The Cleanest Nylon String Piezo Strat

As much as I love a messy maximalist guitar, the challenge here to build a minimalistic Strat with no visible electronics was a blast, and the result turned out quite beautifully (at least in my opinion!)
The result is wonderfully straightforward to play, with zero settings to fuss with, and the nylon strings are so gentle and easy to play.
Some notes:
- Nylon strings don't really do bends. You can get half step bends with some persistence.
- Piezos will not be replacing ordinary pickups for me 95% of the time, but there's definitely some potential in the more airy, natural tone.
- The raw sound is just way too mid heavy. The combination of this type of pickup and the specific preamp were just too unpleasantly boosted in the ballpark of 650hz. Either an EQ pedal or a better preamp can mostly fix this.

[@BloonSlayer244]

Sounds beautiful!! :D

[@billpancake]

Mannnnn, this was insane. Great content dude. You'll go far in this RUclips game. Keep it up 👏

[@MattWinkler1]

Thanks my dude, really appreciate it!

[@Skapekai]

I'm not a huge fan of piezo pickups, but seeing how incredibly clean that build is, I'm impressed. Definitely lends itself to finger style I think. Great work!

[@Jefferson-ly5qe]

Sounds pretty good!

[@MattWinkler1]

Thanks!!

[@CKS64]

Great job. Very independent thinking.

[@MattWinkler1]

Thanks! A lot of inspiration actually came from a Fender Yngwie Malmsteen nylon Strat model from the 90's - there are about as many similarities as differences to be honest!

[@name-ni3jc]

I've been wanting to do this with a guitar ever since i saw the Malmsteen signature

[@grumpyalison4869]

This is awesome! Thanks for the video. I’ve been trying to figure out how to build a nylon string electric ukulele and all I can find is guitar info lol. Do you have recommendations for the pickup or piezo bits by chance?

[@MattWinkler1]

Thanks! For this guitar, I used pretty much the cheapest ukulele pickup and preamp I could find on Amazon, and it works reliably and sounds alright enough. Unfortunately I'm not experienced with more expensive (and hopefully better sounding) pizeo pickups to offer any advice there! www.amazon.com/gp/product/B095JQ122M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[@grumpyalison4869]

@@MattWinkler1 Totally fair. Thanks for the info :D

[@kevinheibel8212]

What piezo pickup did you use specificly because I want to bild one myswlf and thanks for the great video 🙌

[@MattWinkler1]

Thanks! This is the pickup and preamp I used - a three band pickup might be able to improve on the tone, but this one's inexpensive and compact: www.amazon.com/dp/B095JQ122M?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

[@kevinheibel8212]

​@@MattWinkler1 thank you so much

[@ecoodrainjesus]

beautiful build, what are you playing at 0:17 ? or is that just something you created yourself, Its awesome!

[@MattWinkler1]

It's the theme from Ratatouille haha

[@will-dh8ip]

you have gotta go fretless now to mmke it even cleaner

[@MattWinkler1]

An intriguing idea 🤔 the sustain would be terrible, but it could make for some very cool lute/ oud sounds

[@southernpride2003]

​@@MattWinkler1
I knew a guy who had a Yangvee malmsteen signature fender nylon strat it was pretty cool it was yellow too it had one knob but from what I remember if you took off the pickguard there was pickup routing

[@mattbenson2607]

This is great, did you modify the nut in any way?

[@MattWinkler1]

Thanks! I filed the nut slots on the G, B, and e strings just a little wider, but it really didn't need much modification

[@kelvinklauck]

Guyker has a preamp volume potentiometer for 20 bucks, no eq or nothing

[@cuborican]

Have you considered a passive pickup and let the amp do the work or an external pre-amp?

[@MattWinkler1]

I've tried it! The main problem is that the output is so low as it is going through the cable - effectively, you end up amplifying all the hum and radio noise. Putting the preamp as close as possible to the source reduces this a lot.

[@cuborican]

@@MattWinkler1 still great job. Others that I have seen do this often use the graph tech ghost system. While it works it is a $300 modification. This seems like a much cheaper modification. So where is the location of the piezo ribbon u see the bridge? Toward the back or front?

[@MattWinkler1]

@@cuborican Thanks, and yes the Graphtech system costs more than the whole guitar! Plus as far as I know it would still need a preamp to be fully effective. I put the piezo under the back of the tremolo, toward the bottom of the guitar.

[@vinylhead9938]

You may want to experiment with the position of the pickup and/or your technique. At the moment the high E is significantly quieter than the other strings and the finger squeaks are louder than the notes you play. Nice build otherwise, always liked the Yngwie Malmsteen Signature strat look.

[@Ottophil]

Position? Its the bridge saddles lol

[@MattWinkler1]

Flatwound strings would probably go a long way to reducing finger squeaks, not much you can do to adjust the volume of individual strings with a single piezo setup.
A set of saddles with individual piezo outputs could work, but the cheapest ones I found cost more than the entire project!

[@vinylhead9938]

​@@Ottophil, the piezo is glued under the tremolo, 2:10

[@ThomasHope73]

For me, the string squeaking make the current guitar design untenable. I literally couldn’t listen to the whole video, because of the “fingernails on a chalkboard” effect.

[@rock_gangstar]

Can we use Piezo at Floating tremolo bridge ?

[@MattWinkler1]

The way I mounted the piezo on this guitar, it goes under the tremolo bridge so it is no longer floating. There are probably other ways that you could attach a piezo element that don't interact with the trem operation

[@rock_gangstar]

@@MattWinkler1 thanks brother.

[@Csartreweghhgf]

Ratatouille Camille Le Festin, cool song bravo!

[@guitarmaestro078]

Sounds like a ukulele