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Can i put nylon strings on my steal string accoustic???


mrjones200x

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Just wondered if possible? i dont think i could justify buying a nylon string guitar for the amount i play it so wanted to try on my accoustic steel string.

 

Would the strings fit through the machine head holes? They'll fit through the other ends looking at it

 

Thanks

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You could do it, but the sound would not be very good. Steel & nylon string guitars are constructed differently - steel strings will destroy (and I mean destroy) a nylon string guitar, & nylon strings will not make a steel string top vibrate the way it is supposed to. You would have better results with "Silk & Steel" guitar strings.

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Been there. Done that.

 

I took a semester of Flameco guitar. I just took my Epi FT145SB and re-strung her with gut.

 

<<<---That's "Epi" right there.

 

I used Augustine Blacks. These are the brand Segovia used. Quite honestly, I think he worked with Dupont, way back when, to develop them. btw. "Black" is a designation of the color of the package they come in, not the color of the strings. Augustines are color coded high tension to low tension; Blue, Gold, Red, Black.

 

I selected them... well I selected them because these were the only ones the guit tar shop had at the time.

 

They had silver wound basses. I really liked the tone. The interesting thing is that after an hour or so of playing, the silver reacts with your skin and turns the tips of your fingers black.. It's all good, it'll wash off easy enough.

 

The Augustine Blacks are the lowest tension of this series. See Stringsbymail.com for a description of the Augustines and others. Old "Epi" has a little higher action than ideal, so they didn't buzz. As a matter of fact if you don't have any other guit tars, you could pick up a cheap, high action guit tar and use it for your gut strung guit tar to play when ever the mood strikes you.

 

The strings will, indeed, fit through the machine heads. Since a steel stranger's tuning head capstan is smaller in diameter than a classic guit tar's tuner rollers, the nylons will require more raps to come to full tension. For the trebles, you might want to anchor the ball end at the bridge, wrap the string a few times around the capstan a few times before threading the leader through the hole before working the tuner button. Since the nylons stretch a bunch this 'pre-tension', or should I say 'pre-load', helps keep the wraps from filling up the capstan and wrapping back on itself.. which might not be an all together bad thing. A third hand or a good capo might be put to good use here.

 

Nylons stretch a bunch, It could take a couple hours for the basses to settle in. A week for the mids and the trebles might never settle in. Those little monofilaments just keep stretching and stretching.

 

Ball ends.. that's another thing. Most classic guit tars don't use ball ends. Therefore, the strings are just plain on both ends. Either save the ball ends from a previous set of steels or check with your guit tar shop. They might have some left over from string changes. They gave me a hand full just for asking and a, "Hi howd'y do?" I used a 'Trilene' knot to attach the balls. Actually, they're more like spacers. I just threaded one end through the 'ball' and tied it off as if it were a fish hook. Be aware that these ball-less strings' wound basses have a thin leader. DONT USE THIS END AS THE BALL END. This leader is to make threading through the classic guitar bridge easier. Some nylons come with ball ends all ready attached. Read the package or open one up a bit and peek inside.

 

Enjoy the experiment. I know I did.

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