There's absolutely nothing wrong with nylon strings on a guitar that's made for them. As stated above, some of the biggies use nylon-string guitars. All classical guitarists use nylon strings.

Also, although steel-string advocates (particularly owners of D-model guitars) will squawk at this, a well-made nylon-string guitar is louder than a steel string guitar. A steel-string guitar may sound a bit louder up close, but in a large auditorium or concert hall, the nylon-string guitar wins every time. They have much more carrying power. I've heard Andrés Segovia, Julian Bream, John Williams, Carlos Montoya, Christopher Parkening and others (along with singers like Theodore Bikel, Jean Redpath, and Richard Dyer-Bennet) in places like the Seattle Opera House (seats 3,100) playing without amplification, and they could be heard loud and clear. When was the last time you heard a steel-string guitar in a concert hall of any size that didn't need to be amplified to be heard clearly?

I played steel-string guitars for the first three years, then I switched to a nylon-string classic, and I've played classics ever since.

By the way—very important—NEVER put steel strings on a guitar that's built for nylon strings. Steel strings exert about 2-1/2 times as much tension as nylon strings, and that can pull a good classic apart. Also, you feel that higher tension in the fingertips of you left hand (!!).

I have a lot of things to say about fretting strings with the left-hand thumb, but I've said it all before in other threads, so I'll just shut up now.

Don Firth