Thread: nylon vs steel
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Old May 5th, 2006
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Playing guitar for what seems like forever.
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Last Online: January 23rd, 2008 07:22 AM
Location: Columbus, GA
Posts: 595


Most classical/nylon string guitars don't have an adjustable truss rod and they aren't made to take the tension of steel strings, not only in the neck but the body is braced in a different manner. Most steel strings use the Martin developed 'X' bracing whereas most nylon guitars use an older 'fan' bracing method. The answer is, no, don't put steel strings on your nylon string guitar. You could look for a maker that offers a wider than standard nut for steel strings, like Seagull or Art & Lutherie, or have a guitar custom built for you. If I keep going the way I'm going w/the acoustic stuff I do live, I'd seriously consider dropping $3500 or so on a custom build. I mean realistically, that's 7-10 of the Washburns I'm currently playing and as much as I play I could go through that many Washburns in 10 years easy. If I had a custom guitar built w/stainless steel frets it'd last me my lifetime and beyond. I'd get a wider nut too; in fact I'm thinking of modding my Washburns by cutting a new, wider nut for each. We'll see.

Kush, 2-3 months is enough time for humidity conditions to change to affect the action. Unfortunatly, there's not much you can do on a guitar w/o an adjustable trussrod to lower the action other than take the bottom edge of the saddle down. If you don't have a measure of woodworking skills and some good tools to do this, it's a very tricky process that can lead to a useless saddle after hours of labor on it. If you do decide to do it yourself, buy a new saddle to modify and if you screw it up you still have the old one to use.

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