Pickup for Pono Baritone ? Who uses what, please...any recommendations ?

I have been trying to do research on the "best" pickup, and have read both on here and other sources like youtube. I like the idea of not having to replace the battery and using a plug in charger, like the MiSi, but have also read where these arent very reliable. The anuenue is another one that has been brought up. I would like your input and experiences please. Thanks in advance. BTW I have a roland street cube and a cube 30, that I would try to use.

The MiSi pick up is very reliable, not sure where you heard it wasn’t. They did introduce one with an internal mic that had feedback issues, but the standard piezo works great. I had a Pono baritone, spruce/mahogany with the MiSi, it worked and sounded excellent. I have a Kimo super concert with a MiSi and I am also very happy with that. As a point of reference my other ukes with pick ups have the LR Baggs 5.0 models installed and the MiSi is just fine beside those.

DownUpDave said:

The MiSi pick up is very reliable, not sure where you heard it wasn’t. They did introduce one with an internal mic that had feedback issues, but the standard piezo works great. I had a Pono baritone, spruce/mahogany with the MiSi, it worked and sounded excellent. I have a Kimo super concert with a MiSi and I am also very happy with that. As a point of reference my other ukes with pick ups have the LR Baggs 5.0 models installed and the MiSi is just fine beside those.

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Thanks for that input...it was the MiSi air air pickup system that I had read about that they initially had troubles with,,,so maybe that was an older pickup system and they have corrected the problems. The MiSi and LR Baggs seem to be the two most people use. Thanks again for the post.

I’ve gotten rid of pickups. A good microphone suits my needs.

Generally speaking I prefer a good passive pickup.
I used to swear by undersaddle pickups. Shadow, Fishman, Artec and Pono (which are rebranded Artec pickups) offer decent options at various price ranges.

More recently I have been using soundboard transducer pickups like these:
https://www.peterman.com.au/music3/Acoustic_Guitar_Pickups

and find that they produce a more natural, microphone-like sound.
But you would need to tweak the sound with an external pre-amp.


Alternatively, if you want to avoid any drilling or modification of the instrument, these are some interesting options:

https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/irigacousticstage/
Basically just clip the mini microphone onto your sound hole, hook up to the external module and play. The sound generated is pretty good, but I didn't like having so many wires.

https://www.knapickups.com/en/guitar/uke/uk-1-pickup-kna/
Basically just insert the popsicle-stick-like pickup into the ukulele's slot bridge (won't work unless it is a slotted bridge). Decent results, but you need to use a special "small to large" instrument cable and the pickup gets a bit of percussive noise if you touch the cable.

I have a Pono baritone with a Misi pickup (undersaddle only) that sounds fantastic. I have the Misi on a tenor too but find that the deeper sound of the Bari gives a more natural amplified sound - more full and less "quacky" than on the tenor.
Funny, but Kissing (above) sold me the Bari - hi Mate!!!
I also have a Peterman pickup, as referenced by Kissing, and love it. It's the dual one and gives as good as the Misi, perhaps better.

I like a K&K passive with a volume control wheel placed inside the sound hole. Also have Misi's on a few tenors. Great post Kissing.

Wow thanks so much to all for their time in posting these ideas !! .I am leaning towards the Petman pickup at this point...I like the idea that I could easily move it from instrument to instrument.
Thanks Kissing for the links and your input. I appreciate everyones input, as always I learn a lot from all of you ! Thanks, this is a really great forum...friendly and knowledgable folks !

ubulele said:

I rarely use a pickup, but I had a MiSi system installed on my Pono bari. I like that it's rechargeable. A one-minute charge-up from a wall socket suffices for hours of play; the charge is supplied by an internal capacitor rather than by a leak-prone, environmentally harmful battery whose power level is always a guess.

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I agree completely and that may still be the option I go with...sounds like a winner...it nice to have options.

I ordered the MiSi pickup system with the LR Baggs and it will arrive Monday...I will take it to wichita next week and have it installed. I am anxious to find out how it sounds.
Thanks for the suggestions and I will give feedback when its installed.

Just today I got my MiSi pickup system with the LR Baggs installed and I really like it...I think it produces an authentic sound of the uke....I love the charging system. The luthier was very impressed with it and is going to start recommending it to customers who have ukes, mandolins, guitars, etc . I am anxious to start recording with it and using my UBass as a back up for my chord melody style stuff I like to do. Thanks to this forum, I ran across this pickup or I probably would never have known about it. Thanks to all who contributed to this post.

Go forth and make music....