New strings, new sound…
Cool... I put new nylon strings on my son's guitar and it sounds just great now. No more sharp fretted notes. And it sounds really good for a $40 LTD guitar. (I finally asked my mom.)
Yup, that's his guitar in the picture (the natural one, not the pink), except now it's only $19.95. And they brag about how it has "real steel strings"... except it's a nylon-string design and shouldn't have steel strings. Heh.
Cosmetically, it has a few blemishes... the fretboard is the worst, as it's painted and not all that well. But it looks fairly well-constructed, and sound-wise, it sounds pretty darn good. No buzzing, nice clear tone. It certainly doesn't sound like a toy, and now that it plays in tune, I'm pretty darn happy with it. I am no longer frustrated with my mom... she did good. (Pure luck, but hey. At $20, I should buy a spare.)
I'm new to nylon strings... tuning new nylon strings is like tuning Silly Putty. At first, it goes out of tune every time you strum it. Like, a full revolution of the turning keys out of tune. After jillion retunings, it's finally settled down to the point I can play it for more than ten minutes without retuning it.
If anyone cares (and this is for my own record more than anything), I used La Bella 2001 Light Tension Concert Series Classical Guitar Strings. $7.99 from Strings and Beyond.com. Prompt shipping, price was right. Good selection... they had a lot of "light tension" strings where Musician's Friend didn't.
I like the sound of these strings, although the high string is a little "plinky" tuned to D (open G tuning, DGDGBD). That may be more of a function of the half-sized guitar than the quality of string, and it might sound better when tuned up to the standard E.