fusionbassist1 Posted October 6, 2007 Share Posted October 6, 2007 I just re-read an old guitar and bass magazine and it was the issue from a good while back where the repair man did up an old columbus jazz bass, stoned the frets, replaced pickups etc. In the article he claimed that the nut needed replacing due to amateur nut adjustments. Q1) Why would anyone want to 'adjust' the nut and how??. There was a picture of the nut although to my untrained eye in nut observing it looked ok to me. He then went on to say that replacing the old nut with a bone nut would improve the sound of the instrument. Q2)How does the material of the nut change or improve the sound? Q3)If it's worth doing, how much does replacing the nut cost and is it a job you'd recommend that someone un-experienced should carry out themselves? Thanx a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Burpster Posted October 6, 2007 Share Posted October 6, 2007 Reply.... 1) Adjusting the nut height effects the hight of the action. Put simply - Lower the nut=lower action- Although you kinda need to know what you are doing not to overdo it or get it crooked......! 2) Material obviously can make a difference as can the wood of an instrument! There is a lot of folk lore about one nut material being better than another, the nut provides a break angle for the string at the neck end and is critical for the scale length. It is as important as the bridge! Without having a specific knowledge of nut material I will summise that the more dense the material the brighter the resultant tone of the string. The profile of and depth of the string slots are really important too, and crucial in this equation........ 3) Only if you have a problem with the current one, and cost depends on who does it for you. Dont DIY of you dont know what you are doing. However if you are fairly skilled with small tools, get Dan Erlewines guitar repair book and have a go on a 'junker' neck first. If you find you can do it then yes its not rocket science! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Burpster Posted October 6, 2007 Share Posted October 6, 2007 And so does Mark King I believe?????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ped Posted October 6, 2007 Share Posted October 6, 2007 I have a zero fret on my basses and the nut IS made of PlayDoh! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fusionbassist1 Posted October 6, 2007 Author Share Posted October 6, 2007 Ah right it makes sense now. I hadn't thought about the nut being almost irrelevant once a note is fretted......interesting stuff.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gilmour Posted October 7, 2007 Share Posted October 7, 2007 interesting thread has anyone got experience of changing the nut? i'm just starting to re-fit an old bass of mine, and when i got it out of storage the nut was missing. I'm not really sure where to start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lfalex v1.1 Posted October 7, 2007 Share Posted October 7, 2007 [quote name='ped' post='70411' date='Oct 6 2007, 07:21 PM']I have a zero fret on my basses and the nut IS made of PlayDoh![/quote] Are you sure? I thought they were nylon/phenolic! Zero Frets are good. I have two basses with them (not both Vigiers, though!) and they have superb actions. Otherwise, I like brass nuts, having them on 3 basses. The rest have Nylon or Graphlon. TBH, I wouldn't bother to change them unless there was something wrong that needed changing. Then I'd have a brass one cut... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charic Posted October 7, 2007 Share Posted October 7, 2007 Heres a welth of info about nut materials folks: [url="http://www.warmoth.com/bass/necks/necks.cfm?fuseaction=string_nut"]http://www.warmoth.com/bass/necks/necks.cf...tion=string_nut[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 9, 2007 Share Posted October 9, 2007 (edited) One other thing to consider is that strings move over the nut during tuning, I replaced the cheap one on my Fender jag with a graphtec graphite one and it was really i huge improvement, i initially thought the problem was the tuners. If you have a d-tuner i would highly recommend one. Our own Paul c aka Arrowhead guitars recently made a brass one for me, i have to say in the future i will have nuts fitted by someone who knows that they are doing as it can make a huge difference to the action. The only other advise i can offer is if you do go for the diy option be careful, if your neck is lacquered score around the nut with a Sharpe knife prior to tapping it out otherwise it can take lacquer and/or chunks of rosewood with it....unfortunately i found out how not to do it the hard way Edited October 9, 2007 by steve-norris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7string Posted October 15, 2007 Share Posted October 15, 2007 I recently got one of Dan Erlewine DVD's and got up the courage to replace a nut on an eBay bass I have.. With 3 nut blanks from StewMac, in case I mucked one up, I managed the job. You need a lot of patience and some good nut or needle files, but otherwise it's fairly straightforward. I set the bass up to the specs on Fender's website. A local store charges £50+ for such a job. The blanks I bought were a couple of $ each !! The bass went to a rehearsal and gig with one of my students and he thought it played and sounded great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean-Luc Pickguard Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 When I made my Fretless precison I got a 'free' pre-slotted moulded nut with it that seemed to be a bit cheap & nasty with slots that were too wide for the TI flats I use. This was not usable, so being a cheapskate I looked around for a suitable material to make my own and found some ivory-style plastic chopsticks in the kitchen. I sawed one into short lengths and filed & sanded one length into a nutblank shape to fit in the nutslot, then I cut & filed the slots using needle files. Smoothed everything off with fine wet & dry paper then glued it in with two tiny drops of superglue just so that its strong enough to hold it in place but easy to remove in future if necessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MB1 Posted October 22, 2007 Share Posted October 22, 2007 [quote name='finnbass' date='Oct 6 2007, 04:08 PM' post='70348'] Nut material only affects open notes of course. As soon as you fret a string the nut could be made of PlayDoh Having said that, I do like to replace nuts with brass ones whenever possible. MB1. +1 For Brass! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovedub Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 Brass is the answer ... or titanium if you particularly want to use a white metal. Titanium is as hard as brass and rings just as true. I would recommend using a bone nut on a fretless, as you don't want your open notes to sound overly bright in comparison to the fingered notes. I'm about to replace the naff plastic nut on my Thumb Bass with an old-style Warwick adjustable brass one. You can pick these up for a tenner or so. [b]NB[/b]: if anyone else is thinking about this it's worth noting that a 1.5mm base plate is required to raise the height of the lower-set brass nut. I'm going to manufacture my own. If anyone needs help with this kind of stuff just let me know. I'm a jeweller, I have the technology. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warwickhunt Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 (edited) [quote name='lovedub' post='80931' date='Oct 29 2007, 06:55 PM']Brass is the answer ... or titanium if you particularly want to use a white metal. Titanium is as hard as brass and rings just as true. I would recommend using a bone nut on a fretless, as you don't want your open notes to sound overly bright in comparison to the fingered notes. I'm about to replace the naff plastic nut on my Thumb Bass with an old-style Warwick adjustable brass one. You can pick these up for a tenner or so. [b]NB[/b]: [b]if anyone else is thinking about this it's worth noting that a 1.5mm base plate is required to raise the height of the lower-set brass nut. I'm going to manufacture my own.[/b] If anyone needs help with this kind of stuff just let me know. I'm a jeweller, I have the technology.[/quote] I had to have a shim put under the nut of my Warwick and a spacer of ebony makes a good base plate. I should expand and say that if you fit a wood shim it means that if the adjuster screws need to go down particularly low then you can hand drill down into the wood shim to accept the screw tip. Edited October 29, 2007 by warwickhunt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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