there may be a classical guitar in my future
I was at a guitar store recently to buy a pack of strings. While there, I did something I ordinarily never do. I headed into the acoustic room.
One of the first guitars I picked up (I played a few) was a very low priced classical guitar, as in the nylon string type. Seriously, one of these things is so cheap to buy.
You know how even on the most basic electric, there's a bunch of setup involved? Truss rod, string saddle height adjustment, bridge adjustment, and so on?
Want to know how much setup is required on a classical? ZERO. Okay, almost zero. You do have to install the strings. But that's it. There's nothing else to it.
Nylon guitar string is very easy (if not the easiest?) on the fingers and requires only the lightest grip to hold down notes and chords.
I got some genuine joy fingering some notes and chords on the classical. It just felt good.
It is rare, and I mean oh so rare, when I can just pick up a guitar in a store, start playing and it feels right at home. I got that out of the classical.
There are two reasons I've never seriously considered a classical guitar. The first is that over the years I've started to play a lot more with fingers on the picking hand. The second is that steel string acoustics really soured me on them. It's the latter I have to explain more in detail.
It's not that I can't play steel string acoustic. I just don't like to. I can make things feel somewhat better with silk and steel acoustic strings. For some players, switching to that acoustic string type fixes everything. But it's not enough for me. So much to the point where I was just turned off by acoustics entirely.
After all this time, I finally just picked up a classical and went for it. My thought was okay, this will probably suck, but I've never really sat down with one of these and really played it, so let's do this. I did, and I liked it.
No, I haven't bought a classical yet, but it's definitely on my to-do list now. I need one in my life.
Published 2025 Jun 24
