What strings put on old parlor guitars?

[Deleted]

I have fixed up several old Regal, kaycraft and similar Chicago made parlor guitars...ladder braced with pin bridges, and thin frets with fret wire saddle in some cases. Never expected to get much tone out of them, and don't, and never put anything but garden variety light gauge Martin strings on them. Does anyone have any special strings they find to enhance the tone of these guitars, while developing minimal stress. Never able to play with bare fingers because just don't get any tone or volume out of these...

[dbs]

'lo-fredcapo-ive had 2 parlor guitars one was an Oscar Schmidt 1920's 1st Hawaiian Conservatory & the second a 1930's Supertone (which is incidentally for sale on this forum in tin can alley) on both these guitars i consistently used Elixirs light or Extra light strings (sorry MM i know you hate these) they are a tad pricey but they produced a loud clear tone. both these guitars were ladder braced & solid birch-i used them for finger style & slide (brass slide on the OS-glass on the Supertone.) i also replaced that fret wire saddle with bone on the OS & ivory on the Supertone cos i found over time the fret wire burrowed into the bridge causing the usual havoc buzzing,dead frets,etc. i might add that i played these guitars bare finger but very very hard-no gentle tickling- the OS eventually suffered from old age & i sold it to a luthier who was ecstatic over it. the Supertone is in way better condition. i did try Martin Marques at first but found they didn't cut it. hope this helps....dbs

[rickS]

If low tension is a priority, Newtone Heritage have the lowest tension of any I've tried - used them on my Stella Concert, & they have the advantage of being round core, which adds to the authentic old-timey sound..

[bod]

Hi fredcapo,

As RickS indicates, Newtone Heritage are very non-threatening for old parlour guitars. I had an old (1896 'new model' 201) battered and largely rebuilt Washburn for a little while, which was absolutely fine with Newtone Heritage strings and that one would have originally had gut strings... (personally I'd have put it back to gut, but some one had narrowed the neck so badly that luthiers advised me there wouldn't be room on the board without major work on the neck). It was fairly loud and sounded pretty good for picking and - oddly enough - fantastic for slide. The stock Heritage strings are PBs, I asked Newtone about 80/20s and there would have been happy to make some (as long as I ordered 6 sets of strings at once), but I couldn't learn to live with that narrowed neck and ended up selling that one back to they chap who sold it to me as he didn't mind the neck and missed the guitar quite badly... FWIW, Steve Chipman (of VintageParlorGuitars.com) also says Newtone Heritage are worth considering, but himself chooses Thomastik Infeld Plectrum for sound quality at low tension on old parlour guitars www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=206578

I now have a '20s Supertone birch parlour that currently has Newtone Master Class nickels on it, it's loud and sounds good with them to me (I like the 'tone' just fine). That said, the chap I got that one from (Mike Savage, who specialises in repairing and selling parlours), reckons he's tried all sorts of strings on parlours down the years and hasn't found anything that he's convinced sounds better than well-played Martin 80/20 Lights - and truth to tell, I do suspect that my Supertone actually sounded a bit better before the Martins wore out and I replaced them with the Newtones I had to hand. I'll certainly be trying the Martins again next....

I wonder whether you've just had bad luck with your old parlours? What makes me wonder is what you say about not being able to get any volume or sound quality with bare fingers - like dbs, I played both of mine bare-fingered and both sang out just fine. I should say I might have been "lucky" in this, in that I got both of mine post-repair from experienced luthiers, so they should sing out and did (yeah, the guy who sold me the neck narrowed Washburn was a retired luthier, who'd rebuilt the Washburn years ago from a wreck - irony is he could easily have done a neck repair himself but preferred not to as the neck gave him no issues and it was his guitar, and when he reluctantly sold it it came back like boomerang purely cos' I couldn't adjust to the neck....).        

Don't know if any of that helps, but I hope you find your solution   
 

[Deleted]

Thanks for taking the time to share the above info...quite helpful. I have to admit I am not an aggressive player, most always play with a pick so never developed any tough skin on the strumming fingers. I like the way the ladder braced guitars come alive with a bottleneck, though admit that my old OS Stella Grand Concert ($25 find but which is presently hardly playable) has that strumming tone old time players search for.. I think the Stella may get sent to mike Hauver once I exhaust my personal attempt at restoration. Despite the roll over to Martin strings above, I will try the Newtones. Since these are pinbridge, no truss rod types, tension is a concern..

A friend recently gave me a set of Cleartone brand strings for a dread...and am impressed with them on the dread. They are a treated string, possibly similar to Elixir. Don't know how to gauge the tension on either.

[blackjack]

Hi Fredcapo,

Having two 1930s Supertone parlours (plus another Harmony of the same vintage, hopefully arriving soon) I would go with the majority and highly recommend low tension Newtones.

Strings are a very personel thing, but after trying a number of different brands,I have found these excellent on vintage guitars.

They sound good in my view, don't put too much stress on the old girls and are easy to play.

Give them a try Fred and let us know how you get on!

Cheers,

Blackjack.