All Classical Guitar Strings Explained | Guitar Tech Tips | Ep. 82 | Thomann
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- čas přidán 15. 07. 2024
- Which classical guitar strings should I get? How does nylon and carbon compare?
What's up with coated and sterling silver strings? What's up with string tension?
What if I'm allergic to most metal?
Get all your answers in this Guitar Tech Tips episode! Enjoy!
Gear used: tho.mn/se6ni
Recorded and mixed with Universal Audio: tho.mn/uadx1
Monitors optimised through Sonarworks: tho.mn/sonar
Interesting bits and pieces:
0:00 Introduction
0:45 Classical string basics
1:15 Nylon strings
1:30 Black nylon strings
2:13 PLAYING | Nylon strings
2:59 Titanium strings
3:10 PLAYING | Titanium strings
3:53 Carbon strings
4:21 PLAYING | Carbon strings
5:02 Wounds strings basics
5:22 Silver plated strings (as heard in the "Nylon strings" playing part)
5:39 Coated bass strings
5:50 PLAYING | Coated strings (Daddario XT)
6:32 Sterling silver plated strings
6:50 PLAYING | Pyramid sterling silver strings
7:33 String tensions
8:26 Outtakes
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Man I wouldn't have guessed you were so good on a classical guitar. Really nice playing.
Thanks so much man! 🙌 But honestly, I felt like I'm butchering the style and that beautiful guitar. 😂 I was just implementing all the finger picking I've picked up over the years and tried not to sound way off for those actual classical / flamenco players, who watch this video. I didn't even dare playing an actual classical piece and wrote this myself instead. At least this way no one can compare my playing to real classical players, haha! Cheers //Kris
it's okay, but it's not classical music
This video was of excellent quality, both presentation wise and informationally.
this was a great video! I've been playing classical player for 20+ years and I feel this is so useful and clears the misunderstandings about this topic, it help you a lot in choosing your string and finding your needs according to your style. Bravo!
Thanks for your in-depth tutorial. I helped me tremendously selecting strings for my guitar.
Thank you for a very informative review on classical guitar strings. I have been researching about it 👍🏽
This man is a wealth of knowledge ! Excellent Video !
For me there’s just something magical & pure with clear nylon. Has no equal imo.. fantastic playing, bro!
Thank you! This is helping♥
Great tutorial.
Thanks for sharing this video! I'll watch a few more times to absorb the information and differences between the various material types.
So glad to hear that Jerrel! Yes, it's a good idea rewatching these episodes for more details, since the pace is fast and a lot of infos are packed in the episodes. Enjoy the series! :) //Kris
Beautiful sounding guitar!
Useful review. Thanks.
Thanks for this video, it helped me decide what to order after not having played guitar for many years now.
So glad to hear that! Have fun playing your guitar! :) //Kris
just all i needed to know! thank you
great video, thanks a lot.
Very nice to see you feature a classical or rather a nylon strung guitar. I try to play them all from classical, acoustic through to electric, but the classical has something in the tone that none of the others can match or even come close to. Also, it was pleasant to see it presented in a none pompous way, which seems to go hand in hand with this instrument. (I hope you catch my drift)
Which ones are less squeaky when you slide up and down?
@@arthurstabolidis3274labella 900b
It's important to note that the gauge of fluorocarbon trebles is thinner than regular nylon but their tension much higher. For example, the high e on the Savarez 510CJP is .0295 and has 17.22lbs of tension, but the 510ARP which uses fluorocarbon trebles, the high e is .0244 and has 17.44lbs of tension. Great video though. Not a lot of major retailers take the time to give this detailed of content for classical guitarists.
I've favored Savarez for about 12 years. Simply better
Ive played D'Addario pro arts for over 20 years. Im gonna try the coated ones next. I love experimenting with new strings and trying new sounds. After 30 years of playing, i just tried flats and half rounds on electric for the first time recently.
All this time thought that the problem was with my strings yet now after hearing you play that so smoothly maybe the problem was just me from the start lmao
That was very helpful, thank you 👍☕️☕️
Great post! I run Ernie Ball Zippy Slinky 7-36 on my electrics due to my love of artists like Shawn Lane, Frank Gamble ect, but have always gone for clear nylon light tension. That being said, come on right those carbon strings just blend so well that I have to try them. Thx :D
I'm having so much fun playing my new Yamaha C40. 50 year player, this is my first classical guitar. I love it. I live in Thailand where strings have a short self life. I have to have coated on the everything. D'addario strings are $15-30. Iris brand Rainbow Guitar Strings Nylon Core Colorful Coated Copper Alloy Wound...that's the description. $3. I think I have to give them a try! I've only had this Yamaha C40 for a couple of weeks and I see the strings are getting worn out at the frets. I can see the copper layer around the bass strings. Also...it's been like two weeks and it feels like I'm still stretching them out. Could Yamaha send out their biggest seller with shit strings? Loved the video.
This was awesome, thank you! I was finding my nylons were really quiet compared to the bass strings, like wowzer different, I understand why now......I thought I was buying the best strings for me , but it looks like they were just the best available.......I hope they will ship to me
Amazing
Great demonstration Chris !! I have been playing on D'Addario EJ45FF Pro-Arte Carbon for a year now but .. suddenly I don't like the sound anymore. Though I absolutely loved it in the beginning. Perhaps I need a new set ..
You're the best !
Thank you. I thought that my guitar isn't good because has louder basses than trebles. I always used nylon string. Now I know I need carbon strings, has better volume ballance between basses and trebles.
Tip - replace the 3 wound bass strings E, A, D.
The G, B and top E in many nylon sets take a lot longer to stretch and degrade (the G especially) and don't need changing as much. Wound strings degrade way more. So buy cheaper sets of strings and just replace the 3 wound ones regularly :)
Thanks for the tip!
The most important newly developed strings should alao mentioned :
Aquila Alchemia and Aquila Sugar.
They are superior in sustain, are better balanced between treble and bass, have more tonal variety and are louder.
You play good!!
Great playing Chris! And you can shread. :) Great skills.
Aww thank you Barry! I'm really not a great classical player, I just tried to mimic those, who really know how to make these guitars sound great. haha!
You're so kind!! //Kris
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses Question for you! what song are you playing in this video?
Just found this. Incredibly useful for me. For far too many years, I’ve used D’Addario Pro Arte Hard Tension… mainly because I had never thought to try anything else. (If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! 😂)
After watching this, I’m minded to spring for a couple of sets of Carbon/Titanium strings… in fact, I didn’t even know they were a thing until I watched this.
Would love to see more Classical or flamenco tips. Thanks for a great video!
What guage?
Nice. Once I was a nice boy and played classical, 45 years ago, then rock n roll happened :D But I'm seriously considering adding that family of sounds again to my playing... just when the Cordoba Stage comes out, mmmm. Lovely playing btw.
I got my Stage two weeks ago. I’ve loved it so far after getting convinced that there is nothing wrong with Chinese made guitars. Actually, the seller convinced me to buy it over the Godin one that I had my eyes on due to the problems with piezo electronics and bridges popping off (can you imagine?) on the latter. He gave me his honest opinion, while saving him some time and effort fixing the Godins or the calls for warranty fixes. He mentioned that has seen this after the pandemic-induced materials shortage problem, from which Godin couldn’t escape.
One thing you didn’t talk about was a wound G string. I use it on my guitar because I like the brightness and better vibration.
What about gut strings? Almost all guitars used gut strings once. And silk strings which were also standard for much of the guitar’s history.
CONGRATULATIONS WONDERFUL LESSON MY QUESTION IS '' WHICH STRINGS SQUEAK LESS $ '
ALSO, DO UNCOATED STRINGS EXIST? THANK YOU
Great video, nice playing ! I was just given a classical guitar from a friend moving back to Germany. I’ve never owned one before. My question is Which brands of string uses all nylon with no metal on the bass strings ? I’d like to try that. Thanks !
Good comparison of strings. What’s your favorite? I like hard strings.
Yikes, good thing I told my cousin’s husband to check with my local shop about replacing a broken string on his classical guitar (my excuse was that I didn’t have any strings for it, but I had no idea there were so many choices).
Nice video, thanks! I want to string one of my classical guitars to get a more 'steel string' type sound, would the carbon or titanium get that effect? Guessing, that higher tension might also help achieve that.
Gold is not always gold as in the metal. Gold can refer to the colour and can be brass. It gives a warmer tone. Stringsbymail sell a collection of warmer tone strings to try out, if you are looking for a warmer tone. Also other tone sets as a collection.
The carbon sounds so much better and roundedly balanced compared to coated and some other mambo jumbo
I liked the carbon best. Beautiful playing for the demo sections Kris! 😊👍
Thanks so much dude!! It was fun playing this beautiful guitar. 🙌 //Kris
Best treble strings, and eventually very cheap since you can cut strings for many years:
Seaguar Premier (ONLY) fluorocarbon fishing lines =1st string E (40lb) 2nd string B (60lb), 3rd string G (80 lb)
Darn the melody pierces thru my heart.
Very good information to have when you play Nylon. What would you recommend, if you play a lot of bossa nova? I find it hard to define what stringtype would be good to record this type of music. Thank you for your help!
The variation between the lightest and hardest nylon strings is only about eight pounds. On acoustic steel strings, it’s almost forty!
Great video! What options are there for light polished bass strings or flat wound?
I've been playing savarez high tension carbon strings, and I love the tone, but they're difficult for me to play ;-;
Thank for the video I have classical guitar on the 6th strings needs more bass what’s a good string to bring up the bass
Q : Are Flamenco strings the same as Classical strings ? What about nylon ball end strings . Great Video
My playing style i developed over the years is that i bend the strings alot. I got my first classical guitar and was wondering which strings would be the best for that. Even though you aren't really supposed to do that.
Such a wonderful review. Fab playing. May I ask the mics , method used to record in this video please.
Hi, thanks so much! We used a Schoeps MiniCMIT condenser microphone to record the guitar and captured audio with the Zoom H9 recorder. Very simple setup with a fantastic mic. And then there's the guitar of course. Such an incredible Hanika, it sounded beautiful and showed the differences of these strings really well. Cheers //Kris
What is that piece you're playing? Love that run, and would love to see music for it....
Da war wieder viel interessantes dabei 👍 und flamingo spiel ich auch sehr gerne 🦩 aber wenn du mich als wissenschaftler fragst sage ich ☝👉.. hauptsache keine latexallergie 🤭
Btw klasse das ihr immer die outtakes dran hängt 👍
😂 Danke Yetimatze! Ich weiss nur nicht, was ich antworten soll. Da fällt mir gerade nichts ein, was einen Kommentar toppen könnte. Haha! 👏
Ich bestehe auf die Outtakes, wenn wir was lustiges haben. Warum immer so ernst sein, oder? 😅
Ciao! //Kris
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses Musik und spaß gehören einfach zusammen, 🤞isch schwörre 😄
I use 8 - 42 e guitar strings. Works perfekt.
Hey! Amazing video 😁 I'd love to know what piece you were playing throughout the video, I want to learn it haha.
Hey Cherry, thanks so much! It's an own piece I just wrote for this video. Sorry, I don't have tabs / notes. But you can slow down youtube videos, that can really help when learning a lick by ear. Cheers! //Kris
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses Thank you so much for your reply Kris, and thanks for the tip, I will slow down the video 😄
Great video. May I ask what brand and model the guitar is?
There's one more type of strings that you rarely hear about: steel strings for classical/Spanish guitar. These have much less tension, so they don't ruin the lighter built guitars. They have a sharper attack (unless you play like Paco de Lucia) and sound brighter, about half-way between nylons and conventional steel. I used to get them from Thomastik, not sure if they still produce them.
I find steel strings wreck my nails, it's hard to keep the operable at the best of times. I can't use picks as they make me feel as though I am playing with boxing gloves. I came down to using D'Addario coated bass & carbon trebles.
Question: Knowing that the no.3 G string is not among the ten primary overtones, what string brand and gauge brings it back from the dead?
what were you playing just now, do you have the tabs so I an learn to play those chord progression?
Ya know I wonder if on a sunny day the higher temperature is why the black nylon strings have a different sound maybe?
My finger tips tend to slip on the D addario nylon treble strings..Will carbon strings reduce the slippage?
Great video, thank you! Can anyone please tell me what nylon strings set have milky white colored treble strings and a thin red plastic tip at the end? They are on my Yamaha SLG100N Silent Guitar and I think they were on it originally. Thank you
I recently replaced my classical guitar strings with Savarez High Tension Alliance Corum and had to stretch them for 3 days. On the fourth day the D string was worn out in the middle of the fret board from practicing Leyenda. Totally not worth it even if you do what ArtAlienTV suggests.
Ik this comment is old. Buuut typically, the harder the tension, the less I think you should stretch
I have salvarez strings today broke one and can i buy a diferent brand for and e string or is it gonna sound completly diffrent i havent changed much strings only been using salvarez for 7 years but now i want to switch things up
@Thomann which song did u play when u demonstrated the string
HI Kris, nice Video. I once played a Hanika in Treppendorf and I liked it :-)
What is the piece you are playing? Sorry, I am not too deep into classical guitar music.
Hey, thanks so much! I wrote this piece the day before we made this video, because I realised that I need to play something that lets the guitar and the strings shine. And since I never learned any actual classical pieces I wrote something real fast, that I can play the next day and that sounds even remotely OK on a classical guitar. 😅
The guitar is a Hanika PF56 (if I remember correctly - please check the gear link in the description, I've put the right guitar in there). Cheers //Kris
There are also gut stings (violin)
Another great video. Nice guitar... model? Carbon/Titanium are news to me.... Thanks
Thanks a lot! //Kris
Thanks Chris that sounded really mid evil man. TY.
Haha! So you watched the Top 5 acoustic amps video. 🙌🤩
I still have to smile when I think of that one. Thanks a lot!!
//Kris
Which is better? D'Addario EJ45 Nylon core vs D'Addario EJ27N.
They sound so much the same. Really, there is not so much difference. The guitar and the player is making the difference. One could say, they are all good. The standard nylon sound is a great choice and the carbon, is a little bit louder but the trebles are thinner. I would go for the clear nylon, as I always do. The best balance and result and they are affordable. Especially, when you have 2-4 guitars where you need new strings.
What is the name of this beautiful song?
How long does a strings last its peek quality of its sounds?
Can you do a review of strings with regard to string noise.Are there flat would coated classical strings that significantly reduce string noise?
Also can you do a comparison of the best quality high end string irrespective of cost.
I have used D'Addario XT and Hannabach Goldin medium tension and I am trending more to the latter despite the cost.
But would like to reduce string noise during slides for recording.
I have reviewed all the videos o adjustment of technique and use of oils etc.
Thanks and best wishes.
I would recommend trying La Bella Professional Series 413P strings.
@@johnjamieson7087 Thank you will try and let the results be known
Are there flat wound bass strings for classical guitar? to avoid the squeaky noise .
does a solid wood flamenco sound more crisp?
The difference between the types of strings you listed above in the packages is whether there are 3 trable strings or all 6 strings. To be honest, my eyes can't tell the difference between the strings.
I think the pricey gut strings sound best to my ears. They eliminate every trace of harshness.
Isn't this the Hanika 54 PF? I have this one :D
I play steel strung guitars , my finger tips as a result have hard skin which slips off Nylon strings. Which strings are best to avoid this. Great video .
Savarez make "rectified" trebles, which have a slightly rougher texture than regular nylon strings. They also make wound trebles which will provide similar grip to the bass strings.
Or, you could also try some very thin "carbon" strings such as Savarez Alliance or Hannabach Goldin. These are both very smooth but given their diameter, like steel you may find they "bite" into the finger a bit more than regular nylon and this could help too. I'd recommend trying all three types as they are very different.
Whay brand clear nylon strings are you using in this video?
Very nice video! I bought a set of dadario ej45 and really disappointed! The bass strings are too metallic sounding and the trebles strings are very weak specially E string. Would you plz help me to choose a set of strings to my taste? I like mellow sounding bass strings and louder treble strings! Ej45 strings are not balanced and they are awful to my ears!😢
What about polished strings
Which guitar are you playing? Great video, very useful, thank you 😊
Thanks a lot!! Please check out the gear link in the description box under the video. All the strings and the guitar are in there. Cheers //Kris
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses Duh! Thanks Kris! found the gear link :) what a beautiful guitar!
Does string gauge/tension affect intonation?
How should you adjust the tension used for smaller classical guitars. Go for lower or higher tension on a 3/4 to take pressure off the neck pocket?
Go higher for short scale :)
@@ArtAlienTV yes, otherwise the strings will be “floppy” at pitch.
In recordings there is no difference between string types. It´s noticeble if your hear in person.
I have tried the Hannabach gold. Its help the sound tremendously but couldnt make the 400 USD guitar sound as good as the 4000 usd.
🤣
And What about Aquila strings ? Nylgut, sugar, etc...
Hey Thoman Music - I hope you see this. I have a set up question and I can’t find anyone who cares to talk about it with! Hahaha! Please help! I have an Art & Lutherie Wild Cherry - steel string acoustic parlour-size “road house” guitar. It’s fun and sounds great. I used to play classical for a few years back in high school, and i miss the mellow warmth of nylon (or Titanium strings?!). I also kind wish my 3 low strings really played with a bit of the mellow resonance of an orchestral double base (not that low obv, just the tone and ambiance) mixed with the bit of the heaviness of an electric base. It’s just a sound I kind of imagine for this guitar, but I don’t even know if I can put nylon or base strings on an acoustic guitar. Maybe it would damage the neck or twist it? So, I’m trying to think how to create that sound or what ever is closest to it that works on this beautiful guitar. Maybe other people do something like this; maybe its a thing I don’t know about. Maybe not. You seem to know strings, nuances of sound, and your way around a guitar. Any suggestions or advice? TIA. And I loved your video.
Hi, thanks a lot! That's a great question and I'd like to discuss it in the next Guitar Tech Tips Q&A video. It's coming up in a few weeks. :) Cheers //Kris
Do you need to re-do the setup if you switch to different tension strings?
Classical guitars generally aren't very adjustable - unless yours is more modern and has a truss rod, or you keep multiple bridges or nuts to swap out, you can't really do much change their setup easily from home. You probably won't have any issues with different tensions, but if you do get problematic fret buzz with lower tension strings, a higher tension or stiffer string may help.
Showoff 😃✌💜
Thank you
Haha, I like a good challenge. 😅 Also, I wanted to incorporate a bit of everything in the playing part to cover as much as possible of what different players would prefer hearing. Arpeggios, single notes, chords etc. Thanks for watching! //Kris
I've been looking for NylGUT strings for my classical. I really like them on by Ukulele and Banjo but I can't find a company that makes them. Is there a reason nobody makes them?
There is :-) aquila makes them and I enjoy them for years. I like the Alabastro the most, which are made of supernylgut, but there are also other sets using "regular" nylgut, I think.
@@catscrash1 Thanks I'll check them out.
what about gold plated strings?
Will titanium damage a 1960 Gibson c-1 ?
What brand and model is that classical guitar
GRAZIE
Thanks Mark!! Cheers //Kris
KRIS THANKS FOR ALWAYS BEING NICE TO ME IT MEANS A LOT TO ME
GOD BLESS
carbon is straight up the best
💓💓💓💓💓💓💓
🤗🤗🤗🎶🎶