Strat+Marshall
Active member
stratotone":3debc5wm said:Strat+Marshall":3debc5wm said:I made no claims of a frictionless material, way to dodge around the fact that you lack basic comprehension skills. A properly filed bone nut is slick enough to allow the string to slide back and fourth and return to pitch, worst case you run a pencil through the slots. If it still goes out of tune at the nut, it is cut wrong.
Only inferior players use open strings and care what they sound like? Keep going, can't wait to see what you come up with next.
Not dodging around at all, you didn't answer the question... again, please do. If two materials had different amounts of friction, the one with less friction would stay in tune better, correct? You're the one claiming that nut material, if properly cut, has no effect on tuning stability. It has to contact the string somewhere, unless you are some sort of Voodoo Luthier.
Stewmac (you have heard of them, yes?) recommends using a lower friction nut than bone for tremolos. Why? BECAUSE THEY STAY IN TUNE BETTER. The fact that you mention a 'worst case' means that they CAN still bind even properly cut. Thanks for proving my point.
What's going to stand out more - the fact that you have a bleached cow bone nut precision cut by diamond files on your guitar for .0005% more tone or the fact that your guitar keeps going out of tune?
Regarding open strings on an electric guitar, typically you're playing enough fretted notes with the open strings that it's not really going to matter that much. It's an electric guitar, if you want to navel-gaze about the effect of fretted note tone by nut construction, there are other places to affect tone in a much more drastic way.
You probably sand the pencil signatures off your bolt on necks for better tone transfer.
Pete
If the string doesn't hang up on nut material A and stays in tune with nut material A then nut material B doesn't keep the guitar in tune any better than nut material A. Make sense? I am sure there are slicker materials than the graphite garbage they sell to guitarists but they are not used because they are not needed. Kind of like how graphite has been around for awhile but barely anyone uses it. It is strange how many great guitarists there are that manage to keep a guitar in tune despite the bone nuts they have fighting them all the way...
Stew Mac will sell you anything they can make money off of.
A newly finished bone nut will not bind a string, but ofcourse things change over time and that is the worst case scenario. If graphite is not cut properly it will bind too. You are acting like it is some sort of miracle material that could never possibly take your guitar out of tune.
It sounds to me like you have had some poorly cut bone nuts and you assume they all react the same way. As if the material mattered more than the craftsmanship. A well made nut of any material will perform better than a factory slop job or a hack repairman.
I did not offer a bones nut as a suggestion for how to drastically alter a guitars tone. It is for getting the most out of a guitar you are already happy with.