FoulPhil
Well-known member
Maybe I'm in the wrong form for this, but maybe some of you guys will know what up with this shit, or can recommend a forum that would know what's up with it.
I scored a nylon string "classical" guitar on Craigslist for $30 dollars. It's a Jasmine JS441 by Takamine and goes for around $160 new. Nothing fancy just another guitar for me to play around with. I spent a few weeks working on my finger-style, but ended up deciding that I needed to stay focused on my picking technique. I didn't see the value in mastering a whole new style when I need to continue mastering the different picking techniques. I mean do we ever know enough scales and is our alternate, tremolo, sweep, cross and string skipping picking (to name a few) ever really perfected or even fast enough? Think about that, why don't you?! So, to make a short story long I went back to using my big stubby 3.0 guitar pick on nylon and I really like the tone. It kind of works for all the music styles and genres I like to noodle around with.
Another issue is I think some of the things I play might sound a little cheesy on Nylon strings. Not sure if cheesy is the right word, but it seems like steel string sounds more serious for a lot of my music. That said everything I play on my Nylon guitar is just so easy. Even on my Martin HD28 it kind of hurt my hand to hold down some of the chords I play and with the Nylon strings I don't have to strain to play certain things. I kind of like the sound of steel strings better, but every now and then the nylon really shines in the bass notes with an aggressive fat pick like the big stubby.
Another issue is my singing voice is pretty loud and sometimes I feel like I was even over powering the HD28. One of the reasons I bought it was because people say it's a "cannon" and I had even read about a few people saying it's too loud for their voice. I need loudness/projection and was really surprise that my $30 dollar CL cheapo nylon keeps up with my voice ok with the pick, not so great with finger picking. I figure something that's all solid wood and is generally a better instrument would be so much sweeter than what I'm using now.
So, what are my options? Is there a way to make a steel string play as easy as a nylon string? I've always used medium strings for my steel string acoustics because it tends to be much louder and has more depth. Is there nylon/classical type strings that don't use nylon for the treble strings? lol. Is there some middle ground I can explore to get the ease of playing like nylon, but without the dinky sounding treble strings of nylon and without the loss of volume/projection?
I'm going to end up buying a new acoustic guitar next year. I kinda play a mix of every kind of music on Acoustic guitars. Anyone know which guitar/brand I should go for (I know everyone has their favorites, but I need some options here lol)? I might just end up sticking with nylon because it's just so easy and fun for me, but I have no idea what brand is good. Seeing how I'm not a classical guitarist who needs a 10,000 dollar guitar. I just need something in the $900 to $1500 range. I was thinking maybe a vintage Martin 00-18G would be good because you can find them pretty easily in that price range...
I scored a nylon string "classical" guitar on Craigslist for $30 dollars. It's a Jasmine JS441 by Takamine and goes for around $160 new. Nothing fancy just another guitar for me to play around with. I spent a few weeks working on my finger-style, but ended up deciding that I needed to stay focused on my picking technique. I didn't see the value in mastering a whole new style when I need to continue mastering the different picking techniques. I mean do we ever know enough scales and is our alternate, tremolo, sweep, cross and string skipping picking (to name a few) ever really perfected or even fast enough? Think about that, why don't you?! So, to make a short story long I went back to using my big stubby 3.0 guitar pick on nylon and I really like the tone. It kind of works for all the music styles and genres I like to noodle around with.
Another issue is I think some of the things I play might sound a little cheesy on Nylon strings. Not sure if cheesy is the right word, but it seems like steel string sounds more serious for a lot of my music. That said everything I play on my Nylon guitar is just so easy. Even on my Martin HD28 it kind of hurt my hand to hold down some of the chords I play and with the Nylon strings I don't have to strain to play certain things. I kind of like the sound of steel strings better, but every now and then the nylon really shines in the bass notes with an aggressive fat pick like the big stubby.
Another issue is my singing voice is pretty loud and sometimes I feel like I was even over powering the HD28. One of the reasons I bought it was because people say it's a "cannon" and I had even read about a few people saying it's too loud for their voice. I need loudness/projection and was really surprise that my $30 dollar CL cheapo nylon keeps up with my voice ok with the pick, not so great with finger picking. I figure something that's all solid wood and is generally a better instrument would be so much sweeter than what I'm using now.
So, what are my options? Is there a way to make a steel string play as easy as a nylon string? I've always used medium strings for my steel string acoustics because it tends to be much louder and has more depth. Is there nylon/classical type strings that don't use nylon for the treble strings? lol. Is there some middle ground I can explore to get the ease of playing like nylon, but without the dinky sounding treble strings of nylon and without the loss of volume/projection?
I'm going to end up buying a new acoustic guitar next year. I kinda play a mix of every kind of music on Acoustic guitars. Anyone know which guitar/brand I should go for (I know everyone has their favorites, but I need some options here lol)? I might just end up sticking with nylon because it's just so easy and fun for me, but I have no idea what brand is good. Seeing how I'm not a classical guitarist who needs a 10,000 dollar guitar. I just need something in the $900 to $1500 range. I was thinking maybe a vintage Martin 00-18G would be good because you can find them pretty easily in that price range...