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How do I convert it ?

I do not like playing the Hawaiian guitar, so I want to change instruments. I have a standard bengali Hawaiian guitar with all its accessories and I want to play acoustic guitar, so I want to convert the guitar or rather want to make the existing guitar to an acoustic guitar.

See the image: http://images02.olx.in/ui/9/50/27/1386346055_574764327_9-Hawaii-Guitar-for-sale-.jpg

4 Answers 4

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From the photo I cannot see if it is a lap steel guitar. Does it have a square neck? If so, then just sell it and buy a normal guitar. If, OTOH, your guitar has a normal neck, then bring it to your local luthier and have him convert the bridge and the saddle.

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Try and play it like a traditional guitar. Decide what's stopping you.

If the neck is too wide; or too thick; or the wrong shape -- then you're out of luck. You'd be much better off replacing the whole guitar.

If the only issue is that the action is too high -- that is, the distance from the string to the fretboard -- then this can be adjusted by lowering the bridge and the saddle.

Assuming this is a steel-strung guitar, it will never be a classical guitar. Classical guitars have nylon strings. Putting nylon strings on a guitar designed for steel strings is unlikely to produce a good sound. If you can convert this guitar at all, what you will end up with is a steel-strung acoustic guitar.

In most of the world, lap-steel guitars are less common than normal guitars, and therefore more expensive. Therefore you might well be better off selling this and buying a cheaper traditional guitar.

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We need to see a photograph of the back of the neck. Is this a round-neck guitar or a square-neck guitar?

A "square-neck" lap steel guitar has a neck that is so thick that it is only useful for sitting on the lap and playing with a slide held in the hand above the strings.

A "round-neck" guitar has a much thinner neck that has a rounded shape that can accommodate the shape of the hand -- the fingers of the hand can wrap around the neck.

Wikipedia article explaining the difference between square-neck and round-neck and their different playing styles.

As others have pointed out, if you have a square-neck guitar, there is no practical way to modify it to make it into a round-neck guitar. You should sell your guitar and buy a round-neck guitar instead.

Furthermore, since your guitar has been constructed to use steel strings, there is no point in putting classical nylon strings on it. It would not sound good. Nylon-string classical guitars are built very differently on the inside (in the bracing under the top) than steel-string guitars, and trying to change to a different kind of string would be counterproductive and would not achieve good results.

Therefore, your best choice would be to sell your guitar and purchase a real classical guitar instead.

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It's not impossible but not feasible to convert a hawaiin guitar to a Spanish guitar.

Most important is the hawaiin guitar had frets only for indication... But Spanish has different gets over which strings are pressed to produce sound. Therefore it's advisable to dispose it off and buy second hand or new Spanish guitar.

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