Steel string acoustic that handles like a Strat?
- Thread starter MagnusR
- Start date
Guitarmageddon
Dr. Stratster
Isn't that a nylon string acoustic electric.....like a classical sound? Ritchie anyway, not the other guy.....
I've never seen a guitar with steel strings and that kind of open headstock with the classical style tuners.....
Sounds like steel to me but I could be wrong
FrieAsABird
Senior Stratmaster
I mean Fender has been producing Acoustic guitars for decades and some of them, like the Acoustasonic, are supposed to play very similarly to a electric guitar
monte merrick
Most Honored Senior Member
nickmsmith
Dr. Stratster
The string gauge is the biggest difference for me. If you put 9s or 10s on a thinner bodied acoustic with a cutaway, that’s about as good as it gets as far as ease of playing. But you sacrifice other things when you get the easier handling/playing.
Bigger body will give a fuller sound, and so will 11s or 12s on acoustic.
But as always, it’s the notes that you play, that really matter.
Bigger body will give a fuller sound, and so will 11s or 12s on acoustic.
But as always, it’s the notes that you play, that really matter.
I think you are on to something.
I play 9 gauges on my Strats and changing to 10 is a disaster for me.
Perhaps the standard on an acoustic is 10 or 11?
Bob Spumoni
Senior Stratmaster
I'm inclined to think there's no reason why an acoustic can't be set up to play nicely, certainly with lighter strings, but I do agree that generally makers/sellers get lazy setting up acoustics (Strats in particular ARE easier to set up, though, than any acoustic: all you need to "reset the neck" is a matchbook cover and a screwdriver: no artisanal fiddling required). My jazz guitars, which are hollowbodies (acoustics with pickups, nearly), have action at a decent height. They're a little stiffer, but that's b/c of heavier flatwounds, but the action is only slightly higher than many of my electrics. Maybe it goes back to the days when everybody played acoustics banging away at "Micah Row the Boat Ashore" down at the d----d hootenanny, and needed that quarter-inch of action to get the requisite folky thump which so impressed chicks with ironed hair, but who bothers with that stuff any more (the thumping, not the girls)? I rarely play acoustics any more anyway: not enough knobs. I love knobs. I use 10's on my electrics, 11's on the guitars wearing flatwounds.
dirocyn
Most Honored Senior Member
Most steel string acoustics come stock with 12s, these days. "Medium" acoustic strings means 13s.
That guitar sounds like nylon strings to me, looks like it too. Nylons through an undersaddle piezo. I've got a set of D'Addario EJ45 classical strings here on my desk, 85.85 lbs tension for the set. That's real close to the same tension you'll find in a set of 9s.
An acoustic guitar gets its volume from the weight of the strings driving the soundboard. Lighter strings will mean softer volume, and the timbre may change somewhat as well. Maybe in ways you like, who knows?
There is absolutely no reason you can't set up an acoustic for lighter strings. You probably can't go lighter than 10s if you want to keep the wound G string. If you care about intonation, switching from a wound G to a plain one will require saddle adjustment.
That guitar sounds like nylon strings to me, looks like it too. Nylons through an undersaddle piezo. I've got a set of D'Addario EJ45 classical strings here on my desk, 85.85 lbs tension for the set. That's real close to the same tension you'll find in a set of 9s.
An acoustic guitar gets its volume from the weight of the strings driving the soundboard. Lighter strings will mean softer volume, and the timbre may change somewhat as well. Maybe in ways you like, who knows?
There is absolutely no reason you can't set up an acoustic for lighter strings. You probably can't go lighter than 10s if you want to keep the wound G string. If you care about intonation, switching from a wound G to a plain one will require saddle adjustment.
Odell
Strat-Talker
Full size Taylor.
Touchy issue with this and my acoustic player/singer. He was one of those acoustic guitar purists, who never touched anything that had less than 12s on it. He would play for a set and his hands hurt, blah, blah, blah. One day I put some 11s on the guitar and adjusted the relief. Now he plays faster and longer with the lighter gauge. I always told him, as my belief was, once you're plugged in, and electrified, let the Front of House give you the thickness the fat gauges provide. If you're unplugged, well that's different. Lol
This^^^ 10-50s and a double compensated saddle will get you there.
dirocyn
Most Honored Senior Member
Can anybody ID that guitar? It looks a lot like an Alvarez-Yairi Ritchie Blackmore signature--except that guitar has steel-string type headstock & tuners.
It's an unusual layout, with F holes on a flat top and a cutaway. Cool guitar.
It's an unusual layout, with F holes on a flat top and a cutaway. Cool guitar.
nickmsmith
Dr. Stratster
Yep 10s or 11s on acoustic would be considered light.
A well set up acoustic should play about as easily as an electric with the same gauge strings.
