Show me you're nuts

[cholyoke]

The thread title is a reference to Kentucky Fried Movie, but I would like to know if this nut is normal.

I bought a 2014 SGJ recently and I have a question about the nut, which I think is modified from the original nut. Lovely guitar, makes me want to play and is everything I wanted in a SG. Acoustically loud and balances perfectly on a strap. I've owned four epiphone SGs (G-400s), but everything about this guitar is just easy. About as nice as the 2024 SG '61 standard I played at a music store recently. Pointy horns, too!

Anyhow, the nut on this guitar has the smallest contact area I have ever seen. It is less than half the nut width. Way less than the G-400 I own. Pictures below. I just changed the strings, which appears to have taken care of the binding that the g string had. Is this nut cut standard on the SGJ? My epiphones and all of the pictures of Gibson SGs I could find had the strings going most of the way through a channel in the nut, either parallel to the string path along the neck (all epiphones I have owned) or slightly angled towards the tuners (the Gibson pictures).

Click to embiggen images.

SGJ nut top view (yes, I know it is dirty. Thorough cleaning happens after the guitar settles into its new home):


SGJ nut side view:


Epiphone G-400 MIK nut top view:



Epiphone G-400 MIK nut side view:


Because pics or it didn't happen:

 

[RGX_Custom]

Here's my nut. It's a little cracked...by the 2nd string. The neck broke about 20 years ago and it cost $200 to fix. The nut is still original and works pretty good.

 

[DrBGood]

Nice G400 Vintage ! I have the same, one or two years younger than yours. Original nut working fine for me.

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[cholyoke]

Here's my nut. It's a little cracked...by the 2nd string. The neck broke about 20 years ago and it cost $200 to fix. The nut is still original and works pretty good.

Thank you! It appears the back edge of that nut drops so the string contacts 2/3 of the groove, which is more contact area than the one on my SGJ.

Nice G400 Vintage ! I have the same, one or two years younger than yours. Original nut working fine for me.

View attachment 56934​

Thank you! The nut on your G-400 is almost identical to the nut on mine, with the grooves mostly parallel to the strings on the neck rather than being cut towards the tuners. There is some angle, but not as much as the Gibson nuts I've seen. My G-400 is a 2003. I used to have a brown one, but stupidly sold it and bought a G-400 custom. Which I sold and bought one of the 61 Epi's, which I did not like nearly as much as the others. The Vintage G-400s are good guitars. Not a huge fan of the pickups clean, but with enough fuzz or distortion they sound good enough.

 

[DrBGood]

The Vintage G-400s are good guitars. Not a huge fan of the pickups clean, but with enough fuzz or distortion they sound good enough.

I've had 4 of them, I kept the best one, I polished the mat finish, and it now has Probuckers 1&2 in it.

 

[papagayo]

Can I play? GraphTech TUSQXL adjustable nut,

 

[cholyoke]

Thank you. Is 2015 the only year they use the adjustable nut? Anyhow, still cut with the angle towards the tuners and what looks to be a large-ish contact area, unlike the epi's.

 

[Derrick]

 

[Les’s Nemisis]

Thank you. Is 2015 the only year they use the adjustable nut? Anyhow, still cut with the angle towards the tuners and what looks to be a large-ish contact area, unlike the epi's.

Gibson used a brass zero fret nut for the first time on the HP in 2015.

The brass wore quickly with the Robo tuners they also had, due to the strings moving back-and-forth quite a bit in the robo-tuning process. I’m sure it would’ve worn eventually from manual tuning too.

Gibson changed to a titanium version to solve those problems – I believe in 2017.

They also provided that as a retrofit for most anyone who asked around that time.

They kept the zero fret adjustable until the SG modern came out in 2019.

The same nut was also used on the HP LP and the Les Paul 100. But I haven’t studied that evolution at all.

The one pictured above is the graphite replacement for the Gibson nut.

 

[pinkeye]

Can I play? GraphTech TUSQXL adjustable nut,


View attachment 56939

Is that for adjusting height, that seems like a great idea to me.

 

[dasherf17]

...just sayin'...
Happy Friday!

 

[Brians356]

... I would like to know if this nut is normal.

View attachment 56933
View attachment 56930

The main only reason is the SGJ's string slots are much shallower. Look at the side views, at the shadows of the strings on the 1st fret. The action at the nut is far lower on the G-400. The deeper the slots the wider the contact patch. Just look at the deep troughs canyons in that Epi nut. Compare to the SGJ's low E sitting nearly on top of the nut.

Most new (or otherwise untouched) guitars badly need lowering the strings in the nut. The Epi looks too low, IMO, nearly touching the 1st fret. Don't get any buzzing twanging open strings?
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[Les’s Nemisis]

Is that for adjusting height, that seems like a great idea to me.

Yes. It's adjustable and a "zero fret" all in one. That's the Graphtech replacement version (above).

Here's the original Gibson brass version:



Replaced by their titanium version when the brass wore out very quickly:

 

[paul-e-mann]

When I needed a new nut for my SG Standard (due to string spacing I didn't like) my luthier swears that bleached bone nuts don't last as long, so I let him put in an unbleached bone nut he made from scratch.

 

[cholyoke]

The main only reason is the SGJ's string slots are much shallower. Look at the side views, at the shadows of the strings on the 1st fret. The action at the nut is far lower on the G-400. The deeper the slots the wider the contact patch. Just look at the deep troughs canyons in that Epi nut. Compare to the SGJ's low E sitting nearly on top of the nut.

Most new (or otherwise untouched) guitars badly need lowering the strings in the nut. The Epi looks too low, IMO, nearly touching the 1st fret. Don't get any buzzing twanging open strings?
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Nope. No buzzing. No issues tuning, etc. Works very well. The SGJ nut is OK, but the G string binds on occasion.

 

[cholyoke]

Thanks for all of the replies. I'm fairly sure the SGJ nut has been modified. I'll let it go for a while before making a decision about changing it. I bought a TusqXL nut, but will hold off for now. Those have worked well for me in the past.

 

[DrBGood]

 

[Brians356]

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[cholyoke]

Super. We have devolved to truck nuts and the FARK squirrel. Here is the inspiration for the title.