Three seconds. Grab, swap, click —
play the sound you love.

A few things people ask

Who's behind this? Is this a real company?

S.Y. Music Technology Co., Ltd., Taiwan company number 60511810 — one person runs it. Taiwan utility model 114212463 is granted; an invention patent is pending, both for the pickup device. There's a physical place in Da'an, Taipei (the Le Guitar music school) where you can turn up and meet someone in person.

Can it ship now? What about the digital cartridges?

What you'd get is a complete guitar with analog pickup cartridges in it — one you can take on stage. The DSP and Sustainer cartridges come later, as separate cartridge products you choose to add. They don't change the analog signal path of the guitar you already have.

When does it ship?

Shipping is planned for the second half of 2027, founding members first. The exact date goes up when the campaign opens, alongside the production schedule. The list hears it first.

Do active pickups — EMG and the like — work?

Yes. An active pickup brings its own preamp, and that preamp is the sound you bought: we power it and otherwise leave it alone — no added gain. The buffer and its bypass switch are still yours to choose. And active and passive can share the guitar; in the middle position you get both at once.

Relays are mechanical. Won't they wear out?

Anything that moves wears, so we picked the part with the most extreme spec. The Panasonic TQ2's rated mechanical life is a hundred million operations — switch a hundred times a day and you'd be at it for 2,700 years. A conventional guitar's 3-way switch is typically rated in the tens of thousands: three orders of magnitude apart. They also latch, so between switches the coil draws no current at all — no heat, no wear, just quietly holding your setting.

Swapping over and over — will the contacts go loose or intermittent?

What actually wears when you swap is the pogo pins: ten gold-plated spring pins, pressed in about 0.5 mm and held there by their own springs — not wedged in, and not gripped by friction. The contacts are rated for 100,000 insertions, and the pin assembly is a wear part you can replace on its own — when it wears, you change that, not the cartridge.

The WAGO terminals inside a cartridge are a different matter: they only move when you change the pickup in that cartridge. They are a spring clamp with a gas-tight joint — copper creeps under long pressure and the spring takes the slack up again, so unlike a screw terminal they never need re-tightening. And the screw points in the cartridge shell run into brass heat-set inserts: the thread that gets turned over and over is metal, not plastic.

Is the guitar durable?

One electrolytic capacitor is the only part in the circuit that ages on a calendar — conservatively about 15 years, and you swap it at a normal service. Everything else has no wear-out mechanism and a design life over 20 years, and all of it is designed to be replaceable. Boards are conformal-coated before they ship, so it stands up to the stage, to sweat, and to the drink someone spills. Full figures are in the specifications.

What happens to each guitar before it ships?

Assembly, setup and final QC all happen in Taiwan. Every guitar is set up by a tech before it goes in the box — feel, tone and function each checked by hand.

What's the warranty?

One year, limited. Beyond that, every control sits on a plug-in daughterboard, and the parts will be orderable from the site — so most repairs don't need us at all. How service works outside Taiwan isn't settled yet — we won't describe a process we haven't built. Write to hello@prjct-01.com and we'll tell you exactly where that stands.

What happens after the warranty runs out?

Inside the first year, in Taiwan: a mainboard fault — contact us and we arrange collection; you can also bring it in or post it back. A damaged cartridge or consumable part — we send a good one out for you to swap in. After the first year we still take it on, with parts and labor charged. Outside Taiwan this is the same open question as the answer above: write to hello@prjct-01.com and we'll tell you where it stands.

If your company goes away, is this still a guitar?

Yes. The electronics do one job: switching. On a flat battery — or if the whole system fails — the signal drops to straight passive wiring. That's a complete conventional electric guitar; plug it into an amp and play. There is exactly one solder joint in the instrument (the output jack), every control sits on a plug-in daughterboard you can swap without an iron, and the cartridge is a mechanical part — put a standard pickup in it and keep going.

Can I try one in Taipei?

Yes, and it's open now. The guitar lives in Da'an, Taipei. The booking link goes out to the list, so leave an email and we'll send you the place and the times. Bring your own ears and a real amp.