Gaged Nut Rollers

Jack Shrader Sr · From: Columbus In. U.S.A.

I know this has been talked about several times. But I was wondering if there would be a market for them if they were available at a reasonal price.. I have a good friend that has been a machinist for 30 + yrs and he would consider custom making them if there was a market. need info Jack

Dave Burr · From: League City, TX

I thought most of the newer guitars came with gauged nut rollers... Is this not the case? My Remington came with them.

Respectfully,
Dave Burr

David Doggett · Posted 3 Mar 2004 2:03 pm

Fessenden, Carter, Mullens, Sho-Bud and others do not have guaged nut rollers. Zum, Emmons, MSA Millenium, and some others do. I have never heard anyone complain about this except universal players. 10-string E9 doesn't have big enough strings for this to be a problem. C6 players don't seem to use the first fret much (C#6, F#7,9), which is where the biggest problem is. On universal the first fret is F, Bb, Dm and other important chords for E9 mode, and C6, F7,9, etc. for B9 mode. You spend a lot of time at the first fret in a number of common keys, and it is hell without guaged nut rollers.

Judging from past threads on this, I think a good number of uni players with the above brands would pay pretty good money for guaged nut rollers. The widths, diameters, and axle hole sizes of nut rollers varies across brands. Whoever, does this will need to get a bunch of the different types of rollers and machine the groove to the desired size. Alternatively, players could send their rollers to be machined. You really only need to guage the bottom two or three rollers to get a vast improvement.

C Dixon · From: Duluth, GA USA

My Emmons' D-10 LeGrande, Sierra Session D-10 and Excel SuperB U-12 came with gauged rollers. Sadly none of them came close to being right. All three manufacturers graciously sent me additional sets. Not one was an improvement overall.

I would love to have a set that left the tops of the strings dead coplaner flat at the nut. So if a machinist can do it, great. But it must be harder than it at first appears, since so far out of 8 sets on 3 guitars, not one has proven satisfactory for me.

carl

Roy Thomson · From: Wolfville, Nova Scotia,Canada

This has always been a problem with me. If
someone offers guaged roller nuts that fit my guitar I would definitley be interested.
It would help greatly in experimenting with tunings which I love to do.

George Kimery · From: Limestone, TN, USA

I recently bought a set of 12 from Emmons for $36.00. They get $30.00 for a set of 10. I haven't installed them yet....waiting until I change strings, so don't know how well they will work. I just thought you would like to know what they are selling for from Emmons if it helps in deciding if they are worth making or not. The 12 string Kline I had must have had gauged rollers. There was no rattle at all on the first fret. But, then this is the type of detail that you would expect from Joe Kline.

Jerry Van Hoose · From: Wears Valley, Tennessee

Derby's have em.

Carlos Polidura · From: Puerto Rico

This would be great. But if someone is going to make them ...hope they make them wright.
My guitar have them but yet, they are not perfectly or properly gauged. I can tell when I place the bar on the first fret I have to press harder than normal in order to get all the strings to ring.
PSG will get better and better with time.
It is an intrument that is becoming widely recognized in all avenues of music.
I've been plying latin music... such as Bolero... Rancheras... and a few other styles for more than thiry years.

David L. Donald · From: Koh Samui Island, Thailand

I would get a set for Sho-Bud C6

Jack Shrader Sr · From: Columbus In. U.S.A.

I see my spelling of Gage another post was
Guage and another was gauge I wonder what one in right anyway BUMP Jack

Carlos Polidura · From: Puerto Rico

Jack,
The correct spelling is "GAUGE".
I hope this clears up matters.
Carlos

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

G-A-U-G-E is the proper spelling, Jack (though I've probably misspelled it myself on occasion). G-A-G-E is a rather new form (which doesn't even appear in any of my old dictionaries in our context). I suppose that engineering types use this form today because it's shorter, kinda like advertisers spelling "night" N-I-T-E.

Anyway, re-gauging rollers isn't that big of a problem if some strings are too high. If you don't have access to a lathe, all you have to do is remove the troublesome roller and mount it on a small machine screw with a nut. Then chuck this in a drill and do the machining work with a small "V" file of the proper angle. It takes a while (as most rollers are stainless steel), but perseverance and a couple of files will do the trick...but proceed slowly. You don't have to remove much material to make a big difference!

If the grooves are too deep (either by the manufacturer's error, or your own impatience reworking them), then you have to start at square one and make your own roller, or get a new one from a manufacturer.

Problems can occur, though, if you change string gauges sometime later. Like most players, I don't feel it's a very serious problem on steels that have 10 or less strings.

Jack Shrader Sr · From: Columbus In. U.S.A.

bump pleas Jack

Lonnie Portwood · From: Jacksonville, fl. USA

Ed Fulawka always has made his own rollers and they are all machined to match the gauge of strings. The top of my strings are perfectly flat at the first fret position. I don't know if Ed would consider making for other users, and I Do know that it is quite a little exercise to make 'em. Ed lives in Ontario. email is efulawka@yahoo.com

Hans Holzherr · From: Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland

For those interested in taking their rollers to a machinist to gauge, here is my post from a related thread containing the link to my interactive gauged rollers chart:

"I recently gave the rollers on my Carter to a machinist to gauge them, and for that I calculated how much deeper the grooves would have to be. Since the final inclination of the steel bar at the nut relative to the top is not defined from the start, it can be freely chosen within some close boundaries. However, since there is normally a set of 3 or more adjacent strings whose gauges change with a fixed increment, there is always an inclination angle for which between 3 and 5 rollers can be left unchanged, given that the rest of the rollers be turned with a tool which makes grooves identical to the original grooves. For the Carter the groove angle is 60 degrees.
"In case anybody is interested in having their rollers changed, too, I thought I'd make an interactive chart which calculates the optimal inclination angle and grooves, and post it on the web. It can be found at http://homepage.hispeed.ch/updowncat/roller_grooves.htm and comprises E9/extended E9/E9-B6 universal/and C tunings with string gauge alternatives. The blue numbers are the groove depths in mm in reference to the groove of the unchanged rollers (red numbers). The interactivity lies in the groove angle input field. However, it is not easy to determine the angle from just looking at it. It has to be verified with a cutting tool in the machine shop.

"It is possible to alter the string spacing in the charts as well, but for all practical puposes that changes very little, and does not affect the blue numbers. These are rounded to 1/1000 of a millimeter, but my friend the machinist said his accuracy was only about 0.015 mm. Better equipment may allow greater precision."

Hans

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