Putting electric strings on acoustic guitar

[mot]

Any concerns at all?

[Tony Done]

No, provided you stick to similar gauges. Why would you want to? I do it on resos, where I use electric-guitar style magnetic pickups.

[rogthefrog]

As long as the gauge is within the acoustic guitar's recommended gauge, no. E.g.
don't put 013-056 jazz guitar strings on a delicate old acoustic rated for lights or extra lights. And if your acoustic is set up for lights or mediums (012/012-052/056), putting the average electric guitar set on it (009/010-042/046) will buzz.

It won't sound very good, but it won't damage the top.

[Looburst]

Volume and possibly weird overtones, not natural to your acoustic. I know they feel better and are more bendable but you're gonna lose a lot of volume and tone.

[Seagull S6]

A better alternative is have the action and neck relief set correctly by a pro and just use light gauge acoustic strings. If you are trying to compensate for an improper setup (hard to fret notes) with light gauge electric guitar strings you are doing it wrong.

[JeffreyAK]

Straight round steel is straight round steel, so the difference would generally just be the wound strings, specifically the windings. Electric strings usually have steel windings, sometimes nickel, while acoustic strings are usually bronze or sometimes nickel-plated bronze. I've put electric strings on acoustics many times, usually when I break a string and only have spare electric strings sitting around, they'll sound slightly different but not necessarily worse, depends what you like.

Strings are cheap, why do this? They make different strings for acoustics for a reason. You want the guitar to sound good, yeah?

[hillin]

Electric strings are made by steel so they can be perceived by the magnetic coils. Acoustic strings are mostly made by bronze alloys, to create a genuine acoustic sound. Technically speaking, electric strings can be installed on acoustic guitars, but not vice versa. If you are OK with the sound of electric strings, as long as the gauges match, nothing will hurt.

But I agree with this:

Originally Posted by Frozen Rat

Strings are cheap, why do this? They make different strings for acoustics for a reason. You want the guitar to sound good, yeah?

[AndrewG]

Any concerns? Unless you're a connoisseur of lousy tone, none at all! Seriously though, nickel strings in my experience don't work for me on acoustics-especially if you try a light set with a plain G. That horrible toneless clank you hear will be it.
If you're thinking you need a light gauge for easier playability I would go with regular extra light acoustic strings every time. Elixir, for example, do 10-47 in 80-20 Nanoweb, which is the same gauge (except for the wound G), that I use on my Telecasters.

[yell03]

Originally Posted by AndrewG

Any concerns? Unless you're a connoisseur of lousy tone, none at all! Seriously though, nickel strings in my experience don't work for me on acoustics-especially if you try a light set with a plain G. That horrible toneless clank you hear will be it.
If you're thinking you need a light gauge for easier playability I would go with regular extra light acoustic strings every time. Elixir, for example, do 10-47 in 80-20 Nanoweb, which is the same gauge (except for the wound G), that I use on my Telecasters.

That is what I was thinking, just got to 10 or 11 gauge acoustic strings

[Neil K Walk]

I'll go with the general wisdom here: just buy a lighter set of acoustic strings for $6. If you want flexibility just understand that you are going to sacrifice tone, doubly so if you go with chrome strings.

[mot]

I don't need lighter strings. I do want to try nickel though (in this case it's for a carbon fiber guitar - Blackbird Lucky 13) to experiment with the sound and some electric strings I ran across seem to fit the bill best. I was just wondering if there were any problems that I hadn't considered yet and figured someone out there had tried it with some variation. I am not really sure what this "genuine acoustic sound" is anyway, but I am looking for something that would be basically the same gauge or slightly heavier and of course still sound good.

[Bob Womack]

Nah. Sounds crappy.

Bob

[DenverSteve]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Nah. Sounds crappy. Bob

No concerns but as many have stated it's pointless unless you're just experimenting in which case asking the question is pointless. Just experiment. Strings are strings. There's a reason why there are designated strings for electrics, basses, acoustic flattops..... and Bob stated it above. Some will sound better on specific types of builds. All that said, after experimenting, you might like something no one else does. You also might get better responses to what might sound better on a CF guitar in the CF section.

[vindibona1]

There's an old adage... "Just because you can, doesn't necessarily mean you should".