Is it ok to use D string for broken A string in a guitar temporarily?

Question

Yesterday the A string of my classical guitar was broken. I have an extra D string and an E string, unfortunately my other A string was broken too.

Is it ok to use the D string as the A string temporarily? Does it sound ok and does it have any bad effect on the guitar?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

It'll be fine. It may feel loose, but it won't harm the guitar, and as a temporary measure, means you continue playing. Next time, make sure you have a full set as spares!

Answer 2

As others have said the D will feel floppy but will work as a temporary measure. Don’t use the E string though, you would be tuning the E string a 4th higher than it is supposed to be, adding extra tension to the instrument and possibly breaking the string too. You might already know this but I bring it up since you mentioned you have a spare E.

EDIT: I answered because I thought this was a recent question, I assume you’ve replaced your A string by now, lol!

Answer 3

I would just add a particular bit to Tim's answer: The looser the string, the easier it is to bend it (i. e. to raise the tone by pulling at it). Downtuning the string by a fourth makes the string bending way too easy — any little displacement of the string will have a hearable effect on the tone, so you will need to finger the string with extra precision (making sure you do not pull at it at all) to stay in tune.

But, as Tim says, you can't damage the instrument by this. You could damage it only by applying more tension than usual, but here you would apply less, so no problem.

Answer 4

The answer is yes, you can mount the D string in the A position, and there's no harm to the guitar.

Here's some perspective;

Years ago, I went to restring one of my guitars, but didn't have a complete set. What I did have was a lot of odd string gauges, and all of them light, unwound.

So I strung the bottom three strings normally, i.e.; G, B, and E. Then I strung the top three strings with what I had laying around, but in essence, G, B, and E string gauges again, only tuned up quite high to achieve the conventional tuning of E, A, and D.

It sounded really interesting, and quite sparkly.

I showed it to a more seasoned player a few days later, and he chuckled. "You know what you did, right? You restrung your guitar in what they call, "High strung" or "Nashville strung". It's what some record producers use in multi-track recording to double the main guitar track, but to give it a higher frequency. Makes the record sound richer."

Good stuff. It's all good.