Nigel
For the string you are stopping that would be true, but perhaps for
the open strings that are resonating in sympathy, the nut is still
important. I have had a buzz that seemed to be coming from one
string, but it was actually the neighbouring string, not buzzing on
the nut, in fact, but at the bridge. The same could happen at the
nut, I imagine.
As to the quality of these various nut materials, the comments were
from sellers, and applied to guitar and, or banjo strings. There is
no certainty that they would behave well with a lute string.
We do have Ed's word though, that mother of pearl is good for gut.
Gerrnot
I admit that I have never seen a lute for certain with an ebony or
dark nut
and glancing through the Cahiers 7 of la Musée de la Musique, I could
not see whether the occasional dark "nut" was in fact an absence of
nut. It could also be a very late addition.
Look at this arch lute, for example at http://tinyurl.com/29kmkx
but I know some turn of the century guitars do have ebony nuts, so I
thought it could be of interest to an owner of one of these. I have
an old Gibson called "the Gibson" which I think has an ebony nut. I
haven't looked at it for a few years, now.
Regards
Anthony
Le 26 oct. 07 à 17:29, Nigel Solomon a écrit :
Surely the material only makes any difference on open strings? Once
a string is stopped it doesn't matter what the nut is made of
Nigel
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