Thread: Wood nuts
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Old 12-09-2012, 11:32 AM
frankfalbo frankfalbo is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Ventura, CA
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I only use them occasionally on nylon and lap steels. I'll use scraps from the build itself to add continuity and decor. In both cases I saturate the contact surface with the thin CA. I soak the nearly completed nut slot, then re-cut it. This tends to plasticize it.

On nylons the tension and downward pressure is mild, and the contact surface is larger (lower psi) so if I acquiesce to the warm tonal implications, I get a nut that looks fantastic. I often get comments on it, even from non-guitarists.

On Laps it's the opposite. Extremely heavy strings, lots of down pressure, and I'll usually string it up awhile without cutting the slots. This compresses the wood under the string before I soak it with CA. The strings start their own slots, really, and the material underneath is a little denser. These will require some slot re-levelling over time, but the nuts are so high you've got plenty of room before the action is dangerously close to the board. I make these nuts really broad with a gentle slope too, usually 1/2" so the pressure is spread out over a long length of string, even though the width is thinner. (trebles)

Short answer? Yeah on the Stellas unless you're a purist I'd replace with bone.
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