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So I'm halfway through a Padauk/Englemann nylon crossover style build (ala Matt Mustapick) and it dawned on me that I hadn't considered what strings to install?
These guitars are basically a small bodied lattice braced instrument with a fairly thin soundboard. When finished the thickness will run from around .080" in the upper bout and bridge area to around .060 around the edges of the lower bout. It is braced around .100 now and rings forever when lightly tapped.
Does anybody have any suggestions on what type/brand of nylon strings would work best on this kind of build?

Thank You,

Ray

PS If you haven't already seen Matt Mustapick's website check it out. He has a section called "Shop Reports" that shows a lot of his very ingenious processes and results!

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Guitar Building = Continuous Improvement Process

Don't worry too much about it now because you will be experimenting with strings for a long time.

That being said, many people prefer to start with a fairly neutral string like D'Adarrio in order to focus on the guitars sound, not that of the strings.

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Nice looking guitars Ray. I'll bet you'll be happy with one of them. It's great to see another person who appreciates crossovers. I'll never get tired of mine.

Doug's right. D'Adarrio is a good place to start. I've used a few others and so far my favourites are Savarez and right now I'm playing Jose Ramirez which I really like. I made the top pretty thin on my guitar and medium tension seems to work best. the builder might have some suggestions for you on tension. http://www.stringsbymail.com/ These people are very nice to deal with.

Good Luck,
Danny

The D'Addario EJ-45's are a nice medium tension string, for starting out. I have come to like the Oasis Carbon treble strings a great deal. They are high tension, but do not feel particularly hard to play. I have been pairing them up with EJ045 bass strings or Savarez Corum Alliance basses. The Oasis trebles are available in a set, as are the Savarez bass strings. These trebles intonate perfectly, and really last a long time. Mine have been on, now, for months, and I can't tell any difference from the day I put them on. They are also very stable. They stay in tune while playing, and in between. Many carbon strings tend to go sharp as you play, initially, and you have to re-tune after a few minutes. These strings do not do that. I have played with them under all conditions, including outdoors, in the fall of the year - all temps from 90* to 30*f and humidity from 20% to 90+%.

I do not recommend the Oasis bass strings! They are clunky sounding, IMO.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I like to try different types of strings on each new classical - i.e. straight nylon, carbon. In testing for tension you can see if lower tension or higher tension strings sound the best (and this is after at least a couple of weeks of being strung) by just tuning down or up a couple of steps and seeing how the guitar responds. My personal favorite are Hannabach strings but on a new guitar, like others have suggested, I start with D'addarios.

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GEO
perpetual beginner

I would agree, that it will depend on the guitar, and the D'Addario's are very dependable with regards to quality, and consistency, unlike Savarez, Gali, and some of the others.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Daddarios are mostly dependable. I was struggling with the intonation of the B and E strings on a classical guitar and could not seem to get them in tune. I finally called a friend who is a very experienced classical builder and after we ran through the options he suggested changing the strings in question. I was surprised but that was what the problem was. One string I can see but two from the same set did not occur to me. This has only happened once but now I am more wary.

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GEO
perpetual beginner

I can remember, some years ago, putting on sets of Augustines, and taking them off and throwing them away. Intonation was impossible. I think they improved their QC problems over the years, but this was back when they had Segovia's stamp of approval.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I've had into. problems with D'Addarios trebles also.
But never with Hannabach.
Saverez Corums for a warm fat sound !!!
Also a great American string maker is GHS !
I use their basses alot and many of my clients do also .
I just ordered from www.stringsbymail.com new trebles from them.
Can't wait to try them.

Check strings by mails string info page !

Mike

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Mike Collins