What Is The Nut On A Guitar? The nut on a guitar is a small component that is made of hard material. It supports the guitar strings near to the scroll or headstock, marking one end of the each open string’s vibrating length. Also, it sets the strings’ spacing across the guitar neck. It usually set the height between the strings and fingerboard.
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Most string instruments include a nut such as a violin, erhu, guitar, and mandolin. Usually, a nut is made of cow bone, ebony, ivory, Corian, brass, or plastic. But below are the type of nuts that you are used for guitars.
Types Of Guitar Nuts
A guitar nut might look small and simple. But this guitar component is crucial in terms of tone, playability, and overall guitar performance. Due to this reason, it is important that you choose a well-constructed nut for your guitar.
Here are some of the most prevalent guitar nut materials you can choose from:
Fossil Ivory
In terms of performance, fossil ivory is quite similar to bone. On the other hand, it is slightly more difficult to craft, brighter, and a bit more difficult. As for its acoustic properties and esthetics, this material is equally impressive. It gives resonance and sustains in equal measure. NB / Non-fossil ivory is a prohibited material in most countries today. It is also morally wrong to use in the eyes of most people.
Bone
Bone nuts are the best among other guitar nuts. It provides a wide array of benefits such as durability, lightweight, and its tuning reliability. Some of the best bone guitar nuts you can find in the market today are Metallor 6 String Bone Guitar Nut for LP Style Electric Guitar and the Musiclily 6 String Flat Bottom Slotted Bone Nut for Gibson Epiphone Les Paul Electric Guitar.
For those people who are looking for high-quality bass guitar nuts, some of the products you should opt for are Metallor Cattle Bone Bass Nut and DISENS Bass Guitar Nut.
Plastic
Various plastic materials can be used to craft guitar nuts, including Micarta and Corian. Plastic is not that appealing, though, because it offers poor sound properties. A good number of the requirements for a perfect nut content fail in plastic nuts. Unfortunately, due to their low cost, many guitars come with plastic nuts.
Graphite
Another popular material for guitar nuts is Graphite. The significant advantage of this material is its low friction due to its self-lubricating feature. A good graphite nut also provides excellent stability in tuning and a variety of tremolo effects. Nevertheless, cheap graphite nuts tend to kill those benefits.
Metal
Metal nuts may also come with steel and brass underlying material. Metal is fairly reviewed in terms of tone, and its main advantage is its durability. This type of nut is also long-lasting and low maintenance, making it an ideal investment.
Ebony
Ebony guitar nuts look impressive, and it produces an incredible sound. However, it softens quickly compared to other nuts.
Conclusion
In conclusion, choosing the right nut for your guitar can ensure the quality of sound you make. If you compromise the quality of your guitar nut, the quality of your music can be compromised too.
