Guitar Nut - Entertainment - Music

Guitar NutGuitar players and luthiers alike commonly underestimate the importance of the guitar nut.

In my career as both a guitar repairman and a luthier, I have seen great guitar nut setups and totally messed up guitar nut setups. The difference is totally amazing.

The modification in the nut material is additionally very substantial. The tone output from a guitar that is constructed from an inexpensive plastic nut vs. a nut made from quality bone will be amazing.

I have many articles ranging from guitar nut materials, guitar nut construction and the perfect nut setup for you to study, so the guitar nut is a very in-depth subject.

So you can tell that the nut, that little strip of white plastic, ivory or bone plays a significant role in the guitar playing ease and tone.

This is a partial list of items that the guitar nut addresses:

String ActionIntonation of the GuitarQuality of the Guitar ToneEase of Guitar TuningPreservation of the Strings

Now it is time to take a closer look at this little strip of bone, plastic or ivory and find out what makes each of these elements so important to the guitar tone and playability.

The Guitar String Action:Okay this one is rather obvious, and easy to understand, but there is in fact a little more to it than it appears on the surface. By making very minor depth changes to the string grooves in the nut, you can change a difficult playing guitar into an easy playing guitar.

What if you file the string slots too deeply? Yes that is a very easy thing to do and sadly, it means you have to start over with a new nut. So is there an ideal string depth then? That subject will have to be covered in another article.

Intonation of the Guitar:The proper length of the guitar strings as it relates to the guitar scale is intonation. The reason this is important is the guitar nut plays a role in determining the scale length in that the beginning point of the scale is the point where the guitar nut and the fretboard join.

If the string slots are not filed properly the string length can begin somewhere 'within' the nut, thus affecting the intonation of the instrument and making it hard to tune and it plays 'out of tune'.

Quality of the Guitar Tone:Also the guitar nut has a ton of influence in the guitar tone quality. The best way to illustrate this is to try a little experiment. Replace an ivory nut with a plastic nut on a fine classical guitar. You will not believe how much change that can make. Not only will the strings sound dead or muted on the plastic, the open strings will not have the sustain that they normally do on the ivory guitar nut.

As you will be able to see, the guitar nut materials at least partially influence the guitar tone production.

Another important point is to be sure that the nut is properly fit into the guitar neck. If it has full contact and is a nice tight fit, the vibrations of the strings will be more fully transmitted into the guitar neck and the strings will resonate better, thus reaction with the bridge will be improved.

Ability To Tune The Guitar Easily:This problem is most often caused by means of the improper filing of the string channels or string slots.

By far the easiest way to perform this is by means of the use of gauged nut files. These files are matched to the string diameters for proper channel widths.

Perfectly cut string slots should have the following characteristics:

A well-cut string slot should possess a rounded bottom which matches the string contour.

Next, in order to prevent string binding in the guitar nut, each string slot should be slightly wider that each respective string.

Finally, in order to minimize string binding, each string slot should be angled toward it's respective strings tuning machine post.

String Age:If the above recommendations are followed very closely, the string life can be enhanced.

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