Nylon Strings

A nylon set is really two different constructions in one box: the top three strings are plain, solid nylon monofilament (clear or "rectified" — ground to a precise, slightly duller-sounding diameter), and the bottom three are a nylon (or in some modern sets, a composite) core wound with fine silver-plated copper wire. Historically these were gut strings, which nylon replaced after WWII for cost and consistency.

What it suits

Classical and flamenco guitar, almost exclusively — the instrument’s lighter top bracing is built around nylon’s much lower tension than steel, and stringing a classical guitar with steel strings will damage most of them over time.

How it ages

Nylon trebles stretch and go false-sounding (intonation drifts as the string settles) for days after installation before settling in, longer than a steel string’s break-in; once settled, nylon holds tone for a long time since there is no ferrous winding to oxidize the way bronze or nickel does, though the wound basses do eventually dull.

Gear Warrior’s tension table has no nylon entry: nylon’s density and stiffness are nothing like steel’s, and the wound-bass strings on a nylon set use a different core material than every wound entry this table carries — so no tension figure is computed for a nylon gauge on this site. A classical guitar’s whole design assumes nylon’s much lower tension at the same or a larger gauge; do not restring one from a steel-string table.