Ukulele Pickups and Amplification

[Allen]

Since a lot of us are building Uke's right now, there has to be more than just me that has been asked about installing a pickup, or some other form of amplification.

I'm in the dark about this, so let's get some discussion going on about this please. And a invite to Rick to let us in on some of his expertise, and recommendations.

[fingerpickengood]

Can't go past K&K's for my money.

[Rick Turner]

My solution isn't cheap, but it sounds really good.

I use a modified D-TAR Timberline with the head shrink sliced off of the pickup cable, the cable shortened, and the preamp modified so that battery power comes up on the "ring" of a stereo cable from an external battery box. This puts the preamp in the uke, but the weight of the batteries external. I connect the uke to the battery box with a stereo cord, the output signal feeds through the box to a mono output jack. Mono cord to the amplifier or PA direct box.

It sounds like the uke, and there's no extraneous noise picked up as you can get with soundboard transducers.

But...it costs more than a lot of folks pay for their ukes...so I do recognize that there are other solutions like the K&K or the D-TAR Sound Spots that may be better for some people.

Personally, I've never been a major fan of soundboard transducers. Yes, they get more of a woody sound, but they also can have a "bottom of the well" quality that just annoys me after a while. The emphasize the anti-nodes of wherever they're placed, and it seems to be incredibly difficult to find a magic spot on a guitar top where everything is just right. There's always one frequency that seems to overlay the sound. Best placement seems to be directly under the bridge saddle on many instruments.

And while I understand the attraction of passive pickups, you have to preamp them sooner or later with a high impedance load. Might as well get it over with and properly condition the signal you send out for maximum signal to noise, voltage, and frequency response, and that's done by putting a high quality buffer stage as close to the pickup as possible. I'd like to build them right into the pickup itself someday.

[Allen]

Thanks for the info Rick. I've been reading through the D-Tar site and it's all really interesting.

It looks like Timberline pickup can be cut to length to fit any length of saddle slot? And not ever having rewiring anything like this, it's a little confusing until the unit is actually at hand. So I guess that will have to wait. Maybe a demo when you get to Cairns will be in order.

I had assumed that when using soundboard pickups like K&K's or your "Sound spot" type of pickup they were to be attached directly under the bridge / saddle. Are there times when this is not the best option?

[Bob Gleason]

Like Rick, I'm not a big fan of soundboard transducers either, but they are powerful and cheap, and that makes them fit the budget for many folks. In ukes, they don't work quite like in guitars. In general, they are just too hot for many ukes. They definitely don't want to be out in the middle of the vibrating top. I install them close to a brace and often on the top right next to the side. I install more active saddle transducers than anything these days. Most people out here in the islands just want to plug and go with a reliable system, and they are not real descriminating about sound quality. I've always used Fishman Matrix systems, because they are quite reliable and can sound good when you add a decent EQ. Usually when they go bad it's because the player messed around with the saddle and shorted out the element. Lately I tend to combine Matrix saddle transducers with Mi-Si active/no battery onboard preamps. It's a reliable combo. Rick is the one who is going to know the most about sound quality because he lives in the middle of yuppieville where everything is available. I lived there too years ago, and still enjoy a Santa Cruz visit for a day or 2. Here in a rainforest in the middle of the Pacific, players just want to make noise.

[Rick Turner]

Yeah, unfortunately I've found myself usually in the middle of audiophile heaven...that place where it actually has to sound good or you're homeless and reviled for daring to let inferior sound loose on all the latte drinking cougars who would otherwise subject you to all the hidden pages of the Kama Sutra had you not loosed inferior amplified uke sounds upon them in the middle of their yoga classes...

Sorry, folks. I just like an amplified uke to sound like a great sounding uke...

[Allen]

Yeah, unfortunately I've found myself usually in the middle of audiophile heaven...that place where it actually has to sound good or you're homeless and reviled for daring to let inferior sound loose on all the latte drinking cougars who would otherwise subject you to all the hidden pages of the Kama Sutra had you not loosed inferior amplified uke sounds upon them in the middle of their yoga classes...

Sorry, folks. I just like an amplified uke to sound like a great sounding uke...

Oh, there's got to be some good stories there Rick.

[Nick]

Yeah, unfortunately I've found myself usually in the middle of audiophile heaven...that place where it actually has to sound good or you're homeless and reviled for daring to let inferior sound loose on all the latte drinking cougars who would otherwise subject you to all the hidden pages of the Kama Sutra had you not loosed inferior amplified uke sounds upon them in the middle of their yoga classes...

& there are hidden pages? Damn, means I'm just going to have to read it again

Sorry, folks. I just like an amplified uke to sound like a great sounding uke...

No need to apologise for that one Rick! If we wanted an instrument to sound like something else we'd all be fitting Hexaphonics

[Gaby]

Allen, I always carry a few different uke pickups.

I quite like the LR Baggs / MiSi combo as the output is high (higher than any other active pickup I know) and the LR Baggs pickup is one of the better ones when it comes to string balance and a natural tone.

The Shadow Nanoflex pickups are probably my next favourite. Shadow, to my ears, is usually a bit 'muddier' (excusez-le-mot) or mellower than for example Fishman, which with ukes can be a good thing. The passive Shadow ukulele pickup is not all that great and you need a pre-amp or DI to sort some things out.

We have installed the Fishman uke pickups (or parlour guitar ones I believe) with passive and active jacks and I just don't like Fishman all that much, they are too bright (or rather, harsh) for me.

Other undersaddle pickups I have heard in ukes are Dean Markley and and I don't like them much. Oh and Belcat with pre-amp (usually rebranded) - for a cheap pickup they are not bad at all, they work best in tenors.

There are a few soundboard transducers that I personally don't mind, but as you can read above, it's a matter of taste. There's a Shadow soundboard transducer for classical guitars that I sell and think works well on ukes and offers a solution for ukes that you can't get into (two-hole, vita etc.). Kiwaya made a telecaster and les Paul shaped uke, K.Wave, and they had passive soundboard transducers and I thought they sounded well. No idea what was inside, but it worked.

As with anything, a lot has to do with taste. I haven't found the perfect uke pickup yet (if such a thing exists)....I should get some D-tars in and give them a go...

Anyone any ideas on pickups for soprano ukes?

[Rick Turner]

Gaby (and others), we (D-TAR) don't have a packaged, ready to go uke unit. I modify our Timberline system by disconnecting the battery/voltage booster pack from the preamp, putting a jumper from the battery positive input to the preamp over to a solder pad on the PC card that connects to the output jack
"ring" connection, and then making an external battery box with a stereo jack for interconnection to the uke and a mono jack output. A stereo cord brings power up to the uke and signal back out.

It's a high end solution that I think sounds great. It's full, and there's a ton of headroom, and the highs are very natural sounding. But it costs more than many folks are willing to spend on a uke... There are enough people who want this to make it worthwhile for us at Compass Rose to do one or two a month. In fact, the pickup system actually sold a uke at Gryphon Stringed Instruments a month ago. A woman came in looking to buy a mandolin, played one of our amplified tenor ukes, and bought it on the spot. The upshot for us is that Gryphon will now always have three of our ukes in stock, one with a pickup.

[Gaby]

Well Rick, methinks you should start manufacturing ukulele pickups! There's so little choice out there and very few (if any) pickups deliver the goods. But you are right, because ukuleles are relatively cheap, people are hesitant to spend a lot of money on the pickup.

[Pete Howlett]

This is the one thing I dislike about this business - fitting electrics in a perfectly good acoutic ukulele! It's why developed my uklectic range...

[Allen]

And it seems that every commission that I'm getting lately have been requesting info and pricing on pickups. Scares most of them off when you tell them the options.