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Post subject: New guitar nut design, is it possible?
Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2018 5:48 am
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I am now building my second custom electric guitar . I Found in this forum many people saying that the Nut is important and can change the guitar sound pretty much. What i am asking is if there is a margin of improvement in the design, by making single string regulation or other improvement that maybe someone has expericed to need during playing or guitar reparation.

What do you think?


thanks in advance


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Post subject: Re: New guitar nut design, is it possible?
Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2018 8:40 pm
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Panda_guitar wrote:
I am now building my second custom electric guitar . I Found in this forum many people saying that the Nut is important and can change the guitar sound pretty much.

Not so much.

When a note is fretted, the nut is 100% out of the sonic picture.
There is as much mythology about nut design and material as there is about "tonewood"
Different nut material may be more or less durable.
Different nut material may be more stable in tuning by being less "sticky"

Sound? Brass and plastic are softer than bone, Micarta, and Graphite, but that does little to dampen the tone, just as there is little difference in tone between the sharp bridge saddles of a Les Paul and the rounded saddles of a Fender.

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Post subject: Re: New guitar nut design, is it possible?
Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 7:37 am
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What CB91710 said is correct.

But he didn't comment on the nut slots themselves. Poorly cut slots can cause ringing/sitar sounds, bad intonation, tuning problems, and make fretting more difficult.

The nut slots are critical for sound and playability. Perhaps you've misunderstood some of the posts you've read. It's not the material the nut is made of that's important -- it's how well the slots are cut/shaped.

Surprisingly, Fender, Gibson, and Martin all have a long history of not always cutting nut slots perfectly. They consider fine-tuning the slots to be part of the final setup, to be adjusted to the player's individual preferences.


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Post subject: Re: New guitar nut design, is it possible?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 12:09 am
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If by "single string regulation" you mean compensating the nut, that's a personal preference thang. Some say they can't live without a compensated nut, most (even most valued guitar wizards) use the plain old regular nut system.

On nut slots I agree with the above; they are crucial to how a guitar plays and intonates.

I won't go into nut materials. I know it's psychological, but I could just swear a proper bone nut (vs. a plastic) gives a guitar better sound qualities even when playing fretted... :wink:

BTW, how did your first build turn up?


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