Ball Ended Nylon Strings

Zulublues

Can anyone tell me if ball ended nylon strings are available? After watching the post on the guitar from Romania, I had a thought to put such a set on my Wasburn Rover, or would this be a bad idea?

Thanks

Bob-Dubery

Zulublues wrote: Can anyone tell me if ball ended nylon strings are available? After watching the post on the guitar from Romania, I had a thought to put such a set on my Wasburn Rover, or would this be a bad idea?

Steel string guitars are built to take a lot more tension than nylon strings generate. So you guitar will still make a noise with the nylon strings on it, but you may be underwhelmed.

You might also have to raise the action and adjust the truss rod. The nylon strings will be at a lower tension, thus will not pull on the neck so much and thus may vibrate in a wider arc.

Zulublues

Thanks Bob. I have thought of that. The action is quite high (as bought) and I just thought it may be worth a try for a slightly different sound. I do find that the 10's that came with the guitar result in quite a high tension maybe because the scale is quite short. The only issue is that is has a conventional bridge with bridge pins so the normal classic string cannot be used. There is nothing to tie them around ! The only other option is to change to 9's and shave the bridge as the saddle is about as low as it can go without losing too much break angle.

AlanRatcliffe

There are usually a cheapy set of D'addarios available. If you can find a set of Savarez strings, they usually have a small blob of nylon at the end of the trebles.

As Bob ponts out, they are not really for steel string guitars though - merely save you from twisting the string around itself on the bridge side on a classical guitar. The strings settle in much quicker without the extra twists. I simply put a knot in the end of the trebles, which gives me the same advantage or use strings like the savarez pictured below:

V8

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: There are usually a cheapy set of D'addarios available.

I've used the D'addario's a couple times, usually reccomend them for beginners re-stringing their nylon's because of the simplicity (the colour coding on the ball ends helps too). Havn't bought a set for a while though, having a quick google tells me there are a few differing sets available.

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: As Bob ponts out, they are not really for steel string guitars though - merely save you from twisting the string around itself on the bridge side on a classical guitar. The strings settle in much quicker without the extra twists. I simply put a knot in the end of the trebles, which gives me the same advantage or use strings like the savarez pictured below:

Whoa, that is neat! I've err'ed on the side of putting a few extra twists on the strings, then tying off the end of the sting underneath the next one...but always put off string changes (I'm about 6weeks overdue) due to stretching in of strings.

Will be trying Alan's method with my next set of Pro Arte high tension's - To check, I'll just tie a knot in the trebles and do up the bass strings as per your pic? Gotta admit, I'm a bit concerned with strings flying off the the bridge (although it's never happened).

AlanRatcliffe

Yes just knot the trebles and leave the basses as shown.

Occasionally you'll find a bridge where the very back edge of the bridge is damaged and has worn into a rounded-off shape (particularly with cheaper all-wood bridges that do not have the inlay on the top like yours and mine do). Then the treble strings don't always want to stay in place with my method (they must cross over themselves on the rear edge, not the top) and you have to wrap in the traditional method. Otherwise it works really well. The basses are never a problem because of the extra friction from the winds, but the trebles usually hold fine too once you have a little tension on them.

Once you tune up and stretch a few times, leave to settle for an hour or two and retune/stretch, they should be 99% settled. I've done that and gigged the same day with a new set of stings (but I do prefer to let them settle overnight). I should also mention that I wrap the strings differently to most on the tuner capstan too - I'll see if I can find a pic.

It's not quite as neat as my photo if you knot the ends, but still a lot better than you have. ?