Making a nut for Nashville tuning

[parasko]

Hi all,

I’m in the process of making a nut for a guitar (an old Martin D16GT) and I was thinking of using this guitar especially for Nashville tuning for recording purposes.

1. I’ve never experimented with Nashville tuning before. Does a dedicated nut make a difference?
2. Apart from the different slot sizes to account for string gauges, what else do I need to do differently from a standard nut in order to make the nut. For example does the nut height still need to be different from the high E to low E position, as it is on the standard nut for Martin dreadnoughts?
3. I have read that smaller guitars are better suited for this tuning. I can’t afford another guitar at this stage, so will a dreadnought still be suitable for this tuning?
4. Does the saddle also need to be adjusted?

Note, I already have a D18 for standard tuning so this is my second guitar.

I’m also still relatively new at making nuts and saddles (this will be my third) so any advice appreciated.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by parasko

Hi all,

I’m in the process of making a nut for a guitar (an old Martin D16GT) and I was thinking of using this guitar especially for Nashville tuning for recording purposes.

1. I’ve never experimented with Nashville tuning before. Does a dedicated nut make a difference?
2. Apart from the different slot sizes to account for string gauges, what else do I need to do differently from a standard nut in order to make the nut. For example does the nut height still need to be different from the high E to low E position, as it is on the standard nut for Martin dreadnoughts?
3. I have read that smaller guitars are better suited for this tuning. I can’t afford another guitar at this stage, so will a dreadnought still be suitable for this tuning?
4. Does the saddle also need to be adjusted?

Note, I already have a D18 for standard tuning so this is my second guitar.

I’m also still relatively new at making nuts and saddles (this will be my third) so any advice appreciated.

Other than using the lighter string guages on the bass side you don't have to make any modifications. I personally think shorter scale length guitars make better candidates for Nashville tuning, but it will still work fine with 25-1/2" scale length guitars.

The added benefit of not making any modifications to the nut is that it can be changed over to standard tuning without needing to change anything back.

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

Other than using the lighter string guages on the bass side you don't have to make any modifications. I personally think shorter scale length guitars make better candidates for Nashville tuning, but it will still work fine with 25-1/2" scale length guitars.

The added benefit of not making any modifications to the nut is that it can be changed over to standard tuning without needing to change anything back.

My experience with Nashville tuning on a variety of guitars over the years is that each of them functioned perfectly well without doing anything to the nut.

There are lots of things I never even considered (or knew I ‘needed’ to consider ) before joining the AGF. I have to remind myself of that periodically.

[Poppa]

Agree with rudy and dave 100 percent. It's been nearly 40 years the last time i dedicated a guitar to nashville (aka high-strung)tuning. So much fun and many of the things that come out tonally with another guitar are pretty darn cool. Good luck!

[parasko]

Thanks for the quick responses! Much appreciated.

Ok I will proceed to make a standard nut. This is much less to think about!

Just one more question, if I was to keep the first two standard strings (I play 12s so that’s 12 and 16 gauge), what gauge would I use for the other 4 strings for Nashville tuning?

[EZYPIKINS]

Check D'Addario website. They package sets just for this. Not exactly the same as the octave gauges in a 12 string set.

I kept a guitar strung that way for a few years. Just bought a 12 string set and used the lighter gauges.

The D'Addario sets are more cost effective.