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Joined:
October 2005
Posts: 4025
Location: Utah | Last night I noticed the nut on my daughter's Elite T is cut very deep. The notches for the strings are about 1.5X the diameter of the thickest strings, and about 4X the diameter of the thinnest strings.
The action height is pretty good at the nut, so it seems to be a matter of the nut being way to high and then notched too deeply to compensate.
Should I have a new nut properly cut and installed? Do the notch depths make any difference in sound? Would replacing the nut be likely to cause damage to the finish even if a good luthier did the work? And finally, what's the general price range on having a new nut cut and installed? |
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Joined:
June 2002
Posts: 6191
Location: Phoenix AZ | A good repair shop can do the job without any signs of damage. Maybe $75-100. But I'm not the P-squared. Not sure if having deep notches is a problem or not as far as sound goes. Dave |
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Joined:
November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | if the action and intonation are good, I wouldn't mess with it...
....how's the tuning when you compare the open strings to fretted 12 and 12th fret harmonics? |
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February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | ...And how does the tone of open strings sound compared to fretted? |
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March 2005
Posts: 1421
Location: Orange County, California | It's that way just in case you want to put mediums on it... |
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November 2004
Posts: 4413
| ....and practise your death grip. :p |
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October 2005
Posts: 4025
Location: Utah | Jeff, the tone seems the same to me for open or fretted strings.
However, the intonation at the 12th fret is a bit strange. My ear isn't the best, but I would swear that the 12th fret harmonic is a bit sharp for the low E, and less sharp for the A but still sharp. I can hear a beat in the harmonic tone exactly like the beat when two notes are just slightly mismatched. I have no idea where that could be coming from. The higher strings seem fine for harmonics.
The intonation on fretted notes at the 12th fret seems very good. Overall the intonation sounds quite good to me below the 12th fret, but like I said my ear isn't the best.
The guitar is strung with D'addario EJ12 light gauge phosphor bronze strings, about 2 weeks old. |
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Joined:
November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | there is invariably minute tonal inaccuracy somewhere along the scale in even the very best guitars. My guess would have been that you would have a flat tone on the fretted 12th if there was something amiss.
It's common to be slightly sharp at the fretted 12 as the act of fretting stretches the string slightly....(the reason saddles are compensated/ slanted)
Sounds to me like the guitar is functioning within normal parameters. |
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The nut is cut too deep, but the action is ok
