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Old 05-23-2012, 03:32 AM
Odie1974 Odie1974 is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cracow, Poland
Posts: 198
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I am a purist here - if you want to play strictly classical music, I would buy a classical guitar. That's what they were made for and in fact classical music benefits from shorter sustain and mellow sound of nylon strings. Plus it is easier to learn on classical as the string tension is far lower.

But of you want to play fingerstyle, i.e. Travis picking, arrangements of pop/rock tunes, etc - then I would consider a steel string guitar - the majority (though not all to be honest) of such tunes sound better (at least to my ears) on a steel string.
And plain strumming / cowboy chords work better on a steel string imo.

You need to be aware that both types have diffrent neck widths.
Classicals are usually 52mm wide, whereas steel strings are usually 1.75''. But sometimes (relatively rarely) you can get wider necks on steel strings as well - 1 13/16 and 1 7/8 which are generally better for fingerstyle.

You should also consider scale length - steel string guitars with shorter scale - 25'' and less are slightly easier to play. On classicals the scale length does not matter that much really.

Also - classicals have 12 frets to the body, whereas most steel strings have 14. 14 frets give you better reach to upper frets - useful if you want to play high up the neck.
There are also 12 fret steel strings which have somewhat sweeter sound than 14 fretters. And if you want good reach you can also look for a cutaway.

The best fingerstyle steel string for me would be:
short scale (<25 ''), 1 7/8 nut, 12 frets to the body, cutaway. With cedar top.
Unfortunately such guitars are not easy to find - you need to search classifieds section or order custom, or compromise.

I have both types and switch, depending on what music I want to play.

I would suggest you spend some time here on the forum, read as much as you can - there's a lot of knowledgeable and helpful people here and only then make a decision.
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