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Post by sanmenxia on Mar 14, 2012 16:52:07 GMT
My sanxian came with metal strings and I replaced the low and middle strings with nylon guitar strings. I used a guitar high E 0.7mm string as the sanxian's middle string tuned to D4. And a guitar B string (0.8mm) as the the sanxian's low string tuned to A3. I used this online calculator www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/wikla/mus/Calcs/wwwscalc.htmlGuitar high E 0.7mm nylon string, 650mm string length gives a tension of 7.2kg. The same string on the sanxian: 740mm string length tuned downed two semitones to D gives a tension of 7.4kg. Guitar B 0.8mm nylon string, 650mm string length gives a tension of 5.3kg. The same string on the sanxian: 740mm string length tuned downed two semitones to A (220hz) gives a tension of 5.4kg. The string tension has stayed roughly the same because although the pitch has gone down, the string length has increased. For the sanxian's high string, tuned to A (440hz) on my sanxian, I've used fishing line! Two reels plus a nail clipper for £2.50 (about 3 Euros or US$4)! The thicker one is 0.45mm, and tuned to A4 gives a tension of 6.9kg. It sounds OK, and there's enough for 200 strings! The low string does feel more floppy. If I used the the thickest nylon guitar string in the set (1mm) instead, the tension would go up to 8.5kg. To keep an even tension, I would need a 0.9mm string, I think.
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Post by edcat7 on Mar 14, 2012 19:40:11 GMT
How does the sound of the nylon strings compare to the steel ones? Have you tried silver strings?
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Post by sanmenxia on Mar 27, 2012 16:26:21 GMT
It's hard to say what the difference in sound is. There's a big difference how they feel under the fingers and pick. And the place and angle you hit the strings probably makes as much difference as the type of strings.
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