Roller Nut

[schnarf]

I've got a zero fret and a standard graphite nut. My headstock is angled back; I've got Schaller locking tuners, and a Wilkinson trem. My tuning stability isn't perfect. Would it be worth it to move to a roller nut, or would it make no difference?

[GregP]

The bridge will certainly factor into this... despite it being a quality unit, it's still governed by certain design principles. Your money might be better spent getting something like a tremsetter, but that's just an out-of-the-blue suggestion from someone who's never played the guitar in question.

[schnarf]

The bridge will certainly factor into this... despite it being a quality unit, it's still governed by certain design principles. Your money might be better spent getting something like a tremsetter, but that's just an out-of-the-blue suggestion from someone who's never played the guitar in question.

Cool, I'm sold on the tremsetter. Just ordered one. That being said, think the nut will do any good?

[Mickguard]

I find it hard to believe that a roller nut will provide any more stability than a graphite nut. Especially since I've read complaints that the rollers will tend to stick over time.

Like Greg says, there are inherent flaws in most trem designs, at least trems based on the vintage trem. Fortunately there are now a couple of alternatives, like the Trem King (which requires modifications). There's another one, I forget the name, but it's a drop-in replacement that looks like the Floyd Rose a bit and comes with a drop-in locking nut too --it's expensive though. But it's still based on moveable saddles, which I think is the inherent flaw in these trems.

I have the Trem King, and so far it really is much more stable than the vintage trem on my other guitar (which is blocked because I just don't trust it). I don't have locking tuners on the Trem King guitar yet, but I imagine it will be even more stable with those. The Trem King really does take into account all of the flaws of those other designs. It's not perfect either, but so far so good. There's a thread on the Trem King, I need to update my review there, I'm still waiting to have all the kinks worked out of the guitar first.

[j. pierce]

I'd think a big part of it depends on what you mean by "unstable" - are you doing a dive bomb and it's not coming back to pitch? Then you might want to look at the nut. The tremsetter does what it does great - but it'is going to keep your trem from going sharp if you break a string, allow you to keep open strings from going out of pitch when doing bends, etc - but if you're binding at the nut it's not going to do a thing. And I wonder - if you do have problems at the nut, are you going to be able to flick the bar up to settle things back in tune if the trem is locked to allow it to bend down only?

I think for nut-related problems, the best solution is a locking nut - it basically removes the nut from the equation, as the strings aren't moving through there.

If the problem lies at the bridge end, you need to look at either the design of the bridge ( I think the trem king does a great job addressing a lot of the issues with a trem ) and the state of the parts.

also - you mention a Wilkinson trem - I assume you mean this one, and not one of the vintage 6-hole style ones. Those are knife edges, the contact points, and while that is a high quality unit, they will wear out over time, like any knife edge. I've found I had great luck with this one from hipshot - it uses rounded steel bearings, and while I assume any friction between two surfaces at a contact point will wear down the materials in question, I find this design wears much better with time than the knife edge style, in my limited experience.

I know there are some folks who are more trem-heads than (I'm a recent convert, in the grand scheme of things) but I just thought I'd drop my two cents in.

[six_stringer]

On guitar's with zero frets I thought that the strings rested on the zero fret and the nut was only a guide to keep them in place. That being said, if the strings are on the zero fret and completely down in the nut slot I could see the potential for tuning problems due to the strings binding in the nut slot.

Here is a link about zero frets; http://www.fretnotguitarrepair.com/zerofret.htm

Jeff

[GregP]

Agreed-- since you're using a zero fret (a factor I had forgotten about) you can afford to take extra precautions making sure the string's not binding in the nut.

[soapbarstrat]

I would keep a dab of dry lube on the zero fret, 'cause when you bend those wound strings, it's going to start putting little cross-way ridges on the zero fret, which creates a surface that will want to grab wound strings. No sharp edges on your "spacer" nut. You know how on a regular nut, you taper off the back side, well on a spacer nut, you can also do that to the front side. That's a plus about the 'zero fret' set-up. Every string contact point can be moderately rounded.

Some "graphite" nut banks don't do such a good job at slippin n slidin. Nylatron would be high on my list for a replacement.