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Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | OK, another question. How about longevity and string life? Do nylon strings age more rapidly? In one of my other other lives, I can attest to the resiliency and durability of tennis strings, based on their composition, tension, and elasticity. I'm wondering if there are differential considerations for frequency of string change between steel, bronze, and nylon strings. If so, how do you determine when your nylons "have seen their better days"? |
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Location: Scotland | They'll have runs in them and they'll sag around your ankles.
Seriously, like steel strings, when nylon strings are past their best tuning & intonation suffers, the wound strings can tarnish, or the very fine wrap wire can wear through, exposing the core fibres. The plain strings tend to lose sustain. It's down to how hard & how often you play & to a lesser degree than steel strings, your body chemistry (i.e. whether or not you have corrosive sweat) Generally nylon strings last a lot longer than steel. |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | My experience is that nylon strings sound dead when they are newly installed. When they get to sounding REALLY dead, they are broken in. And when they get REALLY, REALLY dead it's time to change them. Seriously, for me the giveaway that it's time to change is when the wound strings show signs of tarnish. It also seems that the guitar is harder to keep in tune with older strings. Dave |
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Location: SoCal | The giveaway for me that I need to change nylon strings is when the D strings snaps in the middle of the night waking me up. |
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Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | Thanks, Guys! This should probably suffice for wear expectations. Dave, it IS a different sound a classical makes. Apples & oranges, I suspect. And, Paul, have you thought about putting your guitar in another room?! |
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Location: NJ | Paul
are you sure that was not a G string snapping waking you up in the middle of the night???????
we REALLY need to know |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | G string? Nylons? Strap buttons? I just can't take this any more. Dave |
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Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | Appeals to MY prurient interests- BRING IT ON!!! But, hey, AL, you're may be giving ol' P.I. credit for some advanced social skills, to begin with. Yeah, OK, you can get 'em at any Sears & Roebuck.....but the catalog has good pictures..... |
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Location: Zion, Illinois | I prefer Savarez strings with wound G-B-E's on my Ovation 1613. They sound great and tend to last a while.
Bradley |
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Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | REALLY?! So, I take it the Savarez are pretty thin gauge? I will look into it. Thanks! |
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Posts: 3666
Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | HELP!! I just perused the listings at juststrings.com. I have no idea how to determine which of those sets has wound treble strings. Red card, white card, cristal, KF; I plead ignorance & incompetence! Any deciphering from the collective Membership would be appreciated. |
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Posts: 150
Location: Minneapolis, MN | Seesquare,
I've tried the Savarez SAV-520P's and liked them very much. All the strings are wound except for the high e. I'm still experimenting with strings but have yet to find some that worked better for me.
Btw, with them being wound and all, they stabilized in no time vs regular nylon strings (plain nylon) which can take a couple of days. As far as how thin they are, that wound g string is biggest in diameter of the whole set(me thinks-I could be wrong)- but as Bradley stated, they sound pretty good... at least I thought so on my 1663.
As a side note, I enjoy tying the knots on nylon strings. But then again, I have the time for that... and I'm not a working musician. It only takes a few times to get proficient at it :D
I once tried a set of folk strings and felt kinda gipped that they had ball ends (though I knew it when I bought them)...Hope this helps!! |
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Location: Scotland | The jury is out on the benefits of wound treble strings. The wrap wires & core filaments are so delicate they don't take a lot of punishment, except for maybe the G, plus volume, projection & sustain seems to be compromised. The tuning definately stabalizes a lot faster than monofilament trebles. The tonal difference is too subjective to comment on, but monofilament trebles are absolutely more robust. As far as I'm aware no serious concert guitarists are using wound trebles at this time. D'addario's carbon composite trebles (Zyex) are getting good press and may become another viable alternative to what is essentially fishing line. Incidentally, Rose Augustine, who along with her husband was a major player in the development of nylon strings, died recently. |
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Posts: 3666
Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | Well, this has been very educational today. Again, thank you all for your observations and suggestions. I did hear something about Rose Augustine's death- quite significant as the passing of an era, to be sure. So far, this forum on nylon has been stimulating, and at times, ribald, but always highly entertaining. When my classical arrives, hopefully, around June 10, I will be able to report on the critter's response to these collective ideas. So....dough-dee-oh-dough.....happy trails to you........ |
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Location: SoCal | With all of this discussion, I don't think we ever did find out what classical guitar you bought. |
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Posts: 613
Location: Zion, Illinois | seesquare,
I got mine from the following link...
Strings By Mail
The ones I use are Sav-520PI. The above web site shows the different types of sets you can buy. I might try one of the Corum trad. sets next to see if I can get a little more bass.
Always nice to experiment.
Bradley |
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November 2002
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Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | Thanks for the reminder, Paul. This is the new addition to the herd:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2530558279 |
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Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | Oh yeah, it's a CC163, according to the seller. |
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November 2002
Posts: 3666
Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | And, I'm thinning the herd a bit with some Ebay auctions, in case anyone is interested. No O's, though.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2534736550&category=2384&rd=1
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2534783434&category=2385&rd=1
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2534743651&category=2384&rd=1 |
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Nylon String Primer- More Input Please
