Brass Nuts
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Last but not least I will stress your nuts material to you.
Seeing as I myself am trying to sell brass nuts to anyone who plays a
stringed instrument, I will try to make this with as little bias as
possible:
Imagine if your electric guitar had plastic saddles. (Most guitar nuts are plastic, which is why I say this).
Now... imagine your frets being made of plastic, and imagine using a plastic finger slide. Will your notes ring out, sustain, and sounds good at all in any way at all? Of course not!
Now keep in mind, your guitars plastic nut is all part of that same chain of things affecting your strings as if you were to have plastic frets or saddles. So why wouldn't a stock plastic nut affect your sustain, sound, tone, sustain, and overall everything about your guitar negatively? The answer is simple: it does affect your guitar negatively... A lot actually.
Plastic is not a material that transfers sound good in any way, in fact it basically kills the string vibration. Whether you're playing chords on the open strings, or shredding in your higher frets, it's all connected and all a part of your sound, and like I stated earlier, every working part of your guitar affects every OTHER working part of your guitar. People who say "A brass nut only affects your open notes, the fretted notes are still the same" are simply incorrect.
Another huge factor that is almost always overlooked is the fact that your string doesn't vibrate from your saddle to your nut, it vibrates from your saddle all the way to your tuning peg! Now although most of your tone is truly coming from your guitars body, a very good portion of your tone is coming from your neck. What's the biggest part of your neck? Your headstock. A regular plastic nut is going to stop the vibration of your string the second it hits the nut, making your entire headstock a complete dead zone, when really your guitars headstock is a huge contributor to your sound. This is the same reason that some people prefer Stratocasters with larger headstocks, because it's believed that the larger the headstock, the more opportunity for tone there is to be given... but of course this theory can't be tested without a brass nut.
Simply put: A brass nut will greatly improve sustain, clarity, tone, brightness, and tuneability. Brass offers the benefit of having the closest thing no friction in your string slots as possible. Your strings can actually notch small indents into plastic nuts over the time of only a month, thus creating tuning issues. (The main reason that soft Graphite nuts are a joke). This being said, I only tune my guitars slightly about once a week, and every note reads perfect, and is always the brightest sounding out of all my friend's who have the same kind of guitar, with the same pickups.
Whether it be acoustic, electric, semi-hollow body, 6-string, 7-string, 8-string, 12-string, bass, fretless, or ANYTHING... there is never a case where a brass nut won't improve your instrument.
I've worked on everything from 8-string guitars and basses tuned over an entire octave below standard tunings, all the way to your average every day 4-string bass guitar in standard tuning.
Imagine if your electric guitar had plastic saddles. (Most guitar nuts are plastic, which is why I say this).
Now... imagine your frets being made of plastic, and imagine using a plastic finger slide. Will your notes ring out, sustain, and sounds good at all in any way at all? Of course not!
Now keep in mind, your guitars plastic nut is all part of that same chain of things affecting your strings as if you were to have plastic frets or saddles. So why wouldn't a stock plastic nut affect your sustain, sound, tone, sustain, and overall everything about your guitar negatively? The answer is simple: it does affect your guitar negatively... A lot actually.
Plastic is not a material that transfers sound good in any way, in fact it basically kills the string vibration. Whether you're playing chords on the open strings, or shredding in your higher frets, it's all connected and all a part of your sound, and like I stated earlier, every working part of your guitar affects every OTHER working part of your guitar. People who say "A brass nut only affects your open notes, the fretted notes are still the same" are simply incorrect.
Another huge factor that is almost always overlooked is the fact that your string doesn't vibrate from your saddle to your nut, it vibrates from your saddle all the way to your tuning peg! Now although most of your tone is truly coming from your guitars body, a very good portion of your tone is coming from your neck. What's the biggest part of your neck? Your headstock. A regular plastic nut is going to stop the vibration of your string the second it hits the nut, making your entire headstock a complete dead zone, when really your guitars headstock is a huge contributor to your sound. This is the same reason that some people prefer Stratocasters with larger headstocks, because it's believed that the larger the headstock, the more opportunity for tone there is to be given... but of course this theory can't be tested without a brass nut.
Simply put: A brass nut will greatly improve sustain, clarity, tone, brightness, and tuneability. Brass offers the benefit of having the closest thing no friction in your string slots as possible. Your strings can actually notch small indents into plastic nuts over the time of only a month, thus creating tuning issues. (The main reason that soft Graphite nuts are a joke). This being said, I only tune my guitars slightly about once a week, and every note reads perfect, and is always the brightest sounding out of all my friend's who have the same kind of guitar, with the same pickups.
Whether it be acoustic, electric, semi-hollow body, 6-string, 7-string, 8-string, 12-string, bass, fretless, or ANYTHING... there is never a case where a brass nut won't improve your instrument.
I've worked on everything from 8-string guitars and basses tuned over an entire octave below standard tunings, all the way to your average every day 4-string bass guitar in standard tuning.