Brass ones

eddier · Post by **eddier** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 4:10 pm

Has anyone had or tried a brass nut on a 4001/4003 bass and if so what were the results.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 8:21 pm

This was a common mod back in the 70's ...

my '68 had one installed by stars guitars back in the 70's ...

It gives the bass a brighter, harsher, more metallic sound ... and it is supposed to add sustain ...

I put a Ric nut back in a few years ago ... this give the bass a slightly mellower sound ...

motoryeshead · Post by **motoryeshead** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 12:21 am

But the brighter sound and added sustain only affects the open strings, as soon as you fret a note, the effect is lost. Brass bridges help all notes, as they are in contact with a vibrating portion of the string all the time, but the nut only accounts for 1/20 of the available notes. The difference in tone between a fret and a nut (of any material) is quite large, this is why zero-frets are such a good idea, as there is total uniformity in the timbre of all notes, and no big tone step from open to 1st fret. Brass nuts are nice for those big open E notes (Chris Squire solos etc), but not much use elsewhere, or am I totally wrong?