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Author
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Topic: Phenolic. Macarta,Corian nut material?
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Wayne Carver
Member From: Martinez, Georgia, USA
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posted 15 August 2003 08:03 PM
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I made a homemade console steel and put an aluminium nut and bridge on it. Today I replaced the nut with a phenolic one. It improved the sound quite a bit. It got rid of some strange overtones. Before some of my middle strings had a Harpsichord sound. Now they don't. I thought I might try Corian if I can scrounge a piece from a cabinet shop. I saw a thread recently on nut material but couldn't find it. |
Roy Ayres
Member From: Starke, Florida, USA
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posted 16 August 2003 06:48 AM
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Wayne:At Fender in the 60's we hit a time when natural bone (processed in and obtained from Germany) was not available in sufficient quantities to meet our manufacturing needs for bone nuts. I did a lot of research to find some material that was of about the same hardness and density of bone. It turned out that Urea Formaldehide did the trick, so we designed molds and started having nuts cast from that material. Melamine Formaldehide, the material from which "Melmac" dishware is made, is very similar to the Urea. If you can find an old Melmac bowl or platter with a fairly thick bottom, try cutting a nut from that. If you like natural bone for nut material, you should like the Melmac substitute. |
Del Rangel
Member From: Sacramento, CA, USA
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posted 16 August 2003 08:48 AM
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How big of a nut does it have? Tusq made by Graph Tech comes in some larger sizes and the stuff gets good reviews. I bought a piece that is 4"x1/2"x1/4" for a saddle but could be used for your purposes. See: http://www.graphtech.bc.ca/ |
Wayne Carver
Member From: Martinez, Georgia, USA
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posted 16 August 2003 04:35 PM
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I'll be on the lookout for a Melmac bowl. I've read about Tusq too and would like to try that also. Thanks for the info! |
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