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Charles Zwicky wrote: > Per, > > The brass nut affects the coupling of the string's vibrational energy to > the neck by reducing this coupling due to the added mass at the string's > anchor point. Agreed. As such, it might also reduce tone warmth exactly due to less such vibrations. In the past, many believed firmly in massiveness and sturdyness (like mahogany, neck-through and heavy Schaller tuners), which works fine from a sustain POW. Over the latter years, though, luthiers have taken up cavity designs, and question massiveness, rethinking how separate properties in neck and body materials/designs works together. For a fretless, I'd guess sustain is a primary design factor. A tele, as Per is using, may be a fine starting point, sustain wise. > However, this only affects an open string. Yup, and as such, fretted strings may sound different from open ones. This is the case on my '87 Duesenberg with hard steel rollers in a brass bed as the nut, compared to (IMO) too soft a nickel fret alloy. Then again, it might be different on a fretless, where strings are held against the board by fingers, which may allow more vibration from the pressure point to nut to slip through, thus keeping tone more uniform. Just an observation with no empirical data to back it ;) I really have a problem with these discussions. Everytime such stuff comes up, I want in too, but alas allach, finance can't catch up :( >> On Jan 14, 2008 4:04 PM, Charles Zwicky <cazwicky@earthlink.net> wrote: >> >>> > >>> >I can see the point in using a brass nut if you're going for the >>> >Fernandez sustainer later on, which is all electro-magnetic. >>> >Per >> >>> >>> Per, >>> >>> What does this mean to you? >> >> >> >> Good question! A brass nut alters the vibration response between wood >> and string. When using a mechanical "vibrator" - as my Sustainiac C - >> a brass nut may reduce the effect. However, when using a purely >> electo-magnetic sustainer as the Fernandez that might not be such a >> big deal. And often one of the reasons to use a brass net is that you >> like the sound of just the string, when picked up magnetically as the >> electric guitar pickups do. Does that make sense? -- rgds, van Sinn