Stainless Steele Top Nut

[Bugs]

I was thinking of making a top nut made from stainless steel. Has anybody ever done this? Would this have any effect (good or bad) on tone? Still waiting on my kit to arrive, but that does not prevent the wheels from turning.

[soapbarstrat]

What type of stainless steel ?

I once made a Fender style nut out of galvanized steel. thinking about it now, makes me want to try another one. I remember chords that had some open strings, were more "in your face" than the same chords played on my other guitars with regular nuts.

I sold that guitar, but still know who owns it, and one important fact is that 10 years after making that steel nut, it has not worn (string slots are pretty much the same as I had filed them.)

[erikbojerik]

I think it would be pretty cool to do if your neck had stainless frets. You'd get more uniform tone open vs fretted chords.

But I think you'll find it will be a b*tch to trim and cut the slots, it is very hard and you'll need diamond tools to deal with it. Although some SS are harder than others.

[soapbarstrat]

"on paper", you'd supposedly get a "uniform tone" having a nut made of the same material as the frets. But, doesn't usually work that way in reality. There's more string pressure on the nut, than the pressure applied to fretted notes. And, the strings against the nut don't have a "tone deadening" object like a finger, resting right next to them.

So, in my experience, if same materials are used, the open strings have a little more volume/sustain than fretted notes. In some ways it can sound better, in other ways not. And, there's other factors, like how well the nut and frets fit in their slots.

I'm not ruling out that on a particular guitar, you could use the same materials and get a totally balanced "sound" between fretted and open strings.

I think stainless steel frets are made of type 305 stainless. Which I think they use, because it can be drawn through dies well enough (shaped into fret-wire). After becoming fret-wire, I guess the hardness would be more than it was as stock 305 stainless.

And there you are, stuck with using fret-wire as the nut material, if you really want matching materials.