Steel for Nylon Player

[Dave T]

I have mostly owned and played nylon stringed guitars off and on for 50+ years. I currently have 3 such guitars but have a yearning for a steel string.

My music and playing (finger style) will not change, I just want that different sound and experience. The one model on my radar right now is the Martin 00-28VS. It seems more "classical" in features than most other steel strings.

My stubby, arthritic fingers won't tolerate a nut width any narrower than 1-7/8" and a 12-fret neck is also a requirement. So...I'm wondering what the other nylon/classical players here have chosen if they have a steel string?

Dave

[darrwhit]

Maybe a whole different price range, but a luthier who builds both classical and steel string may better understand and meet your playability requirements and tonal inclinations. One that I've worked with and can recommend is James White. He studied under Jeffrey Elliott and he builds classical-inspired steel strings in addition to classical guitars.

Mine has a narrower nut more appropriate for flatpicking, but it's fan braced like a classical, and has the design aesthetic of a classical, which I really like:

[Ned Milburn]

This is my creation. Very well suited for classical players seeking a steel string. Not cheap, not expensive.

[brucefulton]

Originally Posted by Dave T

I have mostly owned and played nylon stringed guitars off and on for 50+ years. I currently have 3 such guitars but have a yearning for a steel string.

My music and playing (finger style) will not change, I just want that different sound and experience. The one model on my radar right now is the Martin 00-28VS. It seems more "classical" in features than most other steel strings.

My stubby, arthritic fingers won't tolerate a nut width any narrower than 1-7/8" and a 12-fret neck is also a requirement. So...I'm wondering what the other nylon/classical players here have chosen if they have a steel string?

Dave

Well, this won't be the answer you are looking for, but my steel string playing is done mostly on a Godin LGXT-SA, which is a solid-body electric with synth access and piezo undersaddle transducers that provide a marginally half-convincing acoustic-like sound (even better with the options on the Roland GR-55 guitar synth) and is easier on my fingers and nails than my old Guild D-44 dreadnaught. The nut is a little slim, but it works and the neck is fast and comfortable with great action.

You might try a baby Taylor / GS mini to see if the smaller body size is less of a shock coming from a standard classical guitar. I find them fairly comfortable but don't really need one enough to break down and buy one, although they are not particularly expensive. The dreadnaught is a lot to wrap my arm around these days.

[camer138]

How much do those guitars run for Ned? Beautiful sound, have to get myself a steel string one day..

and in what ways? is it suited for classical players? string spacing?

[Ceabeceabe]

Dave - you might want to take a look at the kalamazoo kg11 over at intermountain guitar and banjo; guitarandbanjo.com. It is the last guitar in the Gibson used inventory. I have been trying to figure out how to afford the guitar myself... Long ago discontinued model...


Unusual kg11 in that it is 2 inch nut width, 12 frets to the body. I talked to the folks over there a while ago and they said it had a full rather than thin neck profile.

Another good candidate might be a Gibson f25 - again 2 inch nut width. Has about 2 1/4 inch string spacing. These guitars were discontinued a while ago and were an effort to at least nominally create a guitar that took both steel and nylon strings. As originally sold had uncompensated saddles. Epiphone made a similar guitar...

Both of the above guitars are under the price of a new oo28vs, which itself a very nice guitar!

[vpolineni]

If you want a larger guitar, take a look at the seagull Peppino D'Agostino model:
http://www.seagullguitars.com/seagul...peppinocw.html

It has a 1.9" nut width.

[rick-slo]

I went back and forth between classical and steel string for years without a problem. You may not like a classical guitar like nut width on a steel string. Could be harder to play. The strings are thinner on a steel string and the tension is higher. You should consider a short scale steel string guitar.

[Ned Milburn]

Originally Posted by camer138

How much do those guitars run for Ned? Beautiful sound, have to get myself a steel string one day..

and in what ways? is it suited for classical players? string spacing?

A few reasons...

First, neck. Its neck profile is similar to a classical D-shaped neck.

Width. It is on the wider side of standard, with a medium-wide string spacing with a balanced taper.

Length - 650 mm

Design - It was designed to excel as a fingerstyle instrument with great fullness of fundamental and overtones. It is also very suited to strumming with dropped tunings and mixing high and low open strings and mid-neck fretted notes. It is very rich harmonically.

Body Shape - It is a shape that grew out of a classical guitar shape. Body is slightly smaller than a Dreadnought, but larger than a classical.

[Dave T]

Thanks to all for the suggestions. Should have mentioned in my OP that the same arthritis bothering my hands is also in both shoulders and Dreadnoughts are just to big to stretch around. And I don't play plugged in at all. Amplified guitars just sound…well, amplified! (LOL)

I appreciate the thoughtfulness behind responses none-the-less.

Dave

[creamburmese]

I play mainly classical but transfer a lot of melodies to the steel string... I find the nut width difference (my steel string is 1 3/4) and radiused fretboard not an issue - though it takes a few minutes before my fingers adjust to the different spacing. However I'm less comfortable with differences in scale length and 14 frets. The biggest problem for me is the increased tension of the steel strings so I use low tension strings (currently Newtone Heritage)

[Dave T]

I have read a number of good reports on the low tension Newtone Heritage strings. If I can decide on a steel string I plan to try them. The shoulder arthritis also dictates a 12-fret neck. It quickly becomes painful reaching to play a 14-fret for very long.

Dave

[Herb Hunter]

Originally Posted by Dave T

I have mostly owned and played nylon stringed guitars off and on for 50+ years. I currently have 3 such guitars but have a yearning for a steel string.

My music and playing (finger style) will not change, I just want that different sound and experience. The one model on my radar right now is the Martin 00-28VS. It seems more "classical" in features than most other steel strings.

My stubby, arthritic fingers won't tolerate a nut width any narrower than 1-7/8" and a 12-fret neck is also a requirement. So...I'm wondering what the other nylon/classical players here have chosen if they have a steel string?

Dave

My parents gave me a classical guitar when I was 10 years old. From time to time I would try a steel-string acoustic guitar but always found I had to work too hard at achieving some semblance of tone. Yet increasingly, I found myself yearning for the sound of steel-string guitar as I heard on recordings. I bought my first steel-string acoustic thirty years after my first classical guitar. I went in to a music store specializing in acoustic instruments intending to buy a Santa Cruz guitar I had tried a year earlier that didn’t require so much effort as the Martins and Gibsons I had played and walked out with a guitar I liked even better made by a company I had never heard of: Taylor Guitars. (I play steel-string guitars the way I do classical guitars using the flesh of my right hand fingers rather than nails or plectrums.)

In order to make an informed decision I recommend that you try a Taylor 814 (sitka spruce/Indian rosewood) and 514 (cedar/mahogany). I had no trouble adapting to the 14-fret neck but both of these models can be ordered with a 12-fret neck or you might consider the smaller 812 and 512. The cedar/mahogany responds well to a lighter touch.

Taylor 812

[Ziggy925]

I went from steel string to nylon and enjoy the extra real estate on the fingerboard. On steel I always liked the OM neck, just a little wider, and I now have a 000 Martin and love the shape, easy to get your arms around.

If you aren't calloused up you might want to start out with Silk & Steel strings. Just thinking out loud.

[Mr. Scott]

[QUOTE=Ned Milburn;4473162]A few reasons...

First, neck. Its neck profile is similar to a classical D-shaped neck.

Width. It is on the wider side of standard, with a medium-wide string spacing with a balanced taper.

Length - 650 mm

Design - It was designed to excel as a fingerstyle instrument with great fullness of fundamental and overtones. It is also very suited to strumming with dropped tunings and mixing high and low open strings and mid-neck fretted notes. It is very rich harmonically.

Body Shape - It is a shape that grew out of a classical guitar shape. Body is slightly smaller than a Dreadnought, but larger than a classical.[/QU

That is one nice sounding guitar, Ned. I wish I lived a bit closer so that I could try something like that.

To the OP, I play both classical and steel strung guitars and my current steel string is a Martin 00015 SM which has a 1.75" nut, a bit narrower that a classical admittedly but, as someone above mentioned, the string tension and therefore "feel" is different with steel strings. But I'm right with you on nut width, a wider nut is more comfortable, even easier then some narrow-nutted instruments. But most don't listen when I tell 'em. Ha!