Brass Nut?

[bigdon]

I was talking to a friend of mine about changing out my tusq nut and saddle and maybe getting a bone saddle. he mention that trey anastasio uses a brass nut on his koa martin.

i have never heard of doing that and haven't found much on the internet about it. does anyone here have a brass nut? if so what's the difference in sound between that and bone or tusq?

[mckejoel]

This was a scary question. I have never heard of doing this. I can't even imagine what that would sound like. Maybe longer sustain??? This is a new one for me.

[KMHaynes]

Most luthiers will tell you that changing the material of the nut will have a pretty small impact on the tone of an acoustic. A brass nut might add some brightness, but when I used to use brass bridge pins, it was more harsh than bright -- I quit using them 4-5 years ago.

If you are a real purist and have some money to give a good luthier, he can cut and install a bone (or for even more $$$) an ivory nut. But the tonal change you'll get from it will be probably be so small, it might not be worth the money -- unless, again, you are a purist and you just gotta have a bone or ivory nut.

[jyee]

somewhere here there's a joke about brass nuts, but i'll leave that for someone else.

as mentioned, the nut doesnt affect tone as much as the saddle... so in my opinion, it's best to leave it unless it's got a burr or snag and is causing tuning issues or string breakage.

[Devin]

I thought this was a thread about prosthesis options...

Sorry - could not resist...

- Devin

[Forensicguy]

I have a Gibson Les Paul 25th Anniversary guitar that has both a brass nut and a brass saddle! Not sure what effect it has on the sound because I never had anything on that guitar except that. It was the standard issue for that model that year. I recall reading an ad for the guitar and they claimed it was done to allow the guitar to have more sustain. I'm not sure if it helped or not.

Overall, I would think for an acoustic guitar, I'd rather have bone or ivory if given the choice for a new nut on the guitar.

[Guyute]

Sustain would make sense. Brass is quite a bit heavier and from what I've heard, more weight at the headstock = more sustain.

[stratokatsu]

Originally Posted by Guyute

Sustain would make sense. Brass is quite a bit heavier and from what I've heard, more weight at the headstock = more sustain.

Agreed, but again, as soon as you finger a note or chord, the effect of the nut material is out of play.

I wonder if it does something to increase the tone of tunings like DADGAD where the use of more open notes might prevail?

[sharkydude50]

I have an electric that the first owner retro'd w/ a brass nut. I didn't like it at all, but there could have been more reasons for that than just the brass. I switched it out for TUSQ, but still haven't got the thing up & running yet- I did a refinishing job that remains...unfinished!

BTW- If your going brass- you might as well go all the way (nut, saddle & pins). See this link
http://www.ezpegsystem.com/ustorekeeper.pl

[jmiked]

Gretsch used a brass nut back in the mid 1950's for a while (and still do on some reissue models), before going to the "zero fret." The claim is that it makes the open strings sound more like fretted strings, and of course it only has an effect on the six notes of the open strings.

This is one of the few things guitar-wise that not only are logical, but actually seem to be true.

[fredgold52]

Originally Posted by stratokatsu

Agreed, but again, as soon as you finger a note or chord, the effect of the nut material is out of play.

I wonder if it does something to increase the tone of tunings like DADGAD where the use of more open notes might prevail?

I know that many electric players, mostly all R&R or Heavy Metal, would switch to a brass nut for exactly the reason stated above - more sustain. But as has also been previously said, the effect was lost as soon as a string was fretted.

When you figure in the sustain cancelling effect of an extreme sort of sprung whammy bar, one has to wonder where the advantage was in a brass nut. After some technology advances, it became clear that the path to better sustain was through compressors and distortion circuitry.

As far as alternative tuning goes, some strings are tuned to be drome strings and are player open most all the time as in some 'slack-key' tunings. A brass nut might help get the most out that sort of arrangement. But, for those of us who use standard tuning and play all over the neck, a brass nut only gives us something else to polish.