Post by earwighoney on May 10, 2015 17:40:01 GMT
I have had my Lowden S32 quite often in Csus2 in recent times - it is 630mm scale. No problem even with Newtone Heritage Low Tension 12s (like Brian I have old creaky fingers). I find too that my factory produced Tanglewood TW73 is also OK in Csus2.
However I should say that I do play with a light touch.
I think it's essential to have a really responsive guitar if it's parlour size. Then you don't need to hit the strings hard to get a good sound and that means you can get away the the reduced tension of shorter scale &/or open lowered tunings. The Lowden is hugely responsive because of what it is, the Tanglewood was unearthed in long searching as one of the good factory produced guitars at the responsive end of chance combinations when standard measurements are used in a production process for non standard raw material (wood).
You also asked about managing to use different tunings (ie tuning up and down) without the strings breaking? I have been regularly changing tuning on the Lowden between Standard tuning, Open D, DADGAD, Open G and Csus2 for 5 months with the one set of strings before my recent change of strings and have not had one break. Now I think back I note that since I started using Newtone Heritage strings around 10 months ago on all of my acoustic guitars I've had no breakages at all.
Mark
Good info about your guitars faring well with Newtone Heritage strings and getting a responsive guitar for smaller bodied. I myself am trying to play with a lighter touch; I used to hammer the strings fairly hard with fingerpicks but I've found it's less strain on the fingers/hands to play with a lighter touch as obvious as it might sound!
When it comes to string breakages, I've found the 3rd string or the G to be very prone to breaking if it is tuned up (eg from F to G) but the other strings I generally have no problems with but I prefer to tune up and down too much, I find it dulls the strings quicker than nromal.