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| Moderated by: Richard Hefner | Page: 1 2 3 4 5   |
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| Are you Electric?? - General Ukulele - Ukulele - ezFolk Forums | |||||||||||||||
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bellamira Approved 
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As a builder, I am intereested in how many of you are using or desire acoustic/electric ukes? If you are "amped" already, what type of pickup are you using, and are you satisfied with it. If you are desiring and acoustic/electric uke, what size uke are you desiring to be electrified? Mark in Portland. Spank that uke!
____________________ Mark in Portland "Spank that uke!" |
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banjo brad Super Moderator 
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Bellamira - Not to put a damper on your (or anybody's) wants, but why in the world would anybody who plays folk music want an electric uke, or guitar, or banjo, or lute, or any stringed instrument? This is just my personal opinion, and I have aired it in the past on this site, just like I have voiced concerns about people using the multi-tack ability of present-state recording to allow themselves to play more that one instrument on the same recording. I like acoustic instruments for their very acoustic-ness. Only rock-n-rollers really need electric instruments. Use a mic! (the above opinions are entirely my own, and express only my own old-fashioned, old-time, old-fart curmudgeon point of view.)   Keep on pickin'Brad p.s. multi-instruments ok by me are a guitar and harmonica - they can be played in a live situation without instrument-syncing. p.p.s. A lot of blues players do a good job with electric guitars. i.e., Lightning Hopkins and B.B. King.
____________________ ezFolk Help Brad Prickly Pear Music Banjo Brad's ezFolk page TOTMC |
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Richard Hefner Administrator 
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Brad... Welcome to the 21st century! Plenty of folkies use electric pickups to amplify their instruments, including banjo players. A lot of times it's the best option for getting a good sound when you're in a situation where you need to be amplified. It ain't cheatin'. And Brad, everybody who does any professional recording does multitrack recording. You have to mix the sound correctly, even if it's only 1 guitar and 1 voice. 
____________________ Richard Hefner Webmaster, ezFolk.com MP3 Page: http://www.ezfolk.com/audio/richardhefner Running Blog: http://old-runner.com |
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Pauline Leland Approved 
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banjo brad, Love your way of expressing. I'm a new-fart curmudgeon myself. First, what's folk? Something of the people as opposed to glitzy stars churned out by the music business machine? Even that is arguable, but I think the folk of the world, urban and rural 'cause folk live in cities nowadays and electricity is available in very outlying communities, have taken to electric instruments to such an extent that it's contradictory to exclude them as non-folk. They may not be old-fashioned folk, but so what? I don't think you want to lock up the genre and say anything invented or written after 1850 is excluded. Sorry, you didn't say any such things. I'm reacting to a lot of silliness I heard and read in the 50's and 60's from rigid doctrinaire purists who made up their own rules and insisted everyone had to follow them. I have an electric uke, a semi-solid (semi-hollow?) body electric tenor uke. It doesn't sound very acoustic uke-like with it's steel strings and endless sustain, but I fell for it and had to get one of my own after hearing Steven Espaniola play "E Ku`u Morning Dew" on it. The song has a strong ethnic flavor, but it was written within the last 50 years or so, and may be too new to be folk. The quality that Espaniola gets (and I can't) cannot be achieved with a microphone. It is unique to a solid/semi-solid body instrument and, maybe, steel strings and mag pickups. But, if you are complaining about piezo pickups, quacking under-saddle Aflacks, I totally agree with you. They are generally an abomination that ruins the sound of a good acoustic. Further insult, to make them work without feedback, the builders have to deliberately build an inferior acoustic instrument. I've read that some newer amplification systems are beginning, just beginning, to remedy this problem, but so far they are concentrating on guitars, not ukes. Mark, Sorry, I have no idea what pickups I have, but I don't think you were asking about mag pickups anyway. Pauline
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UkeForever Approved 
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I use an electric Lanikai tenor (CK-TEQ) for many of my tracks: http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/3/music.php You can hear it solo on "Against My Own Advice, solo version": it has that tenor-guitar-like sound, especially with the low G. I also use it for lead solos. Pauline is right; acoustically the instrument is not that great (unless you've got a mic real close), and the under-the-saddle pickup is thunky. But finger-strumming seems to fix that. (I can't tell you how annoying it is to hear these pickups in guitars...more thunk than note.) I have seen some nice Martin pickups that actually looks like there is a microphone of some type protruding into the middle of the soundhole from beneath. Those sound best to me. When playing with a noisy band in close quarters (feedback!), there is nothing like having the plug-in. Not having it would have seriously hampered my enjoyment Friday night playing in a garage with other musicians. Nobody hears the thunks, and the music comes through amplifiers over drums, electric guitar solos and electric bass. OK, maybe it wasn't folk, but sometimes I like to make my ukulele rock with some hard blues. The electric is great for noise-free recording and amplification. Otherwise, I would ideally find a good acoustic instrument and use a mic. Last edited on Wed Feb 16th, 2005 04:11 am by UkeForever ____________________ Don't let the door hit 'ya where the good Lord split 'ya. John Rockwell's Crazy Songs 
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1four5 Approved 
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Although not really answering the question, I'll weigh in on the side of staying true acoustic, and playing into a mic if I want volume or to record. To me it's a simplicity thing. At my level, I'm overjoyed when I fret a note cleanly, and I don't want to have to fuss with chords, knobs, balance etc...just to get to that note. I have a Telecaster, and a wha pedel, and electronics to make it sound like anything thing or any one out there...and if I want to electrify, it's patiently waiting for me...however, it hasen't been out of it's case in almost 10 months now. I took up uke for it's simplicity, and the more I play, and record, and listen to old blues...the more I love and appreciate the rawness of what you play is what you get, gravitate to pure acoustic, and the further away my electric desires go.
____________________ These are the good times! |
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Tim3finger Approved 
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Bellamira I too, will avoid the direct answer by saying, I am not a purist when it comes to electric or not. I feel there are times when amplification is necessary, and times when accoustic only is preferred. I have been accused of being somewhat of a curmudgeon, but when it comes to what you like to hear, I think electric or acoustic is fine. It is your choice. I do lean toward the side of simplicity,  and unamplified makes my transportation and set-up easier when I go to friend's houses.T3F 
____________________ Tim "Trying to give back a little of what I've been given" |
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banjo brad Super Moderator
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Ok - I stirred up some controversy! YEA! I will sit down later and try to explain my thoughts on folk music, but will do it off-line, and then post (I am a slow writer). Richard - we went through this a while back under a different link, but what I mean by multi-track recording that I don't agree with in a folk performer is one person, one tune, many instruments (that it would be impossible to do live). A guitar, harmonica and vocal can be performed by one person on stage in a live setting, but adding a bass, banjo, mandolin, fiddle and high harmony without adding extra performers is impossible without cheating. As for electrification, I still prefer the old way of acoustic mics for performances, if needed (I really like living room concerts), or the old bluegrass style of one mic and the performers moving in and out to take their breaks and solos. Like I said, us dinosaur curmudeons don't adapt too quickly, get me started on my preference for analog over digital recordings someday  Keep on pickin'Brad
____________________ ezFolk Help Brad Prickly Pear Music Banjo Brad's ezFolk page TOTMC |
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bellamira Approved
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Ok everybody! Don't hold back. good to see there is such a diverse group. I think the diversity is what makes all things stronger for the better of the group. Well, personally I do not think of the ukulele today as a folk instrument. I just think of it as an instrument. More of a "way" of doing something, than a "thing", and I love it's simplicity as much as I like it's ability to stretch both itself and me into areas I haven't been before. I like folk, Hawaiian, rock, ballads, Django Swing, Leonard cohen, Squirrle Nut Zippers, and on and on. The uke seems pretty happy with all of them. Makes me happy too. I think there is room for appreciation in all of it. Mark in Portland Spank that uke...get your chord on!
____________________ Mark in Portland "Spank that uke!" |
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bydl Approved 
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I've installed two different types of pickups on my ukes. My goal is to get a decent acoustic sound, but louder. Plus some control localized at the instrument. First I took a cheapo Hilo uke and installed the Hilo Strings brand soundboard piezo pickup. It does not have any localized volume or tone controls, but one could add a simple external pre-amp that plugs between your instrument jack and your cable. This pickup is very susceptible to feedback, but it sounds more acoustic than the under saddle. Next I installed the Shadow brand under-saddle ceramic pickup on my mid-quality Mele Kalia. This pickup comes with an on-board pre-amp with volume and two tone control sliders. It is very poppy and I have not got a sound out of it that I really like. It is less susceptible to feedback. The hole in the uke body for the pre-amp controller is huge for a soprano, about a inch by inch and half, and its curve only fit the lower bout. This caused a big loss of un-amplified acoustic volume for this mid-range ukulele. So I basically ruined this instrument. I have seen some pickups with pre-amps that just require separate holes for individual knobs, the Fishman I think, and that would impact the acoustic quality much less. But again, these under-saddles seem less acoustic sounding to me. I think the optimal solution would involve minimal invasion, which means no body holes at all except for the jack through the end block. Then an external in-line pre-amp for localized control. Perhaps an internal mic type so you convert air vibrations rather than saddle or soundboard, but those probably get loads of feedback too. Maybe a Markley type sound-hole mounted pickup wired to a preamp on the players belt ...
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bellamira Approved
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i have read several articles about some rather well know professional guitarist using the internal mic approach. some with feedback issues....some not. One I heard about was a Seinhauser lapel mic installed internally with good response. have also heard some good things about LR Baggs pickups. A local luthier I spoke with mentioned they have one under saddle that sounds good and gets run though a preamp that is fitted insideof the internal jack mount and it is designed to eliminate fedback. Mark
____________________ Mark in Portland "Spank that uke!" |
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Will Approved 
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I believe the soundhole type pick-ups are magnetic, and require steel strings to pick up anything, so they won't work on a nylon string uke. I'm a believer in plugging in instruments when in a performance situation. In a large room, acoustic feedback problems may preclude turning up a microphone loud enough to pick up a quiet instrument such as ukulele. One of the most difficult instruments to amplify properly is the autoharp, which I've played for 11 years. Most microphones simply won't pick up the full spectrum (sounds tinny) of sound when recording an ensemble with other instruments. The magnetic pickup for the autoharp is the great equalizer. Harvey Reid, a great guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, wrote and posted an excellent essay on the merits and demerits of plugging in acoustic instruments: http://www.woodpecker.com/writing/articles/bluegrassplugged.html
____________________ 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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HowlinHobbit Approved 
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I'm all for straight-ahead acoustic instruments, but I don't get my knickers in a twist if someone wants to plug in either. I was part of a showcase here a few weeks back and there was a guy on stage (with one of those cool Robert Armstrong painted guitars) and one of the other people there was grousing about how he should plug in, it's the 21st century, blah blah blah. Screw that. Whatever works for you. Pauline sez: But, if you are complaining about piezo pickups, quacking under-saddle Aflacks, I totally agree with you. They are generally an abomination that ruins the sound of a good acoustic. I've had an undersaddle pickup in my acoustic guitar for about 14 years now. Combine that with an exterior pre-amp and it still sounds acoustic, only loud. I've noticed the brittle, crackly sound that acoustic guitars without the pre-amp produce -- some of that on so-called "big name" albums, by those who theoretically should know better and certainly have the bucks for good equipment -- but it's not necessary. I currently own a little no-name soprano that I put a K&K Sound HotSpot pickup in and, even without pre-amping, it sounds great. Or rather, as good as a little no-name soprano is likely to sound, amped or not. I haven't played it in an age and am giving serious thought to selling it. If I'm somewhere that I can't get adequate miking for my nice ukulele, I'll just have to listen instead of play. Banjo Brad -- all music is folk music. You ever hear a horse playing music? Howlin' Hobbit (http://www.howlinhobbit.com) Got Uke? Snake Suspenderz (http://www.snakesuspenderz.com) Hot jass, Hokum and Novelty music... with a bite! Last edited on Fri Feb 18th, 2005 03:29 am by HowlinHobbit ____________________ Howlin' Hobbit Got Uke? MySpace ezFolk UkeLand |
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HowlinHobbit Approved
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Oh yeah, I almost forgot... Will wrote: In a large room, acoustic feedback problems may preclude turning up a microphone loud enough to pick up a quiet instrument such as ukulele. Drop that plywood POS and buy any decent quality solid wood 'ukulele, be it custom- or factory-built. I've yet to sit down in front of a microphone that wouldn't pick up my Glyph, even though I have them place it 8 to 10 inches in front of the uke. If made properly, the 'ukulele isn't that quiet an instrument. Howlin' Hobbit (http://www.howlinhobbit.com) Got Uke? Snake Suspenderz (http://www.snakesuspenderz.com) Hot jass, Hokum and Novelty music... with a bite!
____________________ Howlin' Hobbit Got Uke? MySpace ezFolk UkeLand |
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Pauline Leland Approved
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HowlinHobbit wrote: ...I've noticed the brittle, crackly sound that acoustic guitars without the pre-amp produce -- some of that on so-called "big name" albums, by those who theoretically should know better and certainly have the bucks for good equipment -- but it's not necessary... I attended a concert by a big name acoustic guitar fingerstylist. He actually played the quack; it was a part of his compositions. Ick! Pauline
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Will Approved
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Amongst other instruments, I play a solid wood baritone uke, the loudest of all my ukes, in a band that has a dreadnaught guitar, 5-string banjo, and mandolin. On the stage, the uke simply cannot be heard by the room audience without a pickup. By itself, a microphone can amplify the uke adequately, but not with the other instruments playing at the same time. LOOSE CHANGE AND FRIENDS HowlinHobbit wrote: Oh yeah, I almost forgot... Last edited on Tue Feb 22nd, 2005 06:01 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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HowlinHobbit Approved
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Will wrote:Amongst other instruments, I play a solid wood baritone uke, the loudest of all my ukes, in a band that has a dreadnaught guitar, 5-string banjo, and mandolin. On the stage, the uke simply cannot be heard by the room audience without a pickup. By itself, a microphone can amplify the uke adequately, but not with the other instruments playing at the same time. Dunno what to tell ya then. In my jug band we play one tune where there is 2 (plugged in) acoustic guitars and 1 (plugged in) resonator guitar and my miked uke keeps up fine. Are you doing the 'grass thing with just the one microphone? Howlin' Hobbit (http://www.howlinhobbit.com) Got Uke? Snake Suspenderz (http://www.snakesuspenderz.com) Hot jass, Hokum and Novelty music... with a bite!
____________________ Howlin' Hobbit Got Uke? MySpace ezFolk UkeLand |
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uke jackson Approved
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get over it and get a reso. 
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PhonoFred Approved 
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I will be Electric soon. I just ordered a Risa Soprano Uke-Solid from Elderly. I cannot wait to get it. I love the look of it, and the sound files I've heard sound really cool. The Elderly people were great to deal with. They were very friendly and helpfull. This was my first order but I'd bet it won't be my last. I'll get back to you with a review of the instrument in a week to 10 days. I'll bet that little baby will sound great through my Roland Micro. Now the waiting...Oh how I hate the waiting. Best, Fred
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