Official Luthiers Forum!

I am in the process of making a nut for an 0 style guitar and have started to wonder about the effect of nut dimensions, especially thickness, on sound. Ordinarily, I would aim for 3/16, but have started to wonder if thicker or thinner would be better. I would appreciate any input other members could offer on this topic.

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Under Compensated Nut!

I've seen nuts as thin as .125" on vintage instruments but .185 - .220 seems to be the norm. I believe space aliens are the only intelligent creatures that could "hear" the variance in thickness.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

If your motivation is tone you are not going to hear any difference from a more massive nut to a less massive nut all other things being equal. By equal I mean more specifically making say a bone nut and not perhaps using brass.... which is so last century anyway....

Instead a well fitting nut firmly sitting on wood with well cut slots that don't bind, have the face of the slot be the break point so that you don't have the vibrating wave breaching the nut slot face(s), and individual slots cut well also meaning not too high which can impact intonation.

3/16th" is fine and a nice size IMO to make look eloquent, highly polished, and with minimal additional mass so as to not look chunky...

When I started building and repairing my nuts were much more chunky than they are today and no jokes please.... well maybe a few. The old adage form follows function IMO applies to nut making as well.

Just read Ken's excellent post too: There are some of those space aliens, or should we say undocumented extraterrestrials that can hear such things.... From the differences in the electrons that a pup battery of one brand over another produce... to that $20 vintage cap that will turn a fair player into Clapton I sure wish that I could hear these things too...

Disclosure: I am one of the ones who turned up my nose at stainless frets thinking that they sounded "tinny..." Last summer I took a blind test with an ax with NS and stainless on it and could not successfully guess a single stainless fret.... Since this was an electric now I am saying that I can hear the difference on an acoustic only and sticking to my story....

"Book of Armaments"

--Armaments, chapter two, verses nine through twenty-one.

"And Saint Attila raised the holy shin bone up on high, saying, "O Lord, bless this thy holy shin bone, creator of nut blanks, that with it thou mayst melt the faces of thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy." And the Lord did grin. And the people did feast upon the lambs, and sloths, and carp, and anchovies, and orangutans, and breakfast cereals, and fruit bats, and large chu... "

"And the Lord spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Nut Blank. Then shalt thou thin it to 7/32", no more, no less. 7/32" shall be the number thou shalt thickness to, and the number of the thicknessing shall be 7/32". 6/32" shalt thou not thin to, neither thinning thou to 8/32", excepting that thou then proceed to 7/32". 1/4" is right out. Once 7/32", being the holy number, be reached, then gluest thou thy Holy Nut Blank of Antioch to thy neck."

You seem to be the kind of guy who looks on the bright side of life, MikeyV!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Mike, that is funny! Are you a minister of guitar?

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

You know it Alex, "If you're chewing on life's gristle, don't grumble, give a whistle!"