my first classical guitar

Thu 2026 Aug 27

I was sent a guitar recently for review, and it's interesting this happened because the universe really wanted me to own a guitar like this. I say that because a little over a year ago I tried out a few classical guitars. Then at one point I went to buy one, but passed on it because the ones I tried weren't to my liking. After that, I thought okay, I'll just get one whenever when I find something that works for me.

Then out of the blue comes Sonicake. They emailed me and ask if I wanted to review their Crossover model. I said yes, they sent it, I made a video review, and now I own the thing.

Until I got the Crossover (a.k.a. QGT-30 model), I didn't know this was actually the exact type of classical guitar I wanted. Instead of a chunky baseball bat neck with no truss rod, this one has a C shape neck with truss rod. It also has strap buttons that many classical guitars outright don't have. It's also electrified with a preamp, is super light in weight, and has a thin body that actually projects well.

In other words, the Crossover is basically a folk style electric-acoustic guitar with cutaway body, but uses classical nylon strings instead of steel. Think of it as a Yamaha NTX1 with a much nicer price.

Over the years I've owned a few steel string acoustic guitars, but could never get along with them; it was the strings that were always the problem.

Generally speaking, the softest and easiest-on-fingers steel acoustic strings are the silk & steel type. Specifically, D'Addario EJ40. True, D'Addario has the phosphor bronze .010 gauge EJ38 and even a super light .009 EJ23, but they simply won't be as easy on the fingers like the silk & steel type.

If even silk & steel doesn't cut the mustard, then it's time to go nylon. As far as I'm aware, that's as soft and comfy as it gets.

However, there are a few things to consider.

Playing with regular picks is absolute no-go because it will wreck the strings. No celluloid, no delrin or any of that. Wooden picks are required because they have the softest strike and will make nylon strings last longest.

You absolutely do not stretch nylon strings like steel. Common wisdom (or at least should be) is that when new strings are installed, tune up to F standard, let the guitar sit for an hour, then tune back down to E standard, and the strings will be mostly stretched. If you do that pull/stretch thing on nylon, it absolutely will create "dead spots" in the strings. Steel can handle the pull/stretch thing okay, but not nylon.

You have to know that with a nylon string set, on the wound strings (as in the bass strings), one end will be floppy and the other not. Tying the floppy end at bridge side is a bad idea. Any knot made won't be as stable and the string can break quicker.

With classical nylon string sets, for comfort you don't pay attention to thickness but rather tension. Some string manufacturers will state the total tension in pounds for all strings in the set combined when tuned to E standard, while others list tension on a per-string level. Things get a bit stupid because tensions are listed using a whole bunch of generic words. Super low, low, normal/medium (same thing?), hard/high (again, same thing?), and so on. I'll make it easy. Just get a D'Addario Pro Arte EJ43 set. If that happens to be too light, go normal tension EJ45. If that's still too light, try another brand "normal tension" set before going with hard/high.

Higher action is totally normal on a classical guitar. Some adjustment can be made if the guitar has a truss rod, and/or you can pull the bridge (as in the white thing the strings rest on) with pliers and shave the bottom with sandpaper, and/or you can use a file to shave the nut slots a little bit. However, it's always better to start with low tension strings first before shaving/filing anything.

Is the classical right for me? Too soon to tell, but I definitely get along with it better than a steel string acoustic. Even if it were a traditional classical build, I like the smaller bodies compared to a standard dreadnought shape. The classical is a much easier acoustic to get along with... after learning how nylon strings work, which is the only real hurdle. Once past that, it's pretty much all good from there.

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