What should I look for in a ukulele amp
I bought an electric ukulele and now I need an amp for it. What should I be looking for? Is there any uke specific things that are particular to this kind of amp? Would a regular guitar amp work just as well? I am not looking to preform in front of a crowd. I am just looking to have some fun and play some AC/DC.
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Most Uke players want a kind of "acoustic" sound. Most guitar amps color the sound and make the Uke sound distinctly more electric. I have a Marshall AS50D and it has a separate tweeter, which makes the tone more neutral. It also has an anti-feedback filter. I believe that's pretty much a notch filter that suppresses the band where most feedback occurs. With my standard guitar amp, it's a constant war to keep the uke from exploding from feedback. With the Marshall, it's no prob.
There are plenty of other amps out there (as well as PAs) that fill the bill nicely. I just provided one example. On the plus side, any of your acoustic instruments that have pickups will sound great through this kind of amp. On the minus side, it's more gear to buy and more gear to carry.
If you're really keen on playing AC/DC, then why not get a shredder guitar, a cheap used Crate amp, turn everything all the way up and wail away?
Since your uke is solid-body, you need the rest of your setup -- the amp, speaker, cabinet to give character to the sound.
Fortunately the ukulele's pitch range is within that of a guitar's. A soprano uke is similar to the top strings of a guitar being played high up the fretboard. A baritone uke is similar to the top strings of a guitar being played nearer the nut. So amplifiers designed for an electric guitar will work well with the uke.
You might also fancy experimenting with pedals, to get even more distortion, reverb etc.
(I would note that the AC/DC sound is from cranking the gain high on the clean channel of an amp with no pedals)
A guitar does reach much lower pitches than a uke, so you'll never get that gutsy crunch a guitarist gets from power-chording on the bass strings. You can play with EQ to at least make the uke less piercing.
Since you're not looking to play in front of a crowd, go small. There are lots of very good small amps around nowadays, such as the tiny Danelectro Honeytone, Roland Microcube, and many others. They're not toys either - I've seen them mic'd up through the PA at major artists' gigs.
Any guitar amp will be absolutely fine. The sounds and tonal range are well within those a guitar amp was designed for.
Enjoy.
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