Nylon-Strung Hawaiian Guitar

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 1 Sep 2008 6:41 pm

Am I the only one who from time to time plays a nylon-strung acoustic lap steel ?

I keep a standard classical guitar with the action heightened and the tuners turned round. I don't use it all the time; most of my playing is on steel-strung instruments; but I find there are times that the mellow sound of nylon strings is just what is needed.

Am I alone ?

Richard Sevigny · Post by **Richard Sevigny** » 1 Sep 2008 6:58 pm

I see no reason why it should'nt be done.

I just lacked the imagination to think of it in the first place

AJ Azure · Post by **AJ Azure** » 1 Sep 2008 7:00 pm

used to play regular guitar including flamenco. been there done that.

it's not loud but, it is a cool effect

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 1 Sep 2008 7:01 pm

AJ Azure wrote:used to play regular guitar including flamenco. been there done that.

Yes, but with a steel tone bar ?

AJ Azure · Post by **AJ Azure** » 1 Sep 2008 7:09 pm

should have been clearer yep with a bar

c c johnson · Post by **c c johnson** » 2 Sep 2008 2:14 am

I had one of Shots frypans that had a ceramic pup and nylon strings. Had great tone. Someone stole it off the bandstand at Gils in Austin. Never recovered. cc

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 4 Dec 2013 1:13 pm

I've been playing my nylon-strung classical guitar with raised nut and reversed tuners quite a lot lately. I currently have it tuned (low-to-high) A B D F# B D, which is B7/D6.

If I'm playing with nylon strings with a ceramic bar, can it still be called a "steel guitar"?
There's nothing about it that's steel. The only metal on the instrument is the silver-plated brass on the machine head frame.

Liz Williams · Post by **Liz Williams** » 5 Dec 2013 10:57 am

Alan, I'd love to hear what this sounds like. How about posting one?

Roy Thomson · Post by **Roy Thomson** » 5 Dec 2013 2:48 pm

Alan..Hats off to you for trying that!

It has crossed my mind a number of times to do that but felt it would be hard to find the correct classical string gauges to accommodate the tunings?

I think it would sound great!

Roy

Former Member · Post by **Former Member** » 5 Dec 2013 3:41 pm

Alan,
Are you familiar with Blackbird Guitars?
They're made right in SF. Carbon fiber with this cool hollow neck.
I have the Lucky 13 model and been experimenting with a metal piece for a raised nut. Using regular phos/bronze strings. --Has a real strong clean tone, not muted or woody. Been talking to them about making a square-neck version setup for C6th. I think it would be a "missing link" in the acoustic lap world.
The hollow neck give this interesting echo and decay, prolongs the sustain. Quite a nice guitar, not affected by weather.

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 5 Dec 2013 3:52 pm

Ron Ellison wrote:...The hollow neck give this interesting echo and decay, prolongs the sustain...

I haven't heard of Blackbird Guitars, but if they're in Northern California I probably know the luthiers there. I've been building musical instruments for over 50 years, and I was one of the organizers of the Northern California Association of Luthiers. Talking about sustain and internal echo, here is an instrument that I designed for Hawaiian work a few years ago. The body is much deeper than a regular guitar and the bridge is close to the heel, with the internal braces arranged accordingly. It has all sorts of internal vibrations going on which add to the tone. The strings on this one are steel, though.
By the way, the fingerboard is fixed to the neck, and, although protruding over the soundboard, only touches the soundboard through a piece of felt at the end. This is to allow the soundboard to vibrate freely, which it does. There are also small felt patches on the back so that you can play the instrument on a table or a stand, without dampening the vibration of the back. If you watch a classical guitarist play, you will see that he always holds the guitar slightly away from his body. Most people don't realise that holding any sort of acoustic, stringed instrument, tightly against the body deadens the sound.

Former Member · Post by **Former Member** » 5 Dec 2013 7:49 pm

http://blackbirdguitar.com/

That is some creation..Beautiful!
I'd like to hear it.

Chris Griffin · Post by **Chris Griffin** » 16 Dec 2013 11:35 pm

Hello Alan.
I only check in here now & then. Just read your post.
I have the same set-up as you: Classical guitar with nylon strings, & raised action for playing steel.
I have it tuned open G, D G D G B D.
Mostly I play baritone ukulele these days, but every few days I pick up my old guitar & play a bit of steel.
I thought I was one of a kind. Interesting to hear there are other nylon steelers out there.
Regards, Chris.

Chris Griffin · Post by **Chris Griffin** » 17 Dec 2013 10:20 pm

Roy Thomson wrote:
It has crossed my mind a number of times to do that but felt it would be hard to find the correct classical string gauges to accommodate the tunings?

Roy

Roy, I played mine with C6 tuning for a while by buying 2 extra strings & throwing away the 2 thickest ones.
2 'D' strings: 1 tuned to 'C'; another tuned to 'E'.
2 'G' strings: 1 tuned to 'G'; another tuned to 'A'.
The 'B' string tuned to 'C'; the 'E' string tuned to 'E'. And there you go ... C E G A C E tuning.
I did something similar with Leavitt tuning.
Nylon strings will tune to a range of tones; but if you mess around with them too much they will break. They prefer to stay on a set tone without too much change.
Chris.

Mike Ihde · Post by **Mike Ihde** » 17 Dec 2013 11:56 pm

I had a female student in one of my classes at Berklee studying guitar but she always brought this odd shaped gig bag with her. I asked her what was in it and she said a harp. I asked her to take it out to show the class and it was a very small, maybe 4 feet tall, standard looking harp. She gave us a small demo on it and I said, "wait a minute" and grabbed my steel bar. It was a pretty cool sound when I laid it on its side and played it like a 50 string lap steel!!!!

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 31 Dec 2015 5:29 pm

I brought this topic up seven years ago, and am interested to hear if anyone has anything new to add to it. I wonder if a Weissenborn with nylon strings would be worth building.