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  #1  
Old 06-29-2019, 12:13 PM
gerardo1000 gerardo1000 is offline
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Default Light electric steel guitar strings in place of classical nylons ?

Thinking about putting D'Addario EXP110 Coated Nickel Light steel strings, 10-46 on my Cordoba Mini II classical nylon guitar... They are steel strings but their total tension it's the same as Martin Magnifico classical guitar strings and Hannabach SHT... I bought the Cordoba Mini II as a practice/travel guitar but I am mainly a steel strings guitar player... do you think that the above mentioned strings will damage the guitar even if they have an overall tension that is comparable to hard tension classical strings?

Last edited by gerardo1000; 06-29-2019 at 01:25 PM. Reason: update title
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  #2  
Old 06-30-2019, 12:16 AM
sirwhale sirwhale is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gerardo1000 View Post
Thinking about putting D'Addario EXP110 Coated Nickel Light steel strings, 10-46 on my Cordoba Mini II classical nylon guitar... They are steel strings but their total tension it's the same as Martin Magnifico classical guitar strings and Hannabach SHT... I bought the Cordoba Mini II as a practice/travel guitar but I am mainly a steel strings guitar player... do you think that the above mentioned strings will damage the guitar even if they have an overall tension that is comparable to hard tension classical strings?
I think you'll get a lot of buzz and a thin sound. Not worth it.

Get some high tension carbon strings and spend some time getting used to a new feel and sound. In the end, you will like, it's very hard not to.
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Old 06-30-2019, 09:07 AM
Steve DeRosa Steve DeRosa is offline
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These are designed specifically for classical guitar:

https://www.juststrings.com/toi-kf110.html
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Old 07-18-2019, 02:48 PM
LemonCats LemonCats is offline
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Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa View Post
These are designed specifically for classical guitar:

https://www.juststrings.com/toi-kf110.html
I think the label 'classics' might have mislead this user to thinking they were made for classical guitars. I would not recommend putting steel on your classical.
In the description of the string pack it states it was designed for folk and concert guitars; nothing about classical. I think no matter how low you go in steel gauge it will still exert greater pressure than any nylon would and eventually your bridge would start to pop up.
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Old 07-18-2019, 04:47 PM
Cedar51 Cedar51 is offline
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I've often wondered about this question myself. If anyone tries putting light steel strings on a classical please make a video, I'd be interested to hear the result. I heard somewhere that the composer Agustin Barrios used steel strings on classical guitar with some kind of modded bridge. I'm curious about how that would have worked out.
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Old 07-20-2019, 09:41 AM
lar lar is offline
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If you were to put these on a Nylon guitar, how would you attach them to the bridge?
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Old 08-08-2019, 08:15 PM
LemonCats LemonCats is offline
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Originally Posted by lar View Post
If you were to put these on a Nylon guitar, how would you attach them to the bridge?
Just put them through the string hole, the ball end would stop the string from pulling through, granted the ball end is bigger in diameter than the hole. I would definetely not keep the steel strings on for longer than a couple of hours though as the bridge will likely start lifting and nylon string guitars are fan braced which is not strong enough to support the heavy tension of steel strings (even the lightest steel strings)

If you wanted to put steel strings on a 'classical' guitar the closest you could get is cordoba's limited dreadnaught guitars, they were made with a hyrbid fan bracing strong enough for steel and were ment to be steel strung. However its really not a classical guitar at all haha. You could always have a luthier custom build you a classical with either hybrid fan bracing or just the regular x bracing or some other kind of bracing ment to support the load of steel strings
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Old 08-08-2019, 11:49 PM
Paraclete Paraclete is offline
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https://www.juststrings.com/toi-kr11...a&kw=toi-kr116

Those light steels mentioned are not for classical. However, the rope core strings are, and they play great. I had them for awhile on my Ramirez until I decided to go back to strictly classical playing.
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Old 08-11-2019, 12:38 AM
MasterMonkeyMan MasterMonkeyMan is offline
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I can second this opinion on the rope core strings. Very unique and quite "steel" like.
Also, I have been using these on one of my classicals:
https://www.martinguitar.com/1833-sh...um/c-24/p-1335
Sometimes they make me forget I am playing on nylon...
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  #10  
Old 08-11-2019, 09:45 AM
ceciltguitar ceciltguitar is offline
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Kinda pricey, but made for nylon string guitar to emulate steel strings:

https://www.stringsandbeyond.com/thi...oaAq34EALw_wcB
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  #11  
Old 08-14-2019, 04:50 AM
Howard Emerson Howard Emerson is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LemonCats View Post
I think the label 'classics' might have mislead this user to thinking they were made for classical guitars. I would not recommend putting steel on your classical.
In the description of the string pack it states it was designed for folk and concert guitars; nothing about classical. I think no matter how low you go in steel gauge it will still exert greater pressure than any nylon would and eventually your bridge would start to pop up.
Actually Steve is correct in recommending those strings.

There are several 'classical sets' out there that exceed 100lbs tension, while the set he suggested is only 94.20.

Tension is tension is tension.

The resulting tone, of course, is another story, but they may well satisfy the OP's idea of aural nirvana.

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