Steel Strings on Classical Guitar?

[stevie]

Hi,I Have a little used old classical guitar, I Have been considering the idea of replacing the nylon strings with steel and tunning it to open tunning D/G, for picking and slide, I understand that doing this and tunning to standard tunning would be fatal for this poor guitar but what about the above lower tunnungs? Stevie

[Stevie]

You know that without any factual back up I'm going to stick my neck out and say "Don't do it man!"

No truss rod- I think that it's a recipe for disaster.

Maybe Malcolm at Newtone would be able to advise you on the pull of his strings at that pitch over that scale length but you'd have to do him the honour of buying his strings in return, no bad thing anyway.

[blueshome]

Why not swap it or sell it and get a beater for sliding, there are plenty of them on evilbay.

[Deleted]

Steel strings will often pull the bridge right off a classical guitar, as even a light set in a dropped tuning will exert way more tension than it's really capable of dealing with, and the classical bridge is far more prone to being pulled off the top of the guitar than a pin bridge. If it really is a crappy old wreck, you could put a trapeze tailpiece on it, but to be honest, any ratty old steel string acoustic will be a better bet, and keep the classical for learning how to play bossa nova on.

[stevie]

Thanks for your good advice chaps, The classical will remain a classical! regards Stevie

[robn]

Hi Stevie,

I've done it. I put a jazz guitar tailpiece on an old classical guitar, fitted a higher bridge and nut, strung it with Newtone Aloha strings (15-56) and tuned it to open C.

It is a great sounding lap guitar. But the down pressure is bowing the top and I'm sure that eventually she will fold in half

Robin

[Stevie]

What goes around, comes around....

I am being given a Yamaha CG201s as a long service award at work. I never thought I'd buy another nylon string instrument but hey- it sure beats a watch!

My immediate response was to advise against steel strings but after investigating at Stringsdirect (no connection etc...) it seems that quite a number of classical guitar string sets do indeed have steel cored wound strings.

I have checked on D'Addario's website and the tension seems to be around 80 - 90 lbs dependant upon gauge. This is of course much less than a steel set on our favoured instruments ;<D

Does anyone have a view on this? Would I be better advised to stick with the "floss cored" type or even one of the newer composite type cores? I can't see myself spending much out on trying different sets- that would be money better spent treating the MMB! Steel cores on a classical does rather ring alarm bells here. Out of instinct, I would tend towards the "harder" gauges because nylon sets seem like elastic bands to me!

[Deleted]

If you've compared the tensions of steel vs nylon then fine...but looking at the strings, I think you are looking at light gauge "Silk and Steel", which have conventional plain steel trebles, and steel cored bass strings with a nylon middle wrap and conventional windings (often silver plated copper). These are aimed at folk style fingerpickers who prefer a lower tension, and are useful for older instruments when you need to keep the tension down but don't want to use gut or nylon. I've used them on 'delicate' guitars in the past (such as 19th C parlour guitars with pin bridges), but personally I wouldn't put silk & steels on a decent classical..enjoy the guitar for what it is.

[Stevie]

It was the EXP strings that I was looking at, not the Silk and Steels. I use them on my Yamaha LS400vt, Sweet16 and on my Fylde mando. Not every one likes them but I do like the lush sound. Trouble is that they are listed on Stringsdirect under classical guitar strings and I noticed other so-called classical sets that also sported steel cores on the wound strings.
I'll give them the swerve! Thanks CBJ.