a Risa price point is where to start.

A solid bodied uke will not replace your Godin but it sure will complement it.

It also depends upon what music you want to play and how you play it.
 
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Arcy above pretty much covered it.

You're comparing apples and oranges between a Godin Multi-Uke, which is a nylon-string acoustic-electric instrument,
and a PRS electric guitar, which is a steel string electric instrument with magnetic pickups.

There is no way that they sound the same, since the intended design and sound are completely different.


As for solid vs hollow body in all electric instruments (including both magnetic and acoustic-electric) are:

-Solid body less prone to feedback, can crank up the gain higher on amp without howling/feedback.
-Solid body generally has better sustain, since the whole body "block" vibrates with the strings
-Less distracting noises as you rub against the body on solid


The Godin Multi-Uke is already nearly a solid body.
It actually can be considered a "chambered solid body" instrument, as an attempt to achieve the best of both world's.
It has a semi-audible acoustic tone, due to its hollowed chambers, but with the advantages of sustain and feedback resistance of a solid body.

Also, some consider hollow body acoustic-electrics to sound more "natural", which is another reason why the Godin has hollow chambers.



As far as sheer acoustic-electric quality, Godin's is way up there with the best.
PRS is not superior to the Godin. It's simply a different instrument altogether.
If you want that kind of sound, there are steel-string magnetic pickup ukuleles available.
Cheap ones are VORSON, some more costly ones (better quality) are RISA. Those are just 2 of many makers.
 
..and it made me want a uke w better electronics...

I doubt you will find something with "better electronics" since the pickup elements made by RMC and their preamp to match, are what are installed in the Godin MultiUke, are in fact considered by many with "golden ears" to be a top-end setup for a nylon string instrument with high fidelity to the sound.

Comparing a steel string electric guitar and it's sound and to anything with nylon strings is in fact a comparison of two completely different instruments, and two completely different kind of pickups (both from the mechanical way that the pickups work, as well as the nature and design of the electronics used).

If you define you intentions more clearly, you may find what you are looking for, otherwise you may just be reaching for the moon here (aka reaching for unobtanium)...
 
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