A guitar’s nut serves several important functions. Located at the end of the fingerboard (where it meets the headstock), the nut determines the spacing of the strings and the action in the lower registers. Different materials will influence a guitar’s tone, and a poorly fit nut will greatly affect playability.
For one reason or another (worn slots, a change in string gauge, complete breakage, a need for different string spacing), a nut will occasionally need to be replaced, and many guitarists can do this themselves. The procedure ranks among the more routine guitar repair operations, but use your judgment as you get started. If you’re not careful, it is possible to make a mess of the job, so take it slowly.
Nuts are made from a variety of materials. Plastic or similar materials are common, and often these materials are relatively soft, meaning they essentially absorb tone. Replacing these stock nuts with a harder material can give the guitar a more lively and responsive overall tone.
How To Remove An Acoustic Guitar Nut
Other common synthetic materials include Graph Tech’s Tusq, a special polymer that essentially seeps microscopic lubricants, and Slip-Stone, which is made of another self-lubricating material known as Delrin. These products provide a more consistent density than natural materials, and can improve tuning because of their slippery composition. Players who prefer a bright sound, or who need to brighten up a dark-sounding instrument, may want to try extremely hard materials such as fossilized ivory or mother-of-pearl, which also often lead to a more focused tone.
One of the most common materials for nuts (as well as saddles) is unbleached cow bone. Bone is easy to shape and cut slots into; it also polishes nicely and sounds great. Although you can get pre-slotted and -shaped bone nuts, I prefer to work with rough blanks, because they’re not limited by dimension or string spacing.
Blanks are basically rectangular pieces of bone that are somewhat larger than the size of the final nut, and they can be fitted to almost any instrument.There are many reasons to change the nut. A change from industrial plastic casting to handmade bone saddle is desired, the old nut is filed too deep, the distances between the strings are not correct and there is no more room for correction.
Guitar Nut Removal & Replacement
First, the strings are removed and the old nut is taken off. The nut blank is simply a rectangular piece of bone that is slightly taller and wider than needed, but already has approximately the correct dimensions in depth. This piece of bone is now inserted into the slot between the fingerboard and the head, and the excess is marked on the side and the top. Now the nut blank is taken out again and brought to the correct length with a saw. It is then roughly sanded into shape with the belt sander. The fine sanding is done with a special file that was made in-house. For this purpose, sandpaper is glued on both sides of a long, narrow wood. The accuracy of fit is checked by insertion, and the blank may be removed and further corrected one or more times. After this work, the bone nut already looks very organic. Only the underside is now straight, all other edges are smoothed.
Now the string spacing is marked with pencil, then the strings are loosely fitted. With the help of an arsenal of small special files, the notch for each individual string is now filed. While doing this, the appropriate string is carefully pushed aside to work on the bone, again and again, and onto the notch to check until the correct width, depth and alignment are achieved. The whole procedure is repeated six times, highly concentrated and precise, because the nut offers little opportunity for correction once a mistake has been made. Due to the different thicknesses, each individual string is again just as much a challenge as the previous one, because a standard procedure is not possible here.
Once everything is ready, the strings are tuned and final corrections are made, because only in a state of correct tuning can the notches be optimally adjusted. Once this process is complete, nothing stands in the way of playing pleasure.
How To Change The Nut And Bridge On Your Acoustic Guitar
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How To Replace Or Adjust The Nut Of Your Guitar
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How To Replace Or Adjust The Nut Of Your Guitar
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