Classical Guitar Played With A Pick

happyjazzer

Anybody out there play a nylon strung guitar with a pick? If so what type of string suited--normal / high / hard / extra hard strings? What were the make of string and type of string made from? Flamenco strings maybe? Good sound?

Anybody tried Gypsy Guitar strings on a classical guitar? Results?

Russell Letson

The first string recommendation I would make is to not put steel strings--even Argentines--on a classical guitar. They're just not built for the tension. Stick with nylon.

paulmcevoy75

yeah definitely nothing but nylon strings ever.

you can put high tension strings on depending on the guitar, but they could potentially damage a nicer guitar.

Buco

People who use the nylon strings guitar in this genre, like Rocky G and Sebastien G, simply use the nylon guitar of their choice and a pick. I would guess, as far as the strings tension, they use whatever strings they like normally.

Joonas

Love this tune, dunno what strings Serge was using though: Ciocarlia (Romanian traditional horas) Hungarian Romani Josef Szalai x Serge Camps - YouTube

DjoeNL

Maybe look into Raphaël Faÿs

adrian

Some album recommendations for you:

"Entre Actes" by Adrien Moignard and Rocky Gresset. Rocky plays a classical guitar on each tune.

"Django's Songs" by Adrien Moignard.

The Maisons-Laffitte Jazz Festival concert by Bireli Lagrene and Adrien Moignard back in 2020 (during the pandemic). Both played classical guitars. Full concert professionally recorded here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-lb4V_7doM

Adrian

Noto

Wow, thanks for sharing the Bireli/Adrien video, this is great!

I've been playing nylon strings with a pick professionally for over 30 years and around 3000 concerts, gigs etc. I have only used D"Addario EJ-45s normal tension. I have tried higher tension strings but it's easier to play vibrato and jazz melody chords with normal tension.......... and why work harder then you have to? :-)

Of course, it can depend on what the guitar likes.

D'addario nylon strings were always reliable until about 2 years ago where they changed the manufacturing process and many (most) sets had bad intonation, so now I have been forced to try some new brands.

Right now, I think I like the Savarez 520R which are high tension but they have a similar tension to the D'Addario normal tension. They are rectified strings so the intonation is spot on but the feel of the strings is not as smooth. LaBella 2001 hard tension is also close to D'Addario normal tension but they seemed to go sharp alot in a concert and I also thought Augustine normal tension were ok but the trebles were thinner than I am used to.

Now that I think about it, Daddario makes a carbon nylon string set EJ-45FF that I hear are very bright and have not had any of the intonation issues of the Pro Arte nylons which might be great for Gypsy Swing.

lucky

I think I read somewhere that Django used a Ramirez classical guitar for his first recordings with the Hot Club.

paulmcevoy75

A teacher of mine ( Derek Gripper) always uses Hannebach 815mt and I really like them a lot. I haven't played a lot of other strings though. I think I tried D'adarrios and as with almost everything they sell, I didn't like them much.