What type of guitar nut material?

**RJVB** · 05-08-2024, 07:47 AM

Originally Posted by LtKojak

Once it's properly installed, it works exactly as advertised.

Those Earvana nuts really look like they're a PITA to set up if you can't use one of the prefabbed versions, and also to maintain buzz-free.

I also don't understand entirely why they work. I mean, I know how compensation at the nut works, but in my experience that works the other way round from what they seem to do. Suppose I have a string that
- intonates 5ct sharp at the 5th fret with the open string and 12th fret in tune
- intonates about that much flat as open string when I tune at the 5th fret.
First time I encountered that situation after learning about compensation at the nut I thought "is only I could stop the string just about the nut to get the proper intonation of the "open" string", and then I realised I might be able to do that by wedging something under the string. An individual zero fret if you want. Turns out that this worked miracles to get the intonation of the open string, the lower frets but also the frets (just) beyond the 12th to intonate acceptably.

The Earvana shelf nut seems to increase the scale length of individual strings, thus shifting all frets "forward" compared to the open string. That should make intonation even sharper!?

**Hammertone** · 05-09-2024, 02:02 AM

Every Gibson repair shop has a drawer of these that they can't give away, from the 2015 Gibson Les Paul Celebration of Satanic Darkness. If your guitar takes a 1 3/4" nut, go nuts! They are awesome, hilarious and a great conversation starter.

**RJVB** · 05-09-2024, 06:07 AM

Originally Posted by Hammertone

They are awesome, hilarious and a great conversation starter.

Yeah, what is that, a bronze-age (near-)ZeroGlide nut?

**lammie200** · 05-09-2024, 10:49 AM

Originally Posted by RJVB

Those Earvana nuts really look like they're a PITA to set up if you can't use one of the prefabbed versions, and also to maintain buzz-free.

I also don't understand entirely why they work. I mean, I know how compensation at the nut works, but in my experience that works the other way round from what they seem to do. Suppose I have a string that
- intonates 5ct sharp at the 5th fret with the open string and 12th fret in tune
- intonates about that much flat as open string when I tune at the 5th fret.
First time I encountered that situation after learning about compensation at the nut I thought "is only I could stop the string just about the nut to get the proper intonation of the "open" string", and then I realised I might be able to do that by wedging something under the string. An individual zero fret if you want. Turns out that this worked miracles to get the intonation of the open string, the lower frets but also the frets (just) beyond the 12th to intonate acceptably.

The Earvana shelf nut seems to increase the scale length of individual strings, thus shifting all frets "forward" compared to the open string. That should make intonation even sharper!?

Think about it this way: The 12th fret is the knife edge for both the upper and lower scale registers. The bridge compensates the string lengths for the upper scale register and the compensated nut compensates the string lengths for the lower scale register. Obviously, none of this will provide perfect compensation for both scale lengths combined (or even separate) with the temperament of an average guitar, but it will help get things closer to perfect.

**RJVB** · 05-09-2024, 11:49 AM

Oh, I understand compensation at the nut, certainly at that kind of general level.

You can also think of it this way: if a fretted note is sharp, that is because because you fret the string too high along the scale length. On a non-fretted instrument you'd simply slide your finger down a bit, but that means you make the sounding portion of the string longer and the non-sounding portion of the string shorter. With fixed frets you can achieve the same effect by either pulling the saddle backwards or moving the nut forward (followed by a tune-up because in this case you changed the actual scale length).

I see the Earvana nut has a top part that appears to be able to slide and that has the shelves. Maybe it can actually be slid over the fretboard, but that means it'd have to be very thin in order to get a comfortable action at the nut and made of a very tough material that'll resist being cut in 2 by esp. the treble strings.