Bone Nut Page 2

So, before we proceed, what does a good nut layout look like? 'Image 1' is an example - note the exact string spacing between the strings along the length of the fretboard. Up close, at the nut (use your mouse over the picture), you can use a set of verniers and you will have the exact same width between the strings.

There are some people in the industry, that use a thing called a nut ruler. The ruler works on the principle of an ever expanding gap. These rulers make your bass strings group together and feel uncomfortable, especially if you are using a beefier string for a drop tune. I do not personally like these rulers, even though I do own one.

So the fretboard is 42mm wide. This means that the nut's external size needs to be 42mm also.

The top of the nut needs to be the same radius as the fretboard. In our example here it's a 16ft radius.

Now comes the important part, we want the gap between the strings (X) to be the same size, we also want (Y) to be the same edge distance for an even string to fretboard edge.

To work this out you do the following

Start with Y - I like my strings to run about 3.5mm in from each side of the fretboard. This gives a nice safe distance from rolling the string off the edge.

So the Bass side is 3.5mm in to centre of string.

The Treble is 42mm - 3.5 = 38.5mm to centre of string.

Now you have to accomodate the string thicknesses. Subtract them from the distance and you will have a figure which can be divided by five. This gives us an answer of 6.39mm between each string.

Take the distance from between each string - convert each string to metric and add half onto the gap and you will get the following numbers.

Alternatively, there are nut calculators readily available on the internet and you simply punch the numbers in.

Now you need to take all this information and transfer it onto the bone blank!

Image 1