New Nut with greater cource spacing a success

[kurth83]

Well I promised I would post it, here is the before and after, that's an Eastman MD604SB FYI. The after pic is before nut filing, shimming, and centering, but you get the idea.

Hilariously, this amazing upgrade cost $1 (pack of 10 uncut bone nuts for $10).

I am really proud of how accurately I was able to cut those spacings. Notice how the G strings are slightly further apart than the E strings, and it is graduated across the nut, not world-class luthery or anything, but pretty good for an old guy in his bedroom who has to wear reading glasses to see what he is doing.

I would never make it as a Luthier though, it took me about 5 hours to do that, and get the setup right, most of it was filing the nut. Used a finishing sander and a micro-saw to do the initial nut shaping.

I succeeded on the first nut, but I had to shim it, messed up slightly. So I still have 9 left, one more mando (the MD505) gets that treatment, and I'll be too lazy to do that again any time soon.

I played through my entire classical practice set, and it's night and day difference, parts I could not play cleanly are now clear with both strings ringing. And the ease of playing went way up. Its like getting a much better instrument - for $1. :-)

Anyway, the playability increase was everything I hoped for. My guitar player friend's advice - that often it will be the instrument holding you back - has been shown to be true again and again.

So far the playability enhancements I've tried are:
- lighter strings (i went with ultra lights).
- lower action (15 - 12 - 9 - 9 height at the nut, about 50-60 at the 12th fret)
- taller frets (.050 height up from .031).
- narrower courses to give wider course spacing.

The things left to try are:
- C neck - for folks who use the thumb a bit more like a guitar player).
- wider nut
- flat fingerboard

All of which will be on my Red Valley which won't be arriving for a few months. I am a bit nervous about the flat fingerboard, we'll see if I like it, maybe another trip to Gryphon is in order first.

Enjoy:

[Br1ck]

When I was cutting a nut for my build, I went into Gryphon and checked the nut slots on various mandolins. Quite a variance . Now you can just cut nuts until you arrive at perfection.

[Jim DeSalvio]

Excellent work!! Nothing like an instrument that plays well. Set-up is so key to the playing experience.

[Rush Burkhardt]

Nice work, Kurth83! I identify with the "old guy" and "readers" profile! Respecting that playability was your motivator, how'd the change in string spacing impact the sound - volume and tone? As a bluegrasser, over the years I've adjusted string spacing many times and concluded that the closer the spacing of each course, the greater the reduction in volume and tone. What are your observations?
Thanks! Rush

[sblock]

Mandolin nuts, as you have discovered, can exhibit fairly large variations. Not only is the overall width relevant, but so too is the inter-course spacing (between different note pairs) and the intra-course spacing (between same-note pairs)! On some mandolins, e.g., on Northfields, the intra-course spacing is constant. On others, e.g., Webers, that spacing is wider for G's and D's and narrower for A's and E's. Here are some careful measurements I made a while back, based on a Northfield and a Weber. Note that these are both for 1-1/8" nuts ("standard width"). So-called "wide nuts" will again be different, of course -- pun intended!

[kurth83]

I went for 1/16" between the inner edges of the strings for course widths (and a little less on the E), as recommended on that luthier page. This produced tighter courses than either the weber or northfield above.

As far as tone, I wasn't focussing on that, but I suspected there was a tradeoff. I didn't notice a drop in tone quality, but there might be a drop in volume, which for me is not a big deal, but for a bluegrass jammer it would be.

In my case I am ok with sacrificing a little volume for playability, for now at least. If the overall volume dropped slightly, but there is a large drop in partially muted courses sprinkled throughout my playing, its a net improvement. :-)

It sounds like a wider nut with wider string spacing is a good option to maximize tone and minimize adjacent string muting, but not everybody likes a wider nut for other reasons.

[Mark Gunter]

Nice job! If you don't like factory specs, customize it. I like your spirit. Hope this setup works out in the long haul, and if not, well, nut blanks are cheap and I doubt you'll run out of your current stock soon.