Chimey

I have always enjoyed clean tones with an acoustic plugged in. Recently, a nylon string alternative was preferred. I don't strum chords too often (can't remember the last time I did), I tend to stick to arpeggiating three notes with an overload of chimey modulation dialled in. I have no obligations to follow what others are doing for cleans, I'm mostly on heavy distortion anyway. This LANEY Prism mini has such good clean tones on board. 

Nylon Saturday

Masochistic Saturday - indoors with nylon strings. I definitely need more time to adapt to nylon strings. These things simply roll under my fingers while playing, making me look & sound beyond amateurish. But I deem such torture necessary to become a better player. It's when you dwell beyond your comfort zone, you are compelled to adapt & excel.

Did a re-string before play. I tried the ball-end set, now back to the tie-end method. For nylon strings, I like my action a little higher than what I'm used to when playing the acoustic. It somehow reduced the rolling phenomenon during play.

Re-string Thursday

 

These Augustine strings are above (my) expectations. Went out to look for nylon strings & in the spirit of trying something less glorious in name, went with this one. OK maybe in the classical guitar circle, this brand name might mean something but I'm not from that domain. What I noted: Crispy feel, giving off more clarity, something lacking in other brand names I've tried. Available @ Davis GMC.

On another note, thank you to the following individuals for your kind contributions:

• Yeo Kai Jie
• Fahmi Sharin

Nylon chorus

Once upon a time, I used to dislike guitars with nylon strings with a passion. Here are my reasons:

• Strings feel thick / overwhelming to the touch. I find nylon strings too fat (for want of a better adjective). This caused playing discomfort.
• Strings are slippery. That's right, these don't stay put when fretted, they tend to move, giving me unnecessary vibrato which made me sound out of tune.
• Guitar sounds dull. This is especially true for the plain strings. I can tolerate the wound strings, though.
• Took forever to tune. Nylon strings required next to forever to tune (especially the fresh ones) in view of their elasticity. I needed to tune the guitar every time I stopped playing. Darn.

These were my opinions on any guitars with nylon strings on board. They were just not my thing. Putting things into perspective, back then, when I was still struggling to play the electric guitar, people kept shoving classical guitars into my face which was a double whammy due to the extra fat neck. 

Fast forward 2022 / 2023 - an ex-colleague passed me her daughter's nylon string electro-acoustic guitar for re-stringing & a minor set up (just lowered the action a tad). I had to plug in the guitar to know if the under saddle pickup was working. The amp happened to have on-board chorus & the guitar sounded darn appealing. I messed with the EQ settings & realized those bland sounding plain strings benefitted from some treble boost. That triggered my nylon-string adventure & it had not stopped ever since.

Ball end goodness (2)

Colleague asked if I could re-string guitars as well but it's a nylon string model which the daughter had issues dealing with. Specifically, she's done with trying to get the bridge end of the strings to stay put. I asked if she would consider a ball end version & she was willing to try.

So here it is, all done & good to go. Fret board conditioning & nut slot filing / lubricating included.

Incurable

I seldom do re-strings for classical guitars but I won't turn down requests; this was a guitar at work & it was re-strung a few days ago. I find nylon strings very stubborn when it comes to tuning (especially a fresh set of strings), my take on this matter- nylon strings require at least a day to be fully stretched & stay in tune.

This guitar in particular, should be avoided if you are serious about your investments; it's not fitted with a truss rod. You need temperature curing to address any neck warping issues & the treatment would easily cost more than the price of the instrument itself. My advice to you- never overlook the importance of a truss rod. It was invented for a reason. Over time, this guitar you see here would sport a warped neck especially when it's subjected to frequent temperature changes. There are no issues with the QC in the first place & that's not the issue at all.

Re-string Sunday: Uke

Done earlier today- ukelele re-string. This is a baritone model & it's not mine. I'm not into nylon strings:

• Take forever to stay in tune
• They roll-off easily so I always run them over the 'board edges
• Nylon strings don't go too well with thick picks & I'm particular about my picks

Anyway, this uke is well made but there was an errant fret in there that needed a little knocking into & it was done swiftly, no major issues here. But I enjoyed re-stringing this one, it's a different experience & it counts (for me).