Good amp?

I recently got an acoustic electric ukulele, and I want to start playing with amp, I tryed my girlfriends fender amp, and I hate how amps always have distortion, does anyone know of a amp that doesn't have allot of distortin and sounds as sweet as my uke?

Lots for sale new and used. Find a very highly rated acoustic amp that you can afford. may only be a few with 4 to 5 stars in your price range. Electric guitar amps don't do much for acoustic instruments...they'll work, but you won't get that nice, woody, acoustic "tone" you are looking for.

YOur price range would be helpful in getting you appropriate recommendations.

Here's a nice little uke amp at the low end....5 stars
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifiers-effects/crate-ca15-cimarron-1x8-12w-acoustic-combo-amp
Even lower priced at 4 1/2 stars
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifiers-effects/behringer-ultracoustic-at108-acoustic-combo-amp

And yet more: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/search/search.jsp?sB=r&question=acoustic+amplifier

When you set a price range, you may find great used one for half price, a used one that is much better than you thought you could afford.

Hey man thanks, this helped allot, I'm new to this electronic stuff haha

Make sure the amp you look at is for acoustic guitars, not electric!!

Look at the Fishman Loudbox Mini!! What a great amp for uke & mic. A mite pricy, but well worth it.

I have a Mustang by Fender--while it is more geared to electric guitar, it is easily customizable by computer and you can find a setting to download directly to get the effect you want. I don't think that it is possible to avoid distortion, however, because you are electrifying an audible wave and rebroadcasting it over a speaker, so that is by nature going to distort the sound. But you can adjust to get the effect you want. The Fuse software that comes with it is easy to use.

This is the unit I have. It's pretty nice, very portable.

Any good quality acoustic or keyboard amp will do fine

You may also find that you need or want a direct input (DI) preamp box or some sort of mixer with EQ if the amp doesn't have it. Most piezo pickups don't really sound all that great plugged straight into an amp that does not have a way to tame the sound. Personally I recommend something like the little Behringer 1202fx mixer I use. It will give you not only a way to plug in more than one instrument, but multiple microphones as well, and they are very inexpensive. I looked at several "acoustic" amps before I finally followed recommendations from acoustic guitar players to get a mixer and a simple keyboard or acoustic amp, or better yet a small PA system. Most PA's are designed to give a very clean sound. Some have a bit of EQ, some don't. I still don't have a PA, but I can take my mixer to open mics etc, if they don't have one, and it has everything I need to record at home with multiple mics and instruments and I plug it into my Pignose Hog 30 when I need a small portable amp.

If you have an interest in open mic type things, many people find that "the house" often provides the PA, but sometimes not a good mixer or DI box. So many acoustic guitar players just carry the DI and/or mixer to give them some control over the sound before its plugged into the house PA

Here is RaggyRagsDale talking about his mixer setup.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=690siQfrbLU&feature=plcp

A P.A. system and a D.I. box are a great way to get a natural sound. You don't need to spend a ton of money to accomplish this. The high impedance output of a piezoelectric pickup produces a thin, raspy sound through a P.A.. A D.I. (Direct Input box) matches the impedance to the amp to achieve a more natural sound. Here's an example of a lower priced P.A. system with surprizingly good quality sound. I own several of these that I use for quick setup in venues where space is limited, but still need enough power to punch through the ambient noise. Here's the Kustom PW50 available at Guitar Center for $99 bucks:

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Kustom-PW50-Personal-PA-System-106388085-i1934071.gc?esid=pw50

Gmoney said:

Look at the Fishman Loudbox Mini!! What a great amp for uke & mic. A mite pricy, but well worth it.

Click to expand...

This is what I ended up with after my amp search.I considered all the possobilities, and for under $300 THIS SOUNDED THE BEST. no bells and whistles, 2 channels tone, reverb, and chorus , very nice , clean cabinet. I use it for all my music needs. I plug my mp3 or laptop into it when I want prerecorded sound. it sounds great. I bought a preamp to use too, but have no need for it with this amp. handles active and passive inputs well. I got it for under 260 by finding the cheapest price and musicians friend / music 123 will beat the price. highly recommended.

Marshall AS50 - trust me. Superb acoustic twin amp. Two channels, fifty watts and a balanced mic input. Adore mine.

The Kustom Powerwerks PW50 is lightweight, powerful, clean and stand mountable. As you can see in the following photos, it does well in tight spaces. It even has built in phantom power for condenser microphones. You can use the 1/4" and XLR inputs at the same time on each channel. With a built in mixer for two microphone/instrument channels and a third channel for MP3/CD, It's a bargain that can handle crowds up to about 60.

At Hulaville's closing party it was packed, so we used two PW50's, linked by a 50' microphone cable. You can see the one on the right, but not the one on the left:



A tiral run at Jolly Roger we used one that you can see on the left (it was a long flight of stairs bringing the equipment up):



A trial run at Bubba Kahuna's you can see the one in the center over one of the TV screens (they had the sound turned off on the TV's):

For a passive D.I. box on a budget, I recommend a Carvin FDR-60. It has three switchable attenuation levels to match the signal to your P.A. so you don't overload and distort the sound and a ground lift. One for $29 bucks or three for $59 bucks.:

http://www.carvinguitars.com/products/FDR60

For an active D.I. the LR Baggs Para acoustic DI gives you parametric tone control and allows you to notch out offending feedback frequencies.

http://www.guitarcenter.com/LR-Baggs-Para-Acoustic-DI-101359792-i1128134.gc

For a personal system that you can plug in or run on battery power, the Roland AC-33 is the ticket. It has seperate channels for instrument and mic. A 40 second loop station to layer your music. In addition it has reverb, delay and chorus effects. The loop station and effects are footswitchable. It also has a line out to run to a main P.A. system, stereo or mono.:

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Roland-AC-33-Acoustic-Chorus-Combo-Amp-106065923-i1511017.gc







Here's mine along with a completely battery powered setup in a park for a scholarship concert presentation:

Here's Ukulele Blues (UU Forum Member) of the PW50 P.A. system he posted on Guitar Center:

"By Ukulele Blues

from Coastal, SC


Nice Small System - Good sound - Easy to set up

4/14/2012

Comments about Kustom PW50 Personal PA System:

We play with condenser mics in three piece ukulele band with on bass bucket player and two ukes and/or one uke and guitar. They are super easy to transport and set up. If someone stole them I would buy them again. We just did a gig with about 40 folks in a large room, old jazz standards and tin pan alley, ukes, bass, kazoo's harmonica's. Sounded great, was loud enough at a little over half volume. If you are looking for a nice small PA they are extemely good for the money. The ability to "chain" them together is nice and the Phantom power for condensers is great. Clean sound.

Phantom power is great. Would like a line out to record from. You can use one of the "link" XLR's but you have to make a cable. Can use the XLR and 1/4 at the same time on each channel. I have two and can set up 4 condenser mics and 4 instruments. Need to have a EQ or preamp for the instrument if using an XLR input on the same channel to balance levels. Light and have a really good sound for the size. Ability to link is nice. Have a sub out, but I have not used that.
Played a few gigs with them so far, threw in trunk, appears to be sturdy. Sound is nice for it's size. Knobs recessed, steel grill, tight connectors. corner protectors.

Great value for the money I got two at a discount and they were a great deal

I use a Bose L1 system with the T1 Audio engine. Its a bit pricey but the Doggys Donuts. As a preamp/DI I use the Fishman Pro Platinum
I am very happy with this system and would recomend it 100%. I also play harmonica and via a Digitech RP355 multi pedal also amplify via
the Bose system.
For amplifying your uke indoors or in the street using batteries the Roland Micro Cube is a great choice.
Cheers
Gary

ricdoug said:

For a personal system that you can plug in or run on battery power, the Roland AC-33 is the ticket. It has seperate channels for instrument and mic. A 40 second loop station to layer your music. In addition it has reverb, delay and chorus effects. The loop station and effects are footswitchable. It also has a line out to run to a main P.A. system, stereo or mono.:

Click to expand...

RicDog - what are you mixing the mics with?

The microphones are mixed through two Roland BA-330's using the Stereo Link feature, SWB. Each has two microphone and two stereo instrument channels. We used this setup one day for 11 hours total on a single set of 8 NiMH AA rechargeable batteries each.:

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Roland-...e-PA-System-105930655-i1492771.gc?esid=ba-330

http://lib.roland.co.jp/support/en/manuals/res/15190259/BA-330_egfispd02.pdf