Compensated nut

[Trevor Gore]

Originally Posted by srick

Trevor, I'm very curious as to how you cut your nuts - do you have a micro mill? If so, what is the brand? And of course, what material are you using for the nut? I would love to start playing around with this, but doing this by hand would be tedious to say the least.

I use either bone or Tusq and I don't have a micro-mill. I use an adjustable fixture and a standard pillar drill as an overhead router. The fixture is similar in concept to a Strat adjustable saddle, but with the adjustable parts nut sized. The offsets are are set by screwing the "saddles" back and forth and then locking them and the profile of these offsets is run against a pin in the drill table so that they are copied into the nut blank directly above by an end mill in the drill chuck. I expect you know where to find all the details.

Originally Posted by ChalkLitIScream

IS this another method of doing it, or is it just simply wrong?

There are many ways of figuring out how much nut compensation to use. In the book I go through half a dozen or so different methods, of different degrees of complexity, which, of course, have different degrees of accuracy. These are modelled and compared to each other. All will provide usable improvements. I have not tried or modeled the exact method you discuss but would expect it provide some improvement but I can't say how much in comparison to other methods.

[PHJim]

Originally Posted by mirwa

I charge 70 to supply and fit a 6 string bone nut, I charge 95 to supply and fit a bone nut with a zero fret, I charge 135 to make a compensated nut.

The materials cost on all three options are almost identical, however the time taken to do them is vastly different.

Using a capo or not, the intonation with a compensated nut is better. Comparable to say a bone saddle being compensated and not compensated

Steve

I don't understand why a zero fret would cost more than a bone nut. There would be less work involved. The "nut" required for a zero fret isn't really even a nut. It's just a string spacer since the open strings vibrate off the zero fret and not the "nut".
A compensated nut is nothing like a compensated saddle, which effects both open and closed strings at any fret.

__________________________________________________ __________
Quote:
Q - Why not a zero fret?
A - A zero fret is no different from a properly made nut, where the bottoms of the string slots are level with the fret plane.

In that case, wouldn't each fret have to be intonated, since playing an open string would be the same as playing a string running off a fret?

Quote:
Q - or lower the action at the nut?
A - See above. The correct nut height is the same as the frets. That does not negate the reason for this compensation. When fretting close to the nut, the string is bent at a sharper angle, which increases the tension.

If a string running off the nut has the same action as a string running off a fret, why would the string be bent at "a sharper angle" close to the nut?

[bausin]

>> If a string running off the nut has the same action as a string running off a fret, why would the string be bent at "a sharper angle" close to the nut?

It's basic trigonometry. The strings do not lie in the fret plane.

[srick]

Originally Posted by Trevor Gore

I use either bone or Tusq and I don't have a micro-mill. I use an adjustable fixture and a standard pillar drill as an overhead router. The fixture is similar in concept to a Strat adjustable saddle, but with the adjustable parts nut sized. The offsets are are set by screwing the "saddles" back and forth and then locking them and the profile of these offsets is run against a pin in the drill table so that they are copied into the nut blank directly above by an end mill in the drill chuck. I expect you know where to find all the details.

Thanks Trevor. There's a wealth of info on the ANZL forum - And there are a lot of hints from a luthier who wrote an extensive book about the subject . Cheers!

[mirwa]

Originally Posted by PHJim

I don't understand why a zero fret would cost more than a bone nut?

Easy, a person does not bring their guitar in and say I want a zero nut, typically they have broken their current nut and have done some reading and then decided they want a compensated nut, standard nut or zero fret.

So typically we start with a broken nut, so the nut needs to be replaced. Once the nut has been replaced we need to file the front edge of the nut away so it is flush with the fretboard without damaging the fretboard, then a shelf needs to be filed into the front face of that nut for the frets tang area, basically a fret needs to fit into a gap that currently does not exist, then clean and tidy, it easily doubles ones time

Steve

[PHJim]

Originally Posted by mirwa

Easy, a person does not bring their guitar in and say I want a zero nut, typically they have broken their current nut and have done some reading and then decided they want a compensated nut, standard nut or zero fret.

So typically we start with a broken nut, so the nut needs to be replaced. Once the nut has been replaced we need to file the front edge of the nut away so it is flush with the fretboard without damaging the fretboard, then a shelf needs to be filed into the front face of that nut for the frets tang area, basically a fret needs to fit into a gap that currently does not exist, then clean and tidy, it easily doubles ones time

Steve

Ah, I see. I assumed you meant building a new guitar or at least a new fretboard.
I do understand that replacing a nut with a zero fret would be a more difficult job.