Brass nut versus bone nut

#21
iiipopes said:
I took my Hamilton capo, realigned the nut and strings, held it in place, tuned it up, clamped the capo on top of the nut, which put enough downward pressure on it to hold it in place, but not so far forward it interfered with the open strings, and it got him through the gig
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improvise, adapt, overcome :thumbsup:
 
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#22
I managed a guitar store from '77 -'88, the peak of the "brass is better" craze. I put a lot of brass nuts on guitars and basses for lots of customers, and put on on my '73 Precision. And just being brass made no difference on any of them. The reason so many people thought that a brass nut made a difference is because in almost every instance, it was the first time they'd played their instrument with a properly cut nut. To this day, most nuts on factory produced instruments are cut woefully wrong. Almost always too high, frequently cut with bad angles to the strings, slots the wrong size for the string, etc. In my experience the only companies that ship new instruments with the nuts cut correctly (as in I don't feel the burning need to fix this freakin' nut) were Guild, Ovation, Takamine, and Lakland. Every other new instrument I've picked up needs the nut worked on.

So they get a new brass nut, which includes a complete set up and new strings- the instrument feels better, plays in tune better, and sounds better because of all that. And it's all attributed to the material the nut was made of when the real improvements are the proper set up.

John
 
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#23
JTE said:
So they get a new brass nut, which includes a complete set up and new strings- the instrument feels better, plays in tune better, and sounds better because of all that. And it's all attributed to the material the nut was made of when the real improvements are the proper set up.
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+1, excellent point.
 
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#24
JTE said:
I managed a guitar store from '77 -'88, the peak of the "brass is better" craze. I put a lot of brass nuts on guitars and basses for lots of customers, and put on on my '73 Precision. And just being brass made no difference on any of them. The reason so many people thought that a brass nut made a difference is because in almost every instance, it was the first time they'd played their instrument with a properly cut nut. To this day, most nuts on factory produced instruments are cut woefully wrong. Almost always too high, frequently cut with bad angles to the strings, slots the wrong size for the string, etc. In my experience the only companies that ship new instruments with the nuts cut correctly (as in I don't feel the burning need to fix this freakin' nut) were Guild, Ovation, Takamine, and Lakland. Every other new instrument I've picked up needs the nut worked on.

So they get a new brass nut, which includes a complete set up and new strings- the instrument feels better, plays in tune better, and sounds better because of all that. And it's all attributed to the material the nut was made of when the real improvements are the proper set up.

John
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My Spector came with a fine cut brass nut. I switched it to synthetic bone to accommodate BEAD tuning. When I went back to EADG I used the same BEAD bone, & I honestly can't tell a lick of difference from the original brass
 
#27
I have brass nut on my '82 Pedulla MV fretless. It came with it and I never tried other nut on that bass, so I might be all wrong: I have a feeling that the open strings - more or less only G - sound more 'crispy' than how it would sound with a bone nut. The sound difference between open G and fingered G is very high. From luthier's point of view this should be undesirable, but I take it as an interesting sound effect on G tone.
This said, I would't mess with a nut that is working fine. How many times I actually used this effect in the 20 years I own this instrument? Twice? I don't believe that well set nut affects the sound quality of the instrument anywhere else than on this open G.
 
#29
Interesting thread. I have both brass and composite nuts on my guitars. The brass seems to have a sharper tone whereas the composites are softer sounding. Each one of my guitars have different tone personalities, although they all feel and sound very nice, they're different. I'll attribute that to the cellular difference that is in each individual piece of wood. I was thinking about changing them all to brass. After reading up, I think I'll just leave them be. I don't use external pedals for tonal changes, just the knobs on the guitar, and the positioning between the bridge and neck where I strike the strings. I'm happy with my sound, so why change it?
I guess I just needed some self-affirmation.
 
#30
I like the aesthetics of a brass nut, but having made a couple, it’s a lot of work for that bit of sparkle, and makes no difference to tone. I like the Ric Bakelite nuts best actually, it works easily, can be polished up to a nice satin ebony color, and has a waxy sort of self lubricating aspect. Ain’t broke/don’t fix it.
 
#32
Tone arguments aside, a brass nut will outlast anything else, provided some tinkerer doesn't file the slots too deep.

Even then, all is not lost as the slots can be refilled with brass braze or silver solder and refiled. The material lasts well enough that it will outlast any musician's lifetime before the slots start to wear. This is the true advantage of brass.
 
#33
My brass nut quest began when a brand new Jazz Bass nut broke shortly after I purchased it. I had a few brass replacement nuts in my parts box from years before so one of them was a proper fit for the broken plastic one. I eventually just put brass nuts on my Basses from that point onward. Brass is very hard to work with but it does last and looks nice. As of recent I installed a Tusq nut on a new acquisitioned Ibanez and the ease of working with the composite is so much easier this might be my new nut of choice.
 
#35
Turnaround said:
Gosh there have been a lot of queries concerning brass nuts lately. I thought we got over that fad a couple of decades ago- guess not.

There are quite a few players that say brass is a tone sucker. But then all brass is not alike. The composition and hardness of brass varies a LOT. So to call down brass as a nut (or saddle or bridge) material is pointless.

I will put in a brass nut if a customer insists, but I don't recommend it, simply because I really like bone for it's organic aesthetic and see very little benefit for brass. And fitting a brass nut is s significantly more costly option in my shop because of the additional time and effort it takes.
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I owned a ‘72 Jazz in which the truss rod was routed so deep and the neck so thin at the nut that there was an actual air gap under the nut between A and D strings. I broke 2 nuts there over the years. A brass nut solved that problem. I didn’t notice any tonal difference - it sounded great before and after. But I never had to fix it again.
 
#38
If the brass nut is not clear coated...................YIKES!..............it'll turn brown with time.

I have a 1953 P Bass with the original bone nut. And there ain't nothing wrong with it! Can you say, "Seventy-one and still doing it's job." ?

Sonically, one nut is gonna sound like another nut.

Suggestion, do what you like and want.

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