Hello Gibson classical

[DJCJR73]

Hello all. I’ve been an electric guitar player for 30 yrs. I just inherited a mint Gibson C1 What type of nylon strings do I need for it. The EAD looked metal but don’t think they were.  So again it’s a classical Gibson c1 and I need to buy a pack of strings for it. Thanks a lot guys.  

[ksdaddy]

The EAD have metal windings over a (silk?) core so at first glance they would appear to be like a regular wound steel string. They’re much lower tension than a regular wound acoustic string though. 
 

if you’ve never installed classical strings, you should probably buy a set with ball ends. They will be much easier to install; wrapping a “plain end” string on the tie block of a classical guitar and making it look nice is a satisfying experience to me but it can be frustrating at first. There’s no difference in tone or durability in using a ball end string. It’s much quicker, it’s just not as pretty in my opinion. 
 

A couple things to remember in this whole process: nylon strings will stretch a lot. I mean a lot. You will be tuning this guitar every time you pick it up for at least a week, possibly more. Also, it’s going to sound like a ukulele for a solid month. I despise the sound of new classical strings. They sound like fishing line stretched over a cardboard box. Once they’ve been on there a month or two they’ll settle in and give you good tone. 
 

As to brand, I use D’Addario Pro Arte high tension. I don’t think they make them in ball end though. For your first stab at it, any ball end nylon string will do. I think Martin makes a good ball end nylon. 

[Sgt. Pepper]

As KSD stated D'addario make good strings.

Here is a link to their site of classical strings.

https://www.daddario.com/products/guitar/classical-guitar/

Edited May 30, 2022 by Sgt. Pepper