3/4 blues toy

[nicenicd]

Hi all!

My name is Nic this is my first thread, and I'm looking for some advice.

Has anyone ever converted a 3/4 nylon into a little steel string electric blues guitar? My first few issues are does anything need to altered build wise? And the choice of pick up? I'm imagining a very acoustic old school sound ala Robert Johnson...

Love any feedback!

[410adam]

my knowledge goes as far as to know that a nylon string guitar is braced very lightly and the tension from steel strings is too great for the bracing used. Not sure if converting is such a good idea. How ever, other people will have better knowledge than me and hopefully they chime in for you.

[KolayaGuitars]

The thing with that is, classic guitars are braced totally different than the old Parlours. Classic is fan braced (think parallel to the grain), blues guitars are ladder braced(across the grain). It's going to lend to different top vibrational modes that won't match the sound you're going for(in theory, ) Also, the braces in the classical are, as 410adam mentioned, very light and you'd probably have some issues with top deformation. This is coming from a guy who has never tried it before, I just know the facts of the inner workings. What you could do I guess is figure out your nylon string's tension and try to find a set of steel that would provide about the same... or tune down a full step/half step, whatever is necessary, with the steel strings. Like I said, never tried it before, just some thoughts.

I think you can find those old Parlour's for pretty cheap around the inter-web, though.

Best of luck!!

Brad

[KolayaGuitars]

To add, a general nylon string tension is going to be about 75 lbs where the steel string will be about 150 lbs. Robert Johnson, if I'm not mistaken (think I heard this somewhere??), liked heavy strings, so to find a super light set of steels and try to achieve that sound is probably not likely...sorry. It may still be worth a try...this is only conjecture.

Brad

[Von Beerhofen]

Hi nicenicd,

In my early days as a guitarist I had no other option then to do what you want to do. I was in a bluesband and still in school.
So I replaced the nylons on my spanish study guitar with ultra light steel strings (.008), screwed a huge element in the soundhole, drilled a hole in the bottom side and placed a jack input there.
Soldered everything together and my first electric was borne. It served me well untill I tried to copy Pete Townsend's windmill technique, hit the underside of the guitar with full force and split the sides along the length of the body. In hindsight I'm now sorry that happened, I know now that that little spanish was all solid wood and it was a gem for the price I bought it for from my teacher.
It's not the best bluesguitar though but it works.
Possibly a real cheap small laminated guitar (00 or 000 or even OM size) without the spanish wide neck, would work better. They usually have that distinct boxy blues sound because they've been so cheaply build and can usually withstand a lot of abuse. I bet you can find one for around 50$ or so and keep your Spanish for what it is meant for, or sell it.

Ludwig

[nicenicd]

Thanks guys for all your feedback!

I can understand that the steel strings would put a lot of added tension on the guitar. Perhaps it would be a better idea to try find something more suited to the task. That little nylon sounds gorgeous though already has such character it's a vittoro that I bought in London in a back street music shop for 60£ with a broken carry bag. It has the thin neck mentioned above and a very small 8 shaped body. Apparently they were manufactured in the Czech rep in the 70's.

So I'm guessing the Parlour's were the "cheap" steel string acoustics the blues men preferred. Any knowledge on pick up types?

[Von Beerhofen]

For amplification there's no easy answer I think. It all depends on what kind of blues you're going to play.
For some it's probably better to use an under saddle transducer or internal mike to retain the acoustic sound.
This can be combined with a soundhole pickup which can be individually mounted too but will not relay much of the guitar's acoustic properties.
For both there's a wide choice but I'd usually go with what people generally use the most, i.e. the most popular. This makes it easier to sell when you no longer have any need for it.
If you read/search the forum then you'll get a good idea of what's generally used. These items are pretty expensive though.

Ludwig