Snork Posted January 1, 2004 Report Share Posted January 1, 2004 i was thinking yesterday about how much sound is lost that the 3 contact points of the string. One: nut (starts cycle) Two: Frets Three: bridge. I wonder how much sound is lost because the nut is made of plastic (bone...etc) and is only attached through glue to the neck. Why not make the nut out of the neck itself. that way you can keep as much of the sound as possible. maybe someone can devise some clever way to make the frets out of the neck. my ideas arent exactly working. Would the nut be too soft to support the strings without wearing away? i dont know it was just a stupid idea that probably is not accurate. Especially because the nut doesnt even matter for anything besides retention once you press down on a fret, but for acoustic players with "camp fire" style chord based songs that require lots of open chords etc it might be nice to get a little extra sustain. but what do i know. why did i post this............ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 Chances are it would ware out way to fast if you made it out of the standard woods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 i think the metal frets probably transfer energy better than wood anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazyderek Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 the only thing i could think of is a brass, aluminium or ebony neck, where it would be one peice uncut, out of either of those materiaks and you routed out the fretboard (leaving only the frets behind) but such a neck would weight a ton!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbkim Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 What about a zero fret? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canuckguitarist Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 What about a zero fret? good idea... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeB Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 i dont like zero frets! the wood would wear away i think, and the fretwire will do a better job. stainless steel would give greater sustain. old lutes had scalloped necks with only wooden tips touching the strings for frets btw... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhoads56 Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 No use making the nut out of something that will have the open strings sounding sugnificantly different to the fret notes in an open chord. Installed a brass nut the other day, but the sound difference between an open, or fretted notes, was way too much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeB Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 ive been meaning to try a brass nut, what are the different tonal characteristics compared to plastic or bone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazyderek Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 What about a zero fret? good idea... zero frets are sometimes a sign of a cheaply made guitars, but if done right it (height) it would give you the same sound open or fretted (if you could even notice the tonal difference), but you could also make the nut out of the same material as the frets, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeB Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 zero frets are sometimes a sign of a cheaply made guitars thats what ive always thought. i think they look naff also! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhoads56 Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 ive been meaning to try a brass nut, what are the different tonal characteristics compared to plastic or bone? very very bright Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reaper Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 the only thing i could think of is a brass, aluminium or ebony neck, where it would be one peice uncut, out of either of those materiaks and you routed out the fretboard (leaving only the frets behind) but such a neck would weight a ton!!!!!! There are those Moses graphite necks... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeB Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 QUOTE (MikeB @ Jan 2 2004, 10:00 AM) ive been meaning to try a brass nut, what are the different tonal characteristics compared to plastic or bone? very very bright so bright they sound crap? lol! is it tele/strat bright? or more so cos i have a super strat i wanna try one on... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeB Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 dunno what happened with my quote thing there!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darren wilson Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 There was a British guitar in the mid-'80s called the Bond Electroglide, which had numerous unique and innovative features, the most interesting of which was a fingerboard made of aluminum. Instead of having steel or nickel frets pressed into the board, it was made in a staggered, "sawtooth" profile with raised ridges that functioned as frets. Interesting idea. But not really all that practical. I think a zero fret can work well if done properly. (Steinbergers have zero frets.) But i don't think a glued-in bone or graphite nut is really that big of a tonal weak spot, especially on a guitar with a floating tremolo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryeisnotcool2 Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 haha i had an ovation "celebrity" that had an alluminum fretboard that had the frets molded into it, the rest of the neck was some sort of foam! what a peice of s!!$% it sounded like !@#$ and then my brothers freind stepped on it and it snapped in half! haha(this was 8 years ago when i was young and didnt know squat about guitars!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapbarstrat Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 Made a nut out of steel. It caused something weird to happen when an open G was played. I'm not sure what you call it, but there's a sound that submarines make in the movies, if you know what I'm talking about. Well, I think from the steel nut, to the tuner post, it was causing it to make that "submarine sound". I recorded with it and left it in the song. I think Corian is a good nut material. Makes the open string sound like a fretted note. Remember a fretted note has your tone robbing finger right behind it. Burnish the nut slots with feeler gauges, etc, to create a hardened surface. Had my carpenter business partner cut me some 1/8" thick pieces of ceramic so I can make nuts out of them. So far, it's impossible, the stuff is too hard, plus when Corian is so cheap and sounds absolutely fine, why try to deal with a super-hard material for a nut ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krizalid Posted January 30, 2004 Report Share Posted January 30, 2004 so, you mean, a nut can made out of ANYTHING? apart from wood, i do interested in making the nut from stell. the'submarine' sound that soapbarstrat talked about, sort of aroused my curiousity... what do others think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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