sboiir Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 If you play a note or chord how is the importance of the bone nut justified? Isn't it's purpose deleted ? Should all the frets also be bone ? Anyone ever seen or thought about bone frets ? Dumb question for the new year........ or value ?
Buc McMaster Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 In the grand scheme of guitar acoustics the nut doesn't play a very large role. The headstock end of a guitar is not a large part of tone generation - string energy is mostly transferred to the rest of the instrument via the saddle/bridge assembly. Certainly the nut does make a small difference when strings are played "open", but I think the bone nut thing is mostly tradition in acoustic guitar building materials. Bone is relatively dense, durable, available, cheap and pretty easily worked into shape. Different saddle materials absolutely make noticable sonic differences because that's where the rubber-meets-the-road, so to speak. The nut is mostly the north end of the string bed and more of a holding device than a tone generator. Bone frets? Now that would very likely make a sonic difference but I don't think it's a durable enough material for that application.
BluesKing777 Posted January 6, 2012 Posted January 6, 2012 Now THAT will shake up my guitar guy: "BK777 wants Bone Frets on the J45, thanks!" BluesKing777.
Hogeye Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 Only if your from the Flinstone era.... That's a good one Slimt. Just for the record. back in the day guitar strings were made of nickle silver and to match the hardness issue the frets were made of the same material. Frets and strings lasted a lot longer. Now there are steel strings and all sorts of alloys. This causes traditional frets to wear out faster. There was talk of titanium frets. ??? Just make the strings wear out faster. Bone? My dog chews on to much of my stuff as it is. No sense in tempting her with a guitar with bone frets. That and the fact that they would last as long as a jug of moonshine and a bluegrass festival.
Danner Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 I think you are correct. The nut is not all that important.
j45nick Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 How about Brass frets? a Soft material.. It's a lot cheaper to replace strings than to replace frets. I don't understand why anyone would want a "softer" fret material.
ParlourMan Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 Yes, surely in modern guitar building we should be looking to find a material that is more durable without negatively affecting the sound. As stated, I'd much rather have to change strings than to change the frets.
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