Nut (string instrument)

For other uses, see Nut (disambiguation).

The nut of a string instrument is a small piece of hard material which supports the strings at the end closest to the headstock or scroll. The nut marks one end of the speaking length of each open string, sets the spacing of the strings across the neck, and usually holds the strings at the proper height from the fingerboard. Along with the bridge, the nut defines the vibrating lengths (scale lengths) of the open strings.

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  Violin
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  Mandolin
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  Guitar
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  Erhu
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  Compensated nut on Music Man Bongo 5 bass guitar

The nut may be made of ebony, ivory, cow bone, brass, Corian or plastic, and is usually notched or grooved for the strings. The grooves are designed to lead the string from the fingerboard to the headstock or pegbox in a smooth curve, to prevent damage to the strings or their windings. Bowed string instruments in particular benefit from an application of soft pencil graphite in the notches of the nut, to preserve the delicate flat windings of their strings.

Etymology

The word is thought to have come from the German Nut (pronounced "noot"), meaning "groove" or "slot".

Variations

Not all string instruments have nuts as described:

• Some guitars and mandolins, for example, have nuts that are just string spacers, with deep notches. These instruments use a zero fret, which is a fret at the beginning of the scale where a normal nut would be, which is higher than the other frets to provide the correct string clearance. The zero fret is often found on cheaper instruments, as it's much easier to set up an instrument this way; to make a proper nut requires that each string notch be carefully cut to the proper depth so that the string is neither too high, affecting overall string height and intonation of fretted notes, nor too low which causes a plucked or picked string to buzz against the frets. With a zero fret, the fret merely needs to be the right height. However, a zero fret also makes the sound of the open string very similar to the fretted note, where the nut itself, being made of a different material, has a different timbre if it is used instead of a zero fret. It is thus used for this reason on some high-end instruments.:^[1]

• The erhu does not use a hard nut to define the speaking length of the open string, but rather a qiān jin (千斤) : a loop of string, or, less commonly, a metal hook.

References

1. ^ "Parts of the Mandolin: The Nut". http://fstylemandolin.info/mandolin-parts-nut/.