Nylon guitar strings were first made by Albert Augustine in 1947.

Segovia was staying over with friends in Washington, D. C., prior to setting off on a concert tour of North and South America. He was concerned because, due to the war (WW II), the gut strings he, and all classical guitarists, used had become scarce and hard to come by. And it was not unusual for a string to break in mid-concert and have to be replaced. Also, the quality of gut strings was not all that reliable.

He said that if things didn't improve soon, he may not be able to complete his tour and might just have to hang up his guitar.

A General Lindenman, an avid classical guitarist, asked Segovia to loan him a set of his gut strings. He said that he had an idea, and if it worked, the string worries of classic guitarists might be over once and for all. Reluctantly, Segovia gave him a set from his diminishing store.

Segovia played a number of concerts, then when he returned to Washington a few weeks later, Gen. Lindenman brought him several sets of strings.

"Try these," said the General. "I have some friends in the DuPont family [chemicals and plastics]. I told them what the problem was, and they examined the characteristics of the set of gut strings, along with the specifications and requirements that I gave them, and they had one of their laboratories make these."

Segovia put them on his guitar, tuned them up, and began to play. After several minutes, he looked at General Lindenman and said, "I believe that this is a new day for the classical guitar!"

DuPont said that they did not wish to get into the business of making guitar strings, but they would supply the chemical materials (which they trademarked as "Novalon") to anyone who wished to make the strings. Albert Augustine took them up on it and was the first maker of nylon classical guitar strings. Other string manufacturers such as La Bella immediately got on board, and the rest is history.

The above information is from a mid-1950s issue of "The Guitar Review," a quarterly magazine (each issue a "keeper") issued, I believe, by the Classic Guitar Society of Greater New York. I have a tall stack of these magazines, and each is packed with information—and lots of classical guitar music.

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Blues can be played using nylon strings, but the sound leaves much to be desired. I can't imagine people like Lightnin' Hopkins, Mance Lipscomb, or Mississippi John Hurt using nylon strings as a matter of choice. No way!!

Don Firth

P. S. Although I thoroughly enjoy listening to blues by people who know what they're doing, I don't do blues myself. First, I'm dedicated to the kind of music and accompaniments that are appropriate to the classic guitar, and second, when it comes to blues, I'm lousy at it and I know my limitations.

Not everyone knows theirs.

P. P. S. Way back when I first took up classic guitar, someone kept saying, "You never know how good your guitar can sound with these 'artificial' nylon strings. You should try a set of gut strings. You'll see!"

So I dropped in on Broberg Music and asked Mrs. Broberg for a set of gut strings, which were still available into the mid Fifties. She looked at me as if I needed a brain transplant, then sold me a set. I tried them on my new Martin 00-28-G classic.

God bloody awful!! They were hard to tune, they wouldn't stay in tune, their intonation was inconsistent along the length of the string, and one of the strings snapped within a few hours of putting them on the guitar!

I yanked them off and put a new set of nylon strings on.

It's no wonder the guitar almost died out as a classical instrument if that's the kind of strings people had to put up with!

Yet--there are "early music" musicians, like lutenists, who insist on using gut strings for "authenticity." But once during intermission at a Baltimore Consort concert, I asked lutenist Ronn McFarlane if he used gut or nylon strings on his lute.

"Nylon," he said. "If I used gut strings, I'd have to spend half the concert changing broken strings!"