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Just looking at pictures of a beautiful guitar from Michi Matsuda.

I think this is common with Somogyi and his apprentices, but the nut is filed _between_ the actual nut slots. So the depression between the strings is lower than the actual nut slots.

I have no idea what the rationale for this might be.

It can’t possibly be weight. 10s of 1000s of ozs? Is it just aesthetics?

Enquiring minds need to know.

Thanks

Steve

Are you talking about something like a scalloped nut? I used to have a PRS like the one below that had a scalloped nut. Besides looking interesting, the rationale as I understand it is that, supposedly, the string vibrations are directed downward and not dissipated to the sides.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Thanks Jay, but appreciably more pronounced than that. With more meat on either side of the string.

Steve

To each his own. Just doesn’t work for me...

I think this is fairly common on European-made classicals. One of my clients has a French-made instrument. I always figured it was a style thing, as it’s not so easy to make it look perfect.


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It appears that a lot of what Michi does besides being incredibly innovative is he has a flair for atypical aesthetics.

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It's aesthetic with as mentioned a European tradition.

Doesn't work for me either.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

This is the only one I've ever seen that has appealed to me.

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Pat

To each his own, this falls under nuthin to do and all day to do it

"To each his own, this falls under nuthin to do and all day to do it"

Kind of like fancy rosettes, purflings, carved pegheads, and a myriad of other things we do as luthiers.

I've seen a few scalloped nuts that looked pretty nice. The one Jay pictured not being one of them - it looks like it could be easily chipped because of the fine points. As to the rationale offered, I think that is an aesthetic looking for a raison d'etre.

Back in the 80's I had a client ask me to do that with the brass nut I made for his Les Paul Custom. Of course, with bell brass... the longer you work on it, the harder it gets. That rat tail file got a workout, I'm telling ya.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Looks like a bottle cap or a wavy lays potato chip. To each their own.

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Vibrations are directed downward, not sideways ... riiiiight .. but only for open strings, which tend to sustain longer than fretted notes anyway ...hmmm ... yeah, not likely in my shop ....

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

You're not suggesting that luthiers just say stuff, are you?

Inconceivable!

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

who me !!! .. never .... I will tell you this though .. a few years back, a high up marketing guy at Taylor who shall remain nameless sent out letters to their dealers, telling them that they should NOT start selling high end boutique guitars, until they were selling about 30 or 40 Taylors a month - I was at a small shop that was selling mine and a couple other local builders guitars, as well as Taylors .. the shop owner and I had a good laugh at that one .... the nerve ...

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Taylor wants to take over the universe.

That's what happens when a company gets big enough to hire marketing types. It's happened to about every place I have ever worked.

Market Share is an oxymoron.