Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: varkunus on April 15, 2008, 09:57:47 PM
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how much difference will different types of nut make to the feel and tone of the guitar. Just wondering really. Ill let you guys answer really
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Good ones keep it in tune better ;)
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i like it to be a good soild material - the soft plastic that comes on some cheaper guitars is not good
i mostly use unbleached bone - mainly because i prefer the creamy colour to pure white. If i want it white i use bleched bone or corian, if i want it black i use graphtech. These are all nice nut materials that make a nice clang when dropped onto a hard surface.. anything that thuds is too soft and will not transfer vibrations well
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yeah - what twinfan said.. it needs to be well cut to be good. stuff like graphtech or delrin is more slippery so helps with trems but bone can be just as good for non trem guitars if its well cut
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I should have elaborated more ;)
I have the Tusq ones on a couple of guitars - they're good with me. But as Wez says, a well cut nut is what you want no matter what the material is.
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so if i buy an rg1570 would it be worth getting the nut swapped anyway? I had it done to my squire, helped tone. And what about stuff like bronze.?
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so if i buy an rg1570 would it be worth getting the nut swapped anyway? I had it done to my squire, helped tone. And what about stuff like bronze.?
On a locking trem i think the options are more limited and I don't think it would make a huge amount of difference anyway; the materials used in an RG1570 should be good anyway.
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Don't the nuts on the 1570's have locking nuts? You wouldn't have to change them as it locks the strings, so no friction. I think it really applies for guitars without locking parts IE, Les Pauls, PRS', Fenders etc
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k sorry for my noobness :p :P so what happens when ur strings go out of tune with a locking nut?
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If the strings are stretched well and the bridge set up right, the guitar won't go out of tune. If it does however, then making sure all nuts and bolts are tight, bridge angle is level, stretch strings till they don't go out of tune and lubricating the bridges knife edges should do the trick.
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k sorry for my noobness :p :P so what happens when ur strings go out of tune with a locking nut?
It never will go out of tune.
(or its not supposed to anyway)
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k sorry for my noobness :p :P so what happens when ur strings go out of tune with a locking nut?
It never will go out of tune.
(or its not supposed to anyway)
:lol: :lol: - it will if you use the trem!
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k sorry for my noobness :p :P so what happens when ur strings go out of tune with a locking nut?
It will go out of tune, but - if everything's in good working order - not by very much. That's when you use the fine tuners on the bridge.
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Another vote for graphtec and tusq, but THE most important thing is that its cut well.
A badly cut nut means bad tuning stability and/or bad action and intonation.
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well its got an edge pro II i think, which is supposidly better than the OFRs. So i will get it set up by a pro anyway, to get the action nice and low. Also two further questions. Firstly about this knife edge will it wear out? Secondly i know on my squires strats trem (vintage), that when i push the whammy bar down, the strings actions increases, so if i could pull it up, like on a floyd rose style one, would it decrease? Meaning that if i had really low actions if i used the trem both ways, it would just dud out?
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Pulling a locking trem "up" is of extremely limited use IMO.
You might pull it up half a step or so occassionally but more than that & you run the risk of breaking the strings or worse still, the trem itself (the intonation screws can only take so much tension).
Those harmonic squeals you hear from Vai, Dimebag et al are not from pulling up on the bar but by quickly divebombing it, popping a harmonic when it's "down" then slowly letting it back to the neutral position.
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k sorry for my noobness :p :P so what happens when ur strings go out of tune with a locking nut?
It will go out of tune, but - if everything's in good working order - not by very much. That's when you use the fine tuners on the bridge.
+1
If you stretched the strings properly when you fitted them, then tightened the locking nut correctly, it will rarely go out of tune (& only by very little when it does).
You should almost never need to loosen the locking nut & "retune" - the fine tuners should have more than enough adjustability...
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so if i buy an rg1570 would it be worth getting the nut swapped anyway?
No, absolutely pointless IMO....
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yh im not expecting to do the same as a dive but upwards;p but its nice for the vai sorta fluttering effect like in for the love of god. And will be nice to have a trem system which dont go out of tune.
And about the knife edge?
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well its got an edge pro II i think, which is supposidly better than the OFRs. So i will get it set up by a pro anyway, to get the action nice and low. Also two further questions. Firstly about this knife edge will it wear out? Secondly i know on my squires strats trem (vintage), that when i push the whammy bar down, the strings actions increases, so if i could pull it up, like on a floyd rose style one, would it decrease? Meaning that if i had really low actions if i used the trem both ways, it would just dud out?
The OFR is still better. The Ibanez trems on par with the OFR are the Edge and Lo-Pro Edge. I don't have experience with the ZR so I can't comment. The rest are made of softer metals like the Edge III and Lo-Trs I&II.
Knife edges do wear out over time with extreme use. The Edge on my '91 Ibanez still holds perfect tune. If it's properly set up and you don't use it often most LFR trems stay in tune well. After time if it won't hold tune you can either block it off to make it a fixed bridge or replace it with something better.
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I've always had trouble with ibanez trems. I've had the Edge and the Edge Pro and the Lo Pro 7. Each one of them never held it's tuning, even after having it set up, lubricated etc etc.
The Original Floyd Rose however, was the best trem ever. It never went out of tune, not even by half a semitone.
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well its got an edge pro II i think, which is supposidly better than the OFRs. So i will get it set up by a pro anyway, to get the action nice and low. Also two further questions. Firstly about this knife edge will it wear out? Secondly i know on my squires strats trem (vintage), that when i push the whammy bar down, the strings actions increases, so if i could pull it up, like on a floyd rose style one, would it decrease? Meaning that if i had really low actions if i used the trem both ways, it would just dud out?
The OFR is still better. The Ibanez trems on par with the OFR are the Edge and Lo-Pro Edge. I don't have experience with the ZR so I can't comment. The rest are made of softer metals like the Edge III and Lo-Trs I&II.
Knife edges do wear out over time with extreme use. The Edge on my '91 Ibanez still holds perfect tune. If it's properly set up and you don't use it often most LFR trems stay in tune well. After time if it won't hold tune you can either block it off to make it a fixed bridge or replace it with something better.
+1 to all above.
OFR is what you want in the end - But if you have a good bridge its not worth replacing for one.
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I switched to a Tusq nut recently, replacing the cr@ppy plastic Epiphone one. Definitely a noticeable increase in sustain and I find myself tuning my guitar less. Nice upgrade.
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well according to UG the edge pros are really good trems, although i know stay clear of edge IIIs. Also the edge pros are lower profile aint they
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Found out recently that the newer MIM Fenders come with bone nuts from the factory. A nice addition to an otherwise 'cheap' guitar.
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Point well made about a top nut needing to be well cut, whatever the material. My personal preference is for unbleached bone, as I like the way it sort of evens out the tone of open and fretted strings, particularly when using open tunings which use more open strings. Others may disagree, but just my opinion.
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but the nut on the rg should be adaquate considering its a locking nut
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and i just checked the ibanez site http://www.ibanez.co.jp/world/country/frame_uk.html and its a 5 peice neck, so is that better or worse than the 3 peice. And it uses an edgepro not and edge pro II, sorry i was under the impression than the edgepro II was improvement by most people on reviews saying the edge pro is much better. What do you guys thinks?
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read... (http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12373)
You don't need to be that fussy about it, I am yet to hear an argument for 1pc Vs 3pc Vs 5 Vs 7 etc being tonally better.
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ow ok. Thats cool, and about floyd rose style action, how to do adjust it? Because u dont have bridge saddles do you, and the nut wont make a difference
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Floyd action height is adjustable by raising/lowering the mounting posts.
Don't take this the wrong way, but the answers to a lot of the questions you're asking will become blindingly obvious once you actually own the guitar. If I were you, I'd stop worrying about it...
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yh sorry i do get obsessed i suppose and like to explore every possibily. Well the shop will get some left handed ones in direct from japan in around 2 months