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| Moderated by: Tony Provencher, Richard Hefner |
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| Need advice on EXTERNAL PICKUP for my Bushman... | Rate Topic |
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| Posted: Tue May 12th, 2009 12:56 pm |
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1st Post |
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sooprgrll Approved
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I play live gigs with keyboard, sometimes electric and bass, and limited percussion--not the whole kit--I'm the singer and my ukulele sound needs to come out. We play medium size city venues--so the venues aren't huge. So far we've been miking my uke, but I'm interested in moving around. I love the sound of my Bushman Jenny and I don't want to add an internal because I don't want to modify my sweet sounding uke. So...I need your thoughts on the best external pick-up and...would you suggest a pre-amp? My research has lead me to... Schatten Dualie K&K Big shot external (which one?) Hmm...any thoughts? Any other suggestions for what you have found works? Heeeeeeeeeelp! Thank you!
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| Posted: Tue May 12th, 2009 02:15 pm |
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2nd Post |
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Will Approved 
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I only have experience with the K&K Big Shot pickup, which is a piezoelectric wafer disc that is affixed to the instrument top with double-stick tape. There are a number of issues with external pickups which you should be aware of: 1. You will have to experiment to find the sweet spot in order to get the best tone, which may require you to affix, remove and reapply the disc in several places. 2. You may find that the acoustic sweet spot may be in the path of your strumming hand, and if your hand brushes across the pickup, you will generate extraneous noise, so you will need to locate the pickup elsewhere. 3. If you are averse to installing the cable jack internally inside the uke body (a hole drilled at the bottom of the uke body), you will have to affix the jack to the outside of the uke body - this will involve using an adhesive and velcro combination which will affect the finish of the uke body. 4. Piezeoelectric transducers tend to put out a weak signal, and overaccentuate the mid-range frequencies - to correct this, you will probably need an external pre-amp. Last edited on Tue May 12th, 2009 02:16 pm by Will ____________________ Will http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/297/ Loose Change & Friends http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/245/ http://loosechangeandfriends.com The Earth Tones http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/337/ A Bunch Of Coconuts http://abunchofcoconuts.com |
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| Posted: Sat May 16th, 2009 12:54 pm |
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3rd Post |
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sooprgrll Approved
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Thanks so much Will, this gave me great insight!
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| Posted: Sat May 16th, 2009 11:36 pm |
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4th Post |
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bertiebeetle Approved
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I'm a big fan of K&K pickups - but I'd steer clear of the Big Shot, even though that's the one they recommend for ukes. I've found it to be incredibly 'toppy' and 'hot', needing radical EQ-ing to sound decent. I'd spend a little more and get the K&K Twin Spot. It's not as 'hot' - you'll definitely need a preamp (which all transducer pickups do anyway), but it has a much more natural, balanced sound. As has been said, there's the issue of having cables and plug taped to your exterior finish. But you can install these pickups internally too - the only modification is a hole for the 1/4" jack. Good luck
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| Posted: Wed May 20th, 2009 01:35 am |
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5th Post |
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Neal Approved 
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I've put twin-spots in 2 ukes and another one coming, good pickups. I don't see why you just don't go ahead and have a competent luthier install one, it won't affect the value or the acoustic sound of your uke, and it's much more convenient than those external pickups. I use a GigPro preamp. Decent, does the job. Whatever way you go, you'll want to look at a preamp.
____________________ http://ezfolk.com/audio/NealPaisley http://www.youtube.com/nealpaisley http://www.myspace.com/nealpaisley |
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| Posted: Fri Aug 28th, 2009 04:00 pm |
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6th Post |
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sooprgrll Approved
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I'm gonna go internal---you were all right-thanks!
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| Posted: Sat Aug 29th, 2009 02:15 am |
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7th Post |
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viking Approved 
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I can reccommend the Headway system having previously retro fitted a snake to a washburn solid bodied acoustic guitar on which the factory fitted system had broken. I was very impressed not just by the ease of instalation but the ability to call Headway and speak to there engineers direct for best practice when doing my fit. They were great and the product has fantastic response and depth of tone. It's construction is also bomb proof when compared to some systems which seem quite flimsy. http://www.headwaymusicaudio.com/guitar_ukelele.php
____________________ Hear You Soon MARK |
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| ezFolk Forums > Ukulele > General Ukulele > Need advice on EXTERNAL PICKUP for my Bushman... | Top |
