INSTALLING THE MISI PICKUP

This is the MiSi pickup,  a unique, high quality, proven pickups for ukuleles and larger acoustic instruments.
I spent the morning installing them in two of my recent build, and thought you might enjoy seeing the process.

Some basic understandings:  This is a proven, five or six year old product used by many of the best artists.  It is unique in that it does not use a battery.  The round device you see in the photo is not a battery. It is a Capacitor.
A capacitor holds electricity, dispenses it, and is recharged- so the MiSi is charged, played and then you simply recharge it by plugging it into your house 110 system for one minute.  Now you are ready to play through an amp for another 16 hours.  A wonderful, clean, pickup. The only evidence you can see is a very handsome strap button at the end of your uke.  Here is how it is installed.

First you must do the surgery, so here is the operating room.  Clamp down the uke having first located the exact center of the bottom of your instrument.  It is now clamped down and protected for the drilling that comes next.

I start with a small drill bit to center and guide this big guy into the bottom of the uke.  Remember that there is a thick walnut butt plate behind that end seam that must be penetrated.  Next the step bitt is started into the lead hole.  I find that the step bitt does a clean and controllable job in this delicate location.

Here is the completed hole, ready to receive the MiSi.

Now the MiSi is put into the uke through the sound hole and a long lucite rod that just fits the anus of the MiSi is inserted through this big drilled hole and into the MiSi.  

Here you can see the MiSi inserted and the device itself is visible through the sound hole.  Now if you are very careful and very gentle you can draw the barrel of the MiSi right out through that drilled hole.

Ah ! success. Now you place a washer over the threaded barrel, screw on the nut and tighten it up.  

By inserting a small tool end into that hole you saw on the barrel, you hold it stationary while you tighten the nut with a wrench.  Make it snug.  

Now you thread on the strap button which not only hides all those threads, nuts and washers, but provides an excellent strap button. The pickup is also charged through the hole in this fixture.  Now the job gets tougher.  You must find a way to lead the Piezo cable from the MiSi, up through a hole drilled in the groove that the saddle sits in.  It must lay under the saddle.

The hole is drilled with a bit exactly the width of the groove.  I rock it back and forth a bit to widen the hole for the Piezo. Then a thin, flexible little wire is put down this hole and affixed to the Piezo cable inside the uke.

And with a little luck you are able to pull it all right up that hole and lay it in the groove.

So here it is laying just right in the groove with the bone saddle about to be laid upon it.

And when the saddle goes down, the Piezo is no longer seen.  You do have to sand down the saddle by the depth of the Piezo to keep the string action the same height.

The final act is to charge the capacitor.  Just plug it into the 110 and then into your uke.  A one minute charge plays your uke through an Amp for 16 hours.  Remarkable but true.