Putting steel strings on a classical guitar....

[Poxican]

Well, not exactly, but close.

I'm working on converting an old guitar into a resonator. When I found it it had rusty steel strings on it and the bridge was pulled almost off the body.

Now I've braced the body really well, so I'm sure it will take a lot of strain, but do you think putting steel strings on it will still damage the neck? If I have to I'll compromise and just put 4 strings on, as it'll probably take it, but I'd love to put six on.

What do you reckon? I even considered routing a cavity in the neck and installing a steel rod for strength, but thats some hardcore modification I'm not sure I want to do....

[Bingefeller]

I'm no expert but I don't think the neck would be able to take that kind of strain. I could be completely wrong though.

[littlegreenman]

I did this years ago and it basically pulled the neck off!

[Poxican]

Did it pull it off the body? Cos I don't think theres any chance of that happening, or the bridge coming off, but I guess the next most likely result is the neck itself snapping....

Hmm, this puts a dampener on things.

Do you reckon you can play reasonable slide on 2 x 3 wound classical/nylon strings?

[colski]

Definitely not a good idea, you would be surprised what forces 6 steel strings actually creates, compared to 6 puny wee nylon strings.

[sam_m]

Nononononononononono.

[Col.Decker]

I did it for years on a very cheap £30 classical I had knocking around. Caused me no bother, although I did keep it in a low open tuning (open G tuned down to F).

In the end it went in the skip due to lack of use, but like the others have said I would'nt recomment it

[Sir Axeman]

Classical guitars dont have a truss rod to take the strain. In time it will look like a a banana!! ...or you could make a bow n arrow from it? DONT DO IT.

[Poxican]

IT'S GOT A STEEL ROD INSIDE!!!

I decided it wasn't worth risking the whole project by putting steel strings on it, but I really wanted to do it anyway! So I set about removing the fretboard to see if I could reinforce it somehow.

When it finally popped off... There was a square metal rod running the length of the fretboard!

I'll get pics uploaded, but with this news, do you think I can get away with it? I'm thinking I might even remove the bar and put something even stronger in there. With the fretboard off, I might even find a nicer piece of wood and make a new 'board on account of the old one is plywood

[Sir Axeman]

Its probably best just to buy a new guitar with steel strings on ie one thats made for it. You could get something used with a solid top for not a lot these days! Better guitar and no messin about.