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The owner of this Larrivee OM-03R would like to replace the
synthetic nut and saddle with bone. The synthetic nut was poorly cut
and slotted too deep. What an
eyesore. A bone nut and saddle
would also be a sonic improvement over the syntheric materials used. |
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The synthetic nut is removed
cleanly from the slot and a new bone nut is shaped from
a blank. A rough form is first shaped and taken down to the required
dimensions. |
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The
new bone nut is shaped,
fitted, notched and polished. Notice the difference between the new bone nut and
original synthetic nut. |
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The new bone saddle is shaped to a 16" radius as per the synthetic saddle. The bottom of
the bone saddle is carefully sanded flat and perpendicular to the side
to improve the contact in the saddle slot. Some people prefer to round the bottom of
the saddle but I find a perfectly flat bottom improve tone transference.
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The bone saddle is almost completed. All
that's left to do it to take it down to it's proper height. Notice the nice
rounded edges. The compensation on the synthetic saddle was slightly off and
being the perfectionist that I am, I had to correct that issue.
Notice the slight shift in the string contact
points between the synthetic and bone saddle. Instead of the wound string
sitting along the forward edge of the saddle as per the synthetic saddle,
the string contact points been slightly angled backwards from the G string
to the low E string to different points along the bone saddle with the low E
string contacting the top of the saddle just before the halfway mark. This slight
angle is to improve on the intonation of the instrument. |
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The bone nut is fitted and guitar is strung. Most
nuts are slotted equidistant from center to center of the
strings. However, as the string gauges increases, the gaps between the
strings narrow. I prefer to space the strings
equidistant from string to string ala Robert Benedetto. It takes more
time and effort but I find this subtle detail help
facilitates cleaner playing especially for fingerstyle and your fingers are less cramped when
chording. I slot all the nuts this way regardless of the instrument. To date,
all my clients have found the spacing more comfortable and none have requested me to
space the strings the "conventional" way.
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The guitar's strung up and thanks to the slight
shift for the wound string, the intonation did improve. I'd earlier
angled the G, D, A and low E slots for better
compensation.
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The guitar's all ready to go. With the new bone
nut and improved compensated saddle, the guitar has better clarity and sustain. The
bass notes has also more definition and depth. |
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