Skip to main content
Music Radar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Artist news
  • Guitar Amps
  • Guitar Pedals
  • Synths
  • Guitars
  • Drums
  • Keyboards & Pianos
  • Controllers
  • Software & Apps
  • More
    • Recording
    • DJ Gear
    • Acoustic Guitars
    • Bass Guitars
    • Tech
    • Tutorials
    • Reviews
    • Buying Guides
    • About Us
More
  • You Oughta Know
  • Glasto 2025 - how to watch, who's on?
  • Wrecking Crew
  • 95k+ free music samples

Recommended reading

Jason Isbell plays a Martin dreadnought onstage in Norway
Artists Jason Isbell has some advice for any young player who has just bought their first acoustic guitar
Harley Benton Custom Line Nashville-Nylon BK: the latest nylon-string hybrid electro-acoustic from the German budget gear giant is a super-affordable option for players looking for that Tim Henson vibe. Just look at those decorative F-holes.
Guitars Harley Benton's Nashville Nylon might just be the most affordable electro-acoustic nylon-string yet
Acoustic Guitars From Parlour to Jumbo: The beginner's guide to acoustic guitar body shapes (and which one is right for you)
Joe Bonamassa plays a Guild DE-500 Duane Eddy signature guitar at a Nashville show celebrating Eddy's life. Bonamassa wears a dark blazer embroidered with bright musical notation.
Guitarists Joe Bonamassa on how to choose the right amp for a gig
Guitar chords
Acoustic Guitars 30 essential acoustic guitar chords, with charts
Taylor GS Mini on a black wooden floor
Acoustic Guitars Best 3/4 acoustic guitars 2025: Portable playability from Taylor, Martin, Yamaha, and more
How to style a piano
Keyboards & Pianos 8 tips and tricks from a design expert to style a digital piano 
  1. Tutorials
  2. Guitar Lessons & Tutorials

8 tips for gigging with a nylon-string guitar

Tuition
By Dave Burrluck ( Guitarist ) last updated 25 April 2020

Essential advice for playing live

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Talk to the engineer

Talk to the engineer

So you have your nylon-string guitar and you want to go gigging? Here’s some advice and tips that will help you on your way. Starting with...

Talk to the engineer

If your nylon-string guitar already has a pickup/preamp system installed, then you can just plug into the PA and trust the sound engineer to amplify your sound and provide some monitoring.

It’s worth having a chat with the engineer, however - as politely as you possibly can! - as more often than not in our experience, they’ll EQ any acoustic as if it were a steel-string: scoop the mids, enhance the highs and balance the bass. The nylon-string really needs a fuller lower midrange and less high-end crispness.

Also, If you’re using any kind of percussive right-hand technique, again let the engineer know what you’re going to do and discuss compression: be careful not to over-compress as the wide dynamic range is all part of the nylon-string’s appeal.

Page 1 of 8
Page 1 of 8
Piezo or contact?

Piezo or contact?

The ubiquitous piezo under-saddle pickup, as fitted to most mid-priced nylon electros, are far more forgiving on nylon-strings than steel and less prone to the dreaded piezo quack. It’s also the best pickup in terms of feedback rejection.

If you’re playing in lower level environments, however, there are numerous contact pickups/ soundboard transducers that can be relatively easy to fit yourself and should give you a more natural sound.

LR Baggs Lyric Classical, B-Band's AST soundboard transducer (pictured) and K&K’s Pure Classic are good places to start.

Page 2 of 8
Page 2 of 8
Tuning is everything

Tuning is everything

Bear in mind that nylon-string guitars tend to take a lot longer to ‘settle’ than a regular steel-string acoustic guitar would.

Make sure that you have a reliable tuner either built-in to your guitar’s preamp, on the floor, or clipped to the headstock. With new-ish strings you’ll need to check your tuning after every number.

Page 3 of 8
Page 3 of 8
Consider a preamp

Consider a preamp

Onboard guitar systems are often rudimentary, especially on lower-end guitars, so an outboard preamp can be a good idea.

There aren’t any mainstream outboard preamps specifically for nylon string, but the LR Baggs Venue DI is a very well spec’d preamp that works for nylon as well as steel with its dual midrange EQ, XLR out, effects loop a highly visible tuner/mute that’s footswitchable along with a footswitchable solo boost.

It also has a notch filter and phase switch to combat feedback and it runs off both a mains adapter or a battery - ideal for those open-mic slots where quick set-up times are essential. Radial’s Tonebone PZ-Pre and RMI’s Acoustiswitch IQ DI are also great preamp pedals.

Page 4 of 8
Page 4 of 8
Try an acoustic amp

Try an acoustic amp

AER’s Compact Classic Pro is one of the few nylon-string-specific acoustic amplifiers, although most acoustic amps - with the above EQ thoughts in mind - should work perfectly well.

The beauty of an acoustic amp is that you can use it to shape your sound, perhaps with effects, and just take, if necessary, an output to the PA which can be left relatively flat. Your amp acts as a vital on-stage monitor too.

Page 5 of 8
Page 5 of 8
More than an amp?

More than an amp?

For solo and small ensemble players, the new generation of ‘personal’ vertical PAs can be highly effective for guitar and/or voice.

From Bose’s L1 Compact, Fishman’s SA220 SoloAmp, HK Audio’s Lucas Nano 300 and the new Fender Expo System, to Line 6’s StageSource, the line between acoustic amplification and PA is getting very blurred.

Page 6 of 8
Page 6 of 8
Get yourself effected

Get yourself effected

Acoustic guitar players are poorly served by effects. Okay, nylon-strings with overdrives and flanger might be a bit much, but compression, EQ, reverb and a soupçon of delay can be a godsend.

TC Electronic’s G-Natural is a powerful multi- effects aimed at acoustic players, which has all of the above and more in a very pro- spec, rugged package.

Zoom’s A3 (pictured) preamp and effects for acoustic guitar is highly spec’d and more affordable, too. Of course, single compact effects can be as viable for your nylon string as they are for steel or electric players; likewise loopers.

Page 7 of 8
Page 7 of 8
Offer a bung

Offer a bung

Your best friend with which to go into battle on a loud stage is the humble soundhole bung.

As the first line of feedback-rejection, especially with a more lightly built nylon string, never leave home without one!

Page 8 of 8
Page 8 of 8
Dave Burrluck
Dave Burrluck

Dave Burrluck is one of the world’s most experienced guitar journalists, who started writing back in the '80s for International Musician and Recording World, co-founded The Guitar Magazine and has been the Gear Reviews Editor of Guitarist magazine for the past two decades. Along the way, Dave has been the sole author of The PRS Guitar Book and The Player's Guide to Guitar Maintenance as well as contributing to numerous other books on the electric guitar. Dave is an active gigging and recording musician and still finds time to make, repair and mod guitars, not least for Guitarist’s The Mod Squad.

Read more
Jason Isbell plays a Martin dreadnought onstage in Norway
Jason Isbell has some advice for any young player who has just bought their first acoustic guitar
Harley Benton Custom Line Nashville-Nylon BK: the latest nylon-string hybrid electro-acoustic from the German budget gear giant is a super-affordable option for players looking for that Tim Henson vibe. Just look at those decorative F-holes.
Harley Benton's Nashville Nylon might just be the most affordable electro-acoustic nylon-string yet
From Parlour to Jumbo: The beginner's guide to acoustic guitar body shapes (and which one is right for you)
Joe Bonamassa plays a Guild DE-500 Duane Eddy signature guitar at a Nashville show celebrating Eddy's life. Bonamassa wears a dark blazer embroidered with bright musical notation.
Joe Bonamassa on how to choose the right amp for a gig
Guitar chords
30 essential acoustic guitar chords, with charts
Taylor GS Mini on a black wooden floor
Best 3/4 acoustic guitars 2025: Portable playability from Taylor, Martin, Yamaha, and more
Latest in Guitar Lessons & Tutorials
MusicNomad fret tuition
Can you fix your guitar's frets yourself? We try three innovative approaches from MusicNomad to investigate how they might conquer a major cause of fret buzz
George Harrison
How to play like George Harrison on The Beatles' Abbey Road
MusicNomad guitar fret cleaning
"You owe your guitar the chance to be its best": How to clean and polish your guitar frets a better way
Jimmy Page
Play like Jimmy Page! Exclusive video lesson
Music Theory
How learning and understanding chord symbols can prove a major benefit for sharing your musical ideas
Pentatonic Scale
Proggy pentatonic! How to use the good ol’ pentatonic scale in cool new ways
Latest in Tuition
ableton
8 things you can do with Ableton Live's updated Auto Filter device
Compressor settings
The ultimate compression cheat sheet – go-to settings to help you make better music
Piano basics: the black notes - what are they for and how do you use them?
Circle of fifths
The ultimate guide to the circle of fifths and how it can help you make better music
From Parlour to Jumbo: The beginner's guide to acoustic guitar body shapes (and which one is right for you)
Tokyo Dawn Records Nova
Fantastic (free) plugins and how to use them: TDR Nova

MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...