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Topic: Straight pull keyhead effect on sustain. |
Gary Meixner
From:
New York, USA
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Posted 13 Apr 2013 7:48 am |
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I would like to hear opinions on the effect the keyhead has on sustain. In particular, does a stair-stepped keyhead, with a straight pull improve the sustain of both open and fretted strings on the non-pedal steel guitar?
Thank you,
Gary Meixner |
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Stephen Cowell
From:
Round Rock, Texas, USA
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Posted 13 Apr 2013 10:34 am
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Sustain is affected by the breakover angle... how firmly the string is anchored in the nut slot. This breakover angle can be straight down, or down and sideways... if it's straight down, then the width of the slot is going to affect how the string wallows in the slot. You can have a big breakover, but if the slot is wider than the string it may still lose tone.... that's why you often see down *and* sideways in guitar peghead breakover... a compromise between string binding and wallow is to 'bias' the string against one side of the slot, allowing some binding.
Often with straight keyheads you'll find roller nuts (part of the PSG assembly that it was borrowed from)... roller nuts are a potential tone suck point as well, although required for PSG.
One you don't see often... locking nuts for steel guitar. I guess a keyless design approaches this.
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Too much junk to list... always getting more. |
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Tom Pettingill
From:
California, USA (deceased)
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Posted 13 Apr 2013 11:26 am
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As Stephen mentioned, as long as there is sufficient break angle over the nut, then there should be no effect on sustain.
With a properly cut nut and a free moving straighter pull, you can have better initial tuning accuracy and if you do string pulls behind the bar, the string can return to pitch better too.
Thats not to say an angled style does not work, but less friction can be a plus.
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Gary Meixner
From:
New York, USA
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Posted 15 Apr 2013 7:19 am
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Fellas, thanks for the input. I didn't make sense to me that there should be any diffrence as long as the nut slot was cut properly. I seemed to remember some claims to the contrary and wanted to clear that up. I am working on a copy of my Richenbacher B6 and will match the headstock as the original. I am building the guitar using sapelle and hard maple although I am off to look at some veneer to dress up the top and back. I will post more later.
Best,
Gary |
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