urbansmurf Posted April 9, 2008 Report Share Posted April 9, 2008 Hey guys, It's been quite a while since my last post. Couple of years actually. At any rate, I'm back from overseas and ready to start jacking around on these guitars again. But I had a question or two about roller nuts, as I am considering putting one on my Explorer. First, is anyone using one? How does it affect sound, tuning and playability? Is there really any advantage to it over a traditional style nut? Second, this is sort of hard for me to verbalize, so bear with me. I currently have a nut like this one: And when it's on the guitar, like this: the strings make contact with the nut almost exactly where the fretboard starts. Now, on a Fender-style roller nut like this: The strings seem like they will make contact with the rollers further back, approx. somewhere between 1/8" and 1/4" behind the start of the fretboard: Is this the case, or am I way off in imagining how the roller is set up? If so, I guess that means I'd have to route out part of the fretboard on the headstock end? Thanks in advance for the help. Oh, and by the way, I have a roller T-o-M bridge that I plan to use without a tailpiece (String-through) and was just wanting a roller nut for the sake of aestetic consistency, so I'm not hell-bent on using a roller nut, just curious because if it will work I probably will use one. Thanks again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiKro Posted April 10, 2008 Report Share Posted April 10, 2008 (edited) >snip< the strings make contact with the nut almost exactly where the fretboard starts. Now, on a Fender-style roller nut like this: >snip< The strings seem like they will make contact with the rollers further back, approx. somewhere between 1/8" and 1/4" behind the start of the fretboard: >snip< Is this the case, or am I way off in imagining how the roller is set up? If so, I guess that means I'd have to route out part of the fretboard on the headstock end? Thanks in advance for the help. >snip< In my thinking this would cause an intonation problem if you didn't move the point of contact towards the 12th fret. Just my thoughts as 1/16th to 1/8th inch is what caused problems on my last build. Not having room for adjustment on my Reso build caused it not to be worth a crap. Therefore I scrapped it. So again I see where you are coming from and I think you will need to move the nut / point of contact. Not having tried one I'm not positive, but bridge position on most of stewmac calculations must be within .030 +/- and a 1/16th is .060+ So I would think that the nut should be dead on since they are basing the measurement from the nut face or point of contact,well I think you get the drift. Just my .02cents!!!! MK Edited April 10, 2008 by MiKro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
six_stringer Posted April 10, 2008 Report Share Posted April 10, 2008 (edited) I had a Fender LSR Rollernut on the first guitar I built and it worked great. To use the one I had required removing a small section of the fretboard where a regular nut goes. The LSR Rollernut came with clear instructions on how much material to remove for proper fit. I don't have those instructions anymore though and have since used all of the parts of that guitar except for the nut for other projects. Do a search on Ebay for "NEW Geuine Fender LSR Roller Nut Upgrade KIT" to see which unit I am talking about. Jeff Edited April 10, 2008 by six_stringer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urbansmurf Posted April 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 10, 2008 Thanks to both of you. I was actually looking at the LSR, and that's probably what I'll go with if I decide to go roller. My crappy work internet is not wanting to load eBay right now, but I'll definitely look that kit up. Did the LSR sound good when you played the strings open? And did it really make a difference in the smoothness of tuning, or is it just one of those upgrades just for the sake of upgrading? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
six_stringer Posted April 10, 2008 Report Share Posted April 10, 2008 (edited) It really sounded good to me whether playing open strings or not. If you take too much or too little off of the fretboard when installing it you will never get the guitar to sound right. I was lucky and got it right the first time. I believe that it was meant to be used on Strats with the basic Strat trem and that's where it should really shine. My bridge was a fixed Strat style string through body setup. I never played a Strat with an LSR Rollernut on it so I can't say for sure how it works with a trem. Also, I usually use those GraphTech Trem nuts and sometimes I use those Earvana compensated nuts. If done right those "slippery" ones work just fine. Good Luck, Jeff Edited April 10, 2008 by six_stringer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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