Electric strings on acoustic guitars -- Who routinely does that?

Thanks for those prognostic insights; I didn’t think things through, and not having done this before, did not anticipate the obstacles. I’ll check out the silk & steel strings and likely buy a set.

‘Yesterday afternoon a Sweetwater rep called to let me know that the ball end nylon strings I ordered were out of stock; more in 3 weeks.  Ten bucks is ten bucks, so I asked if I could cancel that order.  I ordered the popular D’Addario EJ440, 11-47 silk& steel.  We’ll see, but…

I don’t have a problem with the wound strings, just the unwound strings, and that’s not going to change with the new silk & steel strings.  My local GC has a set of .010s (Earthwood) and I’ll try those sometime.

The GS mini seems fairly well set up.  The overall action is OK, although I’m tempted to sand the bridge saddle a little bit.  BTW, I ordered a Tusque replacement bridge for the Ortega, and I selected Taylor style since that Ortega seemed to have both the G and A strings a little sharp when checking intonation.  I would adjust this one.  Anyway… the single, most difficult fretting on the GS mini is at the B string, first fret.  The string feels so much stiffer at that spot; its diameter measures around .016” (crummy plastic digital calibers) and seems to be the same distance off the open string first fret as the other strings, 2/64th.

I’m not opposed to replacing the nut on the Mini.  Again, I would modify a replacement nut.  I was looking at it and apparently it doesn’t seem to be sitting in a nut slot; maybe there’s just a drop of glue holding it in place, or maybe just string tension.  But I’m probably just going to leave everything (except the strings) as is; overall, it seems like a good setup.  If there is anything “wrong” with it it would be the Unmatched bookend two-piece top.  I really didn’t notice it in the store, being psyched up for a purchase, but did latter on.  A few years ago, my anal self would have rejected this aesthetic blasphemy, but I seem (surprisingly) to be OK with it now.  My artistically talented wife says the guitar looks good.

Hmmm, where was I… ?

Thanks for that info.  Yes, I imagine that with the first fret so close to the nut that the nut slot depth would by far be influencing factor for ease of fretting.  I bought a set of nut files a couple of years ago; maybe I'll make an adjustment.

To see if you need to lower your nut slots, do this test: put a capo on the guitar at the first fret and play it a bit. Is it easier to play? Are the strings easier to press down? Can you tell that the action is lower at the 1st fret than it is at the open nut?  

If so, your nut slots need to be lowered. Ideally, the nut should be at the same level at the first fret. Some folks don't agree with this, but if this were not true, it wouldn't work to use a capo at the 1st (or 2nd or 3rd, etc.) fret...

If your guitar is set up properly, it should be easy to play 12's - or even 13's - on a short scale guitar like a Taylor GS Mini.

For this reason (they're both equidistant to the 12th fret, and therefore impact action equally), you should do the nut slots FIRST, as the guitar will only play properly in first position (cowboy chords) if they're adjusted to "0 fret" height - which should be the same as the 1st (and all other) frets.

THEN, after the nut has been properly slotted, you know how much the saddle actually needs to be lowered (once you have the neck's relief set where it should be).

That's the correct process.

Lefty Rev; your system would mean that the height at the first fret is decided by the saddle height. And nut slots and saddle height don't affect action equally. While that may work out fine there are better ways to do it.

What I do is decide what height I want at the first fret. For conversational purposes let's say it's .020". Place .020" worth of shim (or shims) between the low E string and the first fret, hold it down and check the height at the twelfth fret. If it is, say, 1/32" higher than you'd like then you know that the saddle will need to come down 1/16" on the bass side. Make a note of that. Now do the same thing with the high E. Let's say that it is also 1/32" high on that side; now you can remove the saddle and sand 1/16" off of the bottom. After reinstalling the saddle and stringing up you can now file the nut slots to the appropriate height. This of course requires that you have a way to measure string height at the first fret (feeler gauges or a fancy tool made for the job). By the way, neck relief should be set before all of this.

This is of course not the only way to skin this kind of cat but I like to have standards such that I can achieve consistency. I can also make sure that I give someone their guitar back with the same specs it had when it came to me.

You can do this if you want. If I'm understanding you, it sounds like you're compensating for how much you plan to lower the strings at the nut - if so that will work fine. I don't see that it matters which you do first, but you need to take into consideration that lowering the nut slots WILL lower the action at the 12th fret the same percentage as lowering the saddle will.

Six of one, half a dozen of the other, it seems...

I took the rest of the day off from my computer memory quest and decided to put new strings on the GS mini -- Ernie Ball Earthwood silk & steel, extra soft (10-50). I used my leaf gauges and combined a few to get me just a tad above the fret height; the frets on this guitar are really small. I placed the gauges right up against the nut and filed each slot until I just hit the top leaf of the gauges. It went fairly well, however, disappointment appeared after I installed the new strings: tremendous buzz (on the first fret) with the G string, and slight buzz on the D. All the other strings rang well. I didn't feel like messing around with super glue and baking soda -- I tried that recently and it set way too fast for me to work with; ended up using plain superglue. (Someone online used J-B Weld.) I thought this out before hand and had Plan B in my head: increase the neck relief. So, I ended up loosening the trussrod about a half turn altogether. The buzz on the D string went away at 1/4 turn, and the G after an additional 1/4 turn.

I've always used a metal 6-inch ruler marked off in mm and inches and got tired of looking cross-eyed, and still having a heck of a time reading the ruler. I went and bought a MusicNomad String Action Gauge and Truss Rod Gauge combo deal; blackened metal with white markings. Their directions for measuring neck relief and action aren't exactly what I recall. Anyway, my action at the 12 fret (capo on first fret) is 0.08 in., both e strings, in the low-medium range, so I think I'm good. As the new strings and the neck settle in, things might get slightly better, yielding a tad more neck relief, but hopefully still comfortable to play. (I did not touch the bridge saddle; seems OK; no allowance to reduce that height without introducing buzz again.)

The stock strings--Nanowebs, or something, didn't suit me, but man the guitar just sang with those on, with the longest sustain I've heard on any acoustic guitar. I hope these new strings get me close to that again.

That string action gauge looks a lot like a "fret rocker." I'll use it for that purpose, too.

I probably should replace that nut someday and use a better/more controlled method of creating slot depth. Taylor sells new nuts and saddles. Anyway, I'm pretty happy with this GS mini guitar.

I ordered a couple sets of D'addario Silk and Steel strings and since installing them on one of my acoustics I found that I like them.

What I remembered about silk and steel strings was from 1970 and before. Flubby wound strings and big drop in volume and tone quality. I did notice a volume drop but less than I remembered. The bass strings are not flubby and pressure needed to fret notes is significantly less. There is less percussiveness and the tone is less bright and complex but the flip side is very little string noise. I don't think these will replace my 80/20s on all my acoustics but I love them for fingerstyle guitar.

You may be able to regain some brightness of tone / tone profile, by changing out your string pins.  I've read that brass pins add brightness.  There are other pin material preferences.  A lot of guys say there's no real difference in tone via pin material type.  The only way to know is to try out an alternative set or two.

I'm liking my Ernie Ball Earthwood silk & steel, extra soft (10-50).  I prefer a more subtle response on the bass strings; more appropriate to the constant drone thumbing of the fingerpicking blues style I'm trying to get a grip on.  (I cannot dance, either.)

I've further adjusted my string slots the nut on my Taylor GS mini.  I initially did overdo a couple of slot adjustments; I resorted to super glue fill-in and then re-slotting.  It's easy to goof these slots up, but overdoing a super glue re-do is easy, too.  Once you have a couple of strings vertically positioned the way you like (observe closely and feel while fretting on the first fret), you have a intuitive guide to exactly what you want.  Three errant slots finalized and the action a tad lower -- it's probably as good as it can get.

However, my once-beloved 1/2 Yamaha classical spends most of its time in a closet, along with the Seagull 6+spruce that's hasn't seen daylight in over a decade (I, too, dislike wrapping my arm around a big box).  So, I played the Taylor GS mini and after two or three weeks pulled the Yamaha out -- sounds like a ukulele NOW, and I thought it sounded so much fuller than my ukulele-sounding Taylor Baby (BT1).   I won't compare the Taylor GS mini to the Seagull; I'm afraid the Taylor may end up sounding like a ukulele to me!  I'm happy with the tones of the Taylor.  But as I age I'm acquiring old man ailments, and the Yamaha 1/2 scale is really comfortable to play; the Taylor is not much of a short-scale guitar; 23.5 inches, IIRC.

I still wish that Ortega Requinto worked out (action was way, way too high); it has a much deeper/thicker body, near full-size (about 4-3/8 inches) for deeper, bassier tone  If I see a cheap used one, I might get it, heat the snot out of neck joint with a heat gun, and reposition ("reset") the neck for lower action.

I haven’t owned a Dread since the 90s. My largest is the 000-15S, my right arm is partially paralyzed at the shoulder and biceps, I can’t strum traditionally, like you would with a pick. I manage in more of a Flamingo style. My wrist is OK, or I pluck D through high E with four fingers using my thumb on the E and A. 

I’ve mostly evolved into finger picking, no picks, on acoustic, my go to guitar is the Cordoba C9 Parlor. I like the wider nut and nylon string tensions. I’ll play with Song Farmer type circle jams on the acoustic guitar. Only occasionally I’ll take the Ibanez ABG and the Phil Jones Double Four and battery to acoustic circles, I use a wireless transmitter with the amp under my seat. I’ve gotten compliments on the Ibanez ABG tone and projection, most assume it’s all the ABG until I show them the transmitter plugged into the bass. 

At home virtually all my playing is guitar, an average of 1 to 2 hours a day. I’ll grab the acoustic bass occasionally, I’ll play bass lines to the TV sound tracks. With rehearsals, a band, or jam I stick to bass. 

Several years ago I went through about a two year period of just finger picked acoustic. It just happened. I didn’t really intentionally go down this road. Any ways, the finger picking came along with time.