Orangewood Dana with nylon strings! Ep161

It's really not a big deal to put nylon strings on the originally steel stringed Orangewood Dana. As much as I hate to say it, it makes the guitar even better, at least for me! Will see how it works over time, but I sure like it at the moment.
Hope you like it! I sure had fun!
Hi! My name is Scott and I am an educator, researcher and insatiably curious learner! G90s provides a collection of guitar and music related topics which are mostly reminders of what I have been working on and my adventures in improving my guitar skills!
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G90s-Ep161
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[@theguitarprofessionals8584]

Nice!!!!!!! Ive recently seen several vids about this topic and electric too with strats and teles!!!!! Good Information!!!!!!!!!!

[@Guitarin90seconds]

Glad you found it interesting Gavin! It worked much better than I had anticipated… so pretty happy! Thanks for checking it out! 🙏🙏🦋

[@BotsWeekendCovers]

Nice video. I do not own a nylon stringed guitar. Guess I need one now. Wife is gonna be mad lol.

[@Guitarin90seconds]

Thanks for checking out the video my friend! I am still shopping for a nylon string… till then a string change is just as fun and way more economical! 🙏🙏🦋

[@stevenspringer1599]

Thank you! Most videos on this model are years old. Just in the nick of time - I recently got an Orangewood Dana Mahogany because I've lived long enough to live in a world of cheap well made guitars and amazon monthly payments and yours is exactly the advice I was looking for. I was looking for a cheap classical guitar with an acoustic neck but I've known since the '70s that nylon on acoustic works fine and this deal was perfect. I've ordered sets of D'D & E Ball folk nylon strings and some sandpaper to take the saddle down a little. You touched on all the points of interest I had except the truss rod. The neck looks very straight with the steel. Did you have to loosen it for the nylon? or was the 'as is' good enough?

[@Guitarin90seconds]

Steve! Thanks for watching and the great summary of your experience! It’s surprising how easy the swap was. When I took the steel strings off I backed off the truss rod to give a straight neck then added the nylon strings and readjusted. Hard to say if I left enough time between steps for everything to settle… and I already had light electric strings on the guitar. I would think any changes from the original strings will be small. Let me know how you make out! 🙏🙏🦋

[@stevenspringer1599]

and, success...sanded down the saddle to the point I was worried, put on some d'addario folk black nylon (suddenly remembering the suspense that comes with tuning up the high e nylon string). I had put on a set of silk and steel because I had just learned about them and if I was still looking for the 'steel' sound I would have stayed with them. The guitar stayed nicely in tune with both sets of steel strings and after the initial nylon stretching I notice that the strings go out of tune very close to the same amount. I gave the truss rod a quarter turn because I thought I was supposed to and...capo on the 1st fret, push down on the 12th - nice straight line under the 6th string just clearing the frets. I got lucky with the saddle sanding and the action is now as close to my impossible ideal as I'm going to get. The mellow sound from these strings is exactly what I was looking for and now the neck is better, according to me. I'm still annoyed by 'winding squeak'. I thought 'silver wound' would be smoother but maybe just smoother than the copper-wound. I will look for flat wound nylon. I got a cheap little stick-on piezo and played with a little chorus. My couch is complete. Thanks again for your advice. It helped. @@Guitarin90seconds

[@Guitarin90seconds]

@@stevenspringer1599 outstanding Steve congratulations and thanks so much for following up! I am really pleased for you and that this experiment is repeatable! Take care my friend and keep in touch! 🙏🙏🦋

[@utoobrayray]

I'm super excited to try this. Can you share which brand of nylons you used?

[@Guitarin90seconds]

I used Ernie Ball nylon classic ball end earthwood 80/20 bronze alloy. The high e-string is a 28! Hope this helps, these are still working perfectly! Be sure to let me know how you make out! Always curious! 🙏🙏🦋

[@utoobrayray]

@@Guitarin90seconds Thanks for the quick response. I think I might give it a go on the Oliver Jr vs. the Dana. Similar in size but with the added solid wood top. See it makes a difference. I'll let you know how it goes.

[@Guitarin90seconds]

@@utoobrayray nice choice as well! Looking forward to hearing how you make out! 🙏🙏🦋

[@hiltonmclaurin]

​@@Guitarin90seconds Hi I just ordered a Mahogany Dana. Looking at all the Ernie Ball Earth wood strings I'm not finding a set as you described with e at 28. Do you please have the set number? Cordially Hilton

[@Guitarin90seconds]

@@hiltonmclaurin thanks for checking out the video Hilton! I am looking at the package I just got from Amazon. Ernie Ball… Earthwood…nylon classic ball end…acoustic guitar strings… 28 to 42… 3069 is the reference number for the 3-packs! Hope this helps. 🙏🙏🦋

[@djm1256]

Why didn't you actually PLAY the guitar (other than the simple scale) so that we could hear what it sounded like?

[@Guitarin90seconds]

@@djm1256 good point! Guess I need to use it in new video! Thanks for the suggestion! 🙏🙏🦋