MIMF

Hi! I'm looking around for a (relativley cheap, around $200 is prefered but it can be higher!) electric ukulele that I will be able to plug into an amp and use distortion pedals! I was looking at some acoustic-electrics but my dad said they wouldn't work due to the lack of pickups. Is he correct? Does anyone have any reccomendations?

Did You check Alibaba?

I've seen electric ukes often enough. You need to decide whether you want a solid body mini electric guitar style with steel strings or a traditional nylon string uke with a pickup. The tiny electric guitar versions can be had cheap but you get what you pay for. Borrow a Fender Squire strat or Telecaster, remove the Low E and A strings, replace the D-string with a .010 tuning it an octave higher and put a capo on the 5th fret. It essentially becomes a uke and you can play around with it to see if its what you're looking for. If you've got the skills, you can certainly find one on ebay and refine it or there are a couple dozen people on this forum who would be glad to build you one. There is a beauty to the voice of a tradition uke. This is absent in a streel string solid body uke but hey, tone happens and maybe you could find a niche for it. I've made quite a few solid body mandolins, mandolas, and octave mandolins. Put 'em through a bunch of pedals and processors and yea, cool noise happens.