Cracking The Nut

In the second of two pieces, Jamie Dickson speaks to luthier Seth Baccus about how a well-made nut contributes to tone and playability

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Last month, we joined Cornwall-based luthier Seth Baccus to discuss how the material your nut is made out of contributes to tone. Seth had some fascinating insights to share on that topic, but then our conversation turned to how the nut is made. The material that your guitar nut is made from is only part of the equation, Seth advises. More important still is the way it has been shaped and cut, which has a critical influence on tuning stability and intonation as well as tone.

“There are a few things to take into consideration,” Seth says of making nuts. “One is that we want no sharp edges anywhere, so I take quite a lot of care in the way it fits into the nut slot and the way it matches the fingerboard, and I also knock off all the [abrasive] edges on the front. If you are sliding down to an E minor chord or something and you accidentally bang the nut, you’re not going to get injured or whatever. You want nice rounded edges. When it comes to depth of the nut slots, I like to have around half the string in the slot and half the string out of the slot. I think if you cut the slots too deep and all of the string is in the slot, you’re justincreasing the potential for grabbing. So I think that half-and-half thing seems to work really well.”

Cutting the nut slots precisely is a fine art in itself, Seth continues, and is, in many ways, the most critical operation in making the nut.