Do You Have Pickups in Your Ukes?

Jerryc41

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I have never ordered a uke with a pickup, but 8% of what I have now came with pickups when I bought them used. If I was performing publicly, I could see a need for one, but no one wants to see me playing and singing in public. :D

How about you? Many pickups?
 
I own 4 ukes currently, and 2 have with MiSi pick-ups. I skipped adding a pick-up in my Blackbird Clara when I got it from HMS. As my outdoor/festival/camping/travel ukulele, I didn't think I'd need one in it, but now wish I had gotten them to install one. I do play plugged in at church every Sunday, and occasionally at uke groups, festivals, etc.

Which has me thinking.....I'm helping out the music therapists & music volunteers at the children's hospital where I'm a nurse tomorrow. I'm providing music support for a sing-along that will be broadcast via closed circuit TV to the patient's rooms. I initially thought it was something the kids would come to the music room to participate in, so I'd bring my loud & clear Clara. Now that I know that we'll be broadcasting, maybe my Moonbird or KoAloha that can be plugged in would be a better choice? Hmmmm.
 
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Initially I thought I needed pick ups, but found out I prefer to use a mic, so I have three electro acoustic concerts, two laminate, & one a solid spruce with a MiSi pick up.

I do also have four solid body non steel string electric ukes, (& a steel string), that I seldom play, preferring my acoustics.
 
I have never ordered a uke with a pickup, but 8% of what I have now came with pickups when I bought them used. If I was performing publicly, I could see a need for one, but no one wants to see me playing and singing in public. :D

How about you? Many pickups?

Ordered my custom resonator, which I'm still waiting for, with a pickup because I'd like to use pedals.
 
My Mya Moe has a passive, my Kanile'a Custom has an active pickup. I have a Yamaha acoustic practice amp which I use now and then but not as much as I thought I would when I got it. We have 'sensitive' neighbours upstairs who object to my ukulele strumming and or my wife's guitar playing so I tend to listen to my amp though my headphones which is still interesting sonically but defeats the purpose a bit. I probably won't add a pickup to any new ukes.
 
Initially I thought I needed pick ups, but found out I prefer to use a mic, so I have three electro acoustic concerts, two laminate, & one a solid spruce with a MiSi pick up.

I do also have four solid body non steel string electric ukes, (& a steel string), that I seldom play, preferring my acoustics.

Me too. I had the MiSi installed on my Mainland because I had this image of myself rocking out. I bought a bunch of pedals, amps, and other electronics to play around with. For some reason that I haven't pondered a lot, I find myself more often than not just dedicating another mic to the uke. So I still have the Mainland of I want to go hard rock, but I seldom do.
 
My first uke (the Kala tenor) came with a pickup. I don't need a pickup for my playing, so I didn't order one in my other two ukes. I don't particularly like the sound of the pickup in the tenor. I have to fiddle with the tone controls on the pickup and on my amplifier in order to get a sound that isn't too harsh and trebly and doesn't pick up all the finger noise.
 
I have zero ukes with pickups. I also haven't played out in a while. But notably, at the period of time when I played out a lot, I had ukes with pickups. I had thought that playing with a louder uke would make me more confident but it didn't really do much. Not that I have, or had, much of a confidence issue, I just thought that having more amplification would give me an extra boost, but it didn't.
 
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I have never ordered a uke with a pickup, but 8% of what I have now came with pickups when I bought them used. If I was performing publicly, I could see a need for one, but no one wants to see me playing and singing in public. :D

How about you? Many pickups?
Yes they do want to see you playing and singing in public. :) I think that when it comes to playing and wanting to sound normal, without any effects, playing through the mic is much more forgiving. The pickup amplifies every little mistake or twitch. If you do want to play in public don't let the lack of a pickup stop you. I think that to start with you will find just running a second mic to the ukulele will give you a better sound if you aren't wanting to do something weird.
 
I think that when it comes to playing and wanting to sound normal, without any effects, playing through the mic is much more forgiving. The pickup amplifies every little mistake or twitch.

I think that might be true. I think that it can also amplify string noise, which can throw you off.
 
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.)
 
Of course a great mic played through a high quality desk always sounds best, well the most natural. I used bring a Neumann KM-184 because the house mics were terrible (usually too bright dynamic vocal mics) but I realized the typical house sound system pretty much defeated mic quality. And negotiating with the "tech" to get the EQ right was a difficult if not impossible task. For me it's much easier to get a decent tone with a pickup jacked into my own acoustic amp. If more volume is needed, I send an XLR output from my amp with desired EQ and effects and have the desk set flat.
 
If you have a uke, does that help to pickup someone? :D

No, really no. Need a guitar for that. See Steve Martin's routine on the banjo.

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I have performed once and used a clip on passive pick up which worked really well. Best $12 i ever spent. I then installed an onboard pickup myself and have never performed with it.

I did intend to get a loop pedal and add some looping percussion to back myself when performing but have never got round to it. That would be fun at home too.
 
One thing, I played a venue a couple of times that was a local bar well known for live music and pretty good entertainment. Once a month they had an amateur night. Three local musicians would be chosen to come in and each do a set. Then at the end of the night the bar would divide up 10% of the proceeds from the night between the three musicians. Nothing more exciting than playing a bar full of drunks. They had a great sound system and they provided a sound man in the booth for you. You came out of the green room already tuned up and ready. The sound man plugged you in, did a quick sound check, and you were on stage, lights in your eyes and you were expected to belt them out. Absolutely no messing around. It paid dividends to have a good pickup. Several times he told me he liked the MiSi and the Baggs. My point is, you showed up ready to plug in. They weren't going to string up some extra mics for you because you thought you might sound better. It was get going or get off the stage.
 
I have a Kala Tenor with a built-in pick-up and I have a ‘suction cup’ removable pick-up.
I use both at Christmas when I accompany Carolers street walking — ukuleles rapidly lose their volume out side.
I use my tenor built-in at my ‘weekly ‘ Blues Jam (by request) so that I can be heard among/over the guitars and harps.
Then again, I tend to be a ‘soft’ picker, ‘fat of my thumb’ soft strummer.
(Hot diggety — 2 more posts and I’m no longer a junior!!)
 
In the first year of playing uke I accumulated 16 tenors, cutaway and if they didn't have a preamp/tuner and pickup, I installed it. I've culled that down to 9 in the last 5 years and 4 don't have pickups, but I have them sitting in a drawer if I choose to install 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
 
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​
 
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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