Posted by Rand Moore on September 15, 2011 at 12:49am
Here is a shot of the headstock. I used a scarf joint to angle the head down by about 15 degrees, and then I slotted the head so I could use a 1x4 matrix of Mandolin tuners. You can see I have messed up around the nut & fret 0. The home made capo forces the strings down onto fret 0. Next time I change strings, I'll lower the nut by filing down some more on its slot in the neck. I also need to do a better job on the string tree screws. Pretty sloppy work.
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In the past I had a lot of problems using just a nut, especially on my earlier CBGs which were fretted with tie wraps. On those, you heard a a big difference between the open (un-fretted) notes and the more muted fretted notes. The solution was to use a fret 0 made of the same material as the frets. Being a creature of habit, I continue to use a fret 0 even though the fret material and nut material are similar, at least audibly. I guess I should re-think the need for a fret 0 as I no longer make tie-wrap fretted instruments. I guess I should forget fret 0 on my next build and see how it works out. There is truth to the sage advice "KISS". Thanks for the advice, I might not ever have questioned why I do it this way.
Comments
Hi Chip,
In the past I had a lot of problems using just a nut, especially on my earlier CBGs which were fretted with tie wraps. On those, you heard a a big difference between the open (un-fretted) notes and the more muted fretted notes. The solution was to use a fret 0 made of the same material as the frets. Being a creature of habit, I continue to use a fret 0 even though the fret material and nut material are similar, at least audibly. I guess I should re-think the need for a fret 0 as I no longer make tie-wrap fretted instruments. I guess I should forget fret 0 on my next build and see how it works out. There is truth to the sage advice "KISS". Thanks for the advice, I might not ever have questioned why I do it this way.
-Rand.
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if you are going to use a zero fret it IS the nut--- you don't need both
move the bolt to where the zero fret is and it should work better
good looking design, I hope you get it sorted out