Strat&piezo finished

[woj74]

Hi

Proudly presenting this baby. It's not only about how it looks and feels. It's mailny about how it sounds. The Fishman piezo mixed with magnetic sounds is something incredible. I wish i could record some samples but i will do it soon.

That's how it looks:

 

[bpmorton777]

very nice!  howw is the piezo working out?

Brian

 

[woj74]

Piezo is cool. It makes no sense to say it's better than a real acoustic guitar sound but it does it's job. The piezo sound in this guitar is dedicated just to color magnetic sound. IMO the best mix is m+n pups and a balanced flavour od piezo. If played thru delay and chorus you can achieve a rich, full of all frequiencies sound with lots of space. It also sounds cool in a very raw sound without modulations. I am really suprised by the result. I used to play a MMJP with piezo but that gutair sounds different than mix with single coil sound. 

 

[blue313]

Looks like a nice chunk of birdseye.  :headbang:

Got the final specs on this bad boy?

 

[woj74]

Oh yeah, specs:

Neck:
Warmoth-pro construction
Birdseye/rosewood stained lighly for vintage look and finished with polyurethane gloss
'59 roundback contour
straight 9.5' radius
stainless steel frets
Schaller locking tuners
Natural bone nut


Body (non-Warmoth, my own from scratch job):
2-piece alder
polyurethane finish

Electronics:
Fender vintage noiseless pups, master volume, master tone
Fishman piezo vintage tremolo bridge, Fishman Powechip piezo/magnet signal blender

 

[NonsenseTele]

Simple and cool!

 

[DoubleG]

Simple and cool!

+1

 

[OzziePete]

I like the way the Strat looks so traditional but it has the piezo thrown in. Good work, Woj. :icon_thumright:

I also like the principle you have adopted when using the piezo (and not trying to perform a miracle with that system and having it sound like an acoustic guitar), but using it as a blending system to the magnetic pickups. :headbang1:

:hello2:

 

[Unwound G]

Sweet..........much like Pete Townshend's piezo Clapton Strat.

 

[Mor Paul]

Sweet..........much like Pete Townshend's piezo Clapton Strat.

Without the mix knob behind the bridge.

 

[woj74]

As far as i remember Townhend Strat is maple neck. But the idea was not to modify visually Strat's basic controls. That's why i (not actually me but the guy who i made that guitar for) decided to modify magnetic tone to master one and use the middle tone knob as piezo signal volume. All blending electronics are in powerchip SMD atached to the bottom of the piezo volume knob. There comes magnetic signal and the chip transmits master signal to the jack. You can totally mute each of signal sources by turning two volume knobs down and therefore mix them. You can optionally use a small 3-position toggle for fast switching between magnetic/ piezo/mix signals but that was not ordered in this guitar.

 

[OzziePete]

As far as i remember Townhend Strat is maple neck. But the idea was not to modify visually Strat's basic controls. That's why i (not actually me but the guy who i made that guitar for) decided to modify magnetic tone to master one and use the middle tone knob as piezo signal volume. All blending electronics are in powerchip SMD atached to the bottom of the piezo volume knob. There comes magnetic signal and the chip transmits master signal to the jack. You can totally mute each of signal sources by turning two volume knobs down and therefore mix them. You can optionally use a small 3-position toggle for fast switching between magnetic/ piezo/mix signals but that was not ordered in this guitar.

And it came out looking very good too.. I like - and have always liked - the challenge of keeping a guitar design the same look without seemingly extra switches or knobs, but having a truckload of extras shoved in it.  :evil4:

However, I have painted myself into a corner on at least one project doing that, you really have to put a lot of thought & preparation into the porject before commiting to hardware and body/neck configurations. So well done! :hello2:

 

[whatwasithinkin]

Wow nice axe

 

[CrackedPepper]

Beautiful - nice job!

 

[SustainerPlayer]

Traditional with the touch of personality.  :guitarplayer2:

 

[bendeg]

Hi

Proudly presenting this baby. It's not only about how it looks and feels. It's mailny about how it sounds. The Fishman piezo mixed with magnetic sounds is something incredible. I wish i could record some samples but i will do it soon.

woj74,

I'm very interested in that piezo/magnetic combo you did on your guitar. It's something that runs around my brain since a long time now.

First of all : any sound clips showing off the difference between only magnetic/only piezo and both (without any effects added) ? Hey, no need to play "Eruption" man ! Simple chords will do perfectly !

Where did you put your piezo ? Under the bridge ? Can they be put elsewhere ? At the nut ? Neck-body junction ? Anywhere else on the body or maybe the neck ?

Should be something to be digged way deeper, well ,that's my opinion...

Thanks for any answer !

 

[woj74]

Hi
I can't record that guitar right for several reasons. Basicly i don't own it any more since it was custom built for my friend. But i will get it for some time for sample recordings soon.
You're asking where i put the piezo system. It's in the bridge saddles of Fishman system. It's Fishman's vintage tremolo that looks like a regular one but bridge saddles are equipped with piezo transducers, wires from each saddle are soldered together and one cable comes to electronic signal blender. None of my invention,  just a ready-to-install system. You can find some additional transducers placed right next to tremolo in the original Fender system but that one works like that. Hope it clears out a bit.

 

[bendeg]

Thanks woj74,

Oh ok, I saw that on the web, but it appears that you have to use an existing knob (tone) for the Fisherman system to work and add a battery (of course...), you can't just add the knob of the Fisherman.

Is that right? In the operation, you lose one tone knob (on a standard stratocaster) ? Is it a big loss?

 

[woj74]

That's right. In case you don't want any optical mods to the Strat you need to sacrifice one tone pot. You can either ommit mid (or neck) pickup tone or wire it master tone. I don't think it will ruin Strat's spirit.