Nuts

If/when I build a baritone out of nice wood, I think I'd like to upgrade the nut from all-thread, but since it is a steel guitar, I need more height than standard guitars.

Looking for proper materials, types, etc. Is metal best? I mean, I can use aluminum angle, a wood bridge, the usual bone or plastic, but I also want to minimize my work load. Plug/play is very nice, and all-thread is that in spades.

If I use all-thread, I wire-wheel the holy hell out of it to remove burrs and burnish it, and I do have a set of fret files to take the pitch out a bit.

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Permalink Reply by BrianQ. on September 19, 2019 at 7:10am

James, all those materials described have been used as nuts & bridges successfully, peruse the older pictures a little & you’ll see? Bone & plastic take a little more finesse than others, but work great. Angle is very economical & not much work but smoothing out the ruff spots, so maybe your best bet? Also look at the wood bridge/nut from the cbgitty 2x4 kit?

https://www.cbgitty.com/kits-guitar-kits-amp-kits-more/2x4-lap-stee...

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Permalink Reply by James Pobog on September 19, 2019 at 7:44am

These what you mean? I have 2 of them right now, but bridge will be hardtail.

https://www.cbgitty.com/guitar-instrument-parts/bridges-and-nuts/la...

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Permalink Reply by BrianQ. on September 19, 2019 at 8:31am

Yes, I used that link to demonstrate a wood bridge/nut combo? Pretty much all non pedal steels are hardtail? Here’s one of mine with bone style nut, it’s 9/16” tall, 2 1/2” wide, hair over 3/16” thick?

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Permalink Reply by James Pobog on September 19, 2019 at 8:55am

So that style #3 (Kay) just gets trimmed down to width, and sets in a shallow channel, right?

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Permalink Reply by BrianQ. on September 19, 2019 at 9:06am

Aluminum angle: https://cigarboxnation.com/photo/lap-steel-2-2/next?context=user

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Permalink Reply by BrianQ. on September 19, 2019 at 9:18am

Yea , pretty much all electric guitars use that method. It seems to give more stability than just glued in place?It’s a late 40’s Valco made Grand model, the bridge has the same material that sits inside a channel?