Quote:
Originally Posted by Todd Yates
The nut affects tone, especially on open strings. If you don't believe that, change a nut from plastic to bone or some similar material. You can even hear the change on some electrics. At least some of the difference is negated when fretting, although I'm not sure the nut is completely irrelevant at that point.
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I can hear a subtle change when the nut material is changed from hard plastic/micarta/what-have-you to bone. It's certainly not a big, dramatic change, but it's discernible.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Todd Yates
The saddle comes into play on every note, fretted or open.
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The saddle material is unquestionably the most important out of all these various appointments, which makes sense since it's the primary route of the string vibrations into the top of the guitar.
On most instruments I find that I prefer bone nuts and saddles, but occasionally bone saddles will add a harsh treble edge to the tone that I don't care for. So I'll backpedal by experimenting with Tusq or micarta saddles, one or the other of which usually solves the problem.
But I always keep bone nuts in place once I've had them installed. I like the effect that they have, subtle though it may be.
Wade Hampton Miller