Locking Nut

[Phinox]

What are the advantages and disadvantages of a locking nut? does it help increase sustain?

 

[line6man]

Having a lock at the nut is the only advantage. Most people complain that locking nuts are tone suckers, and unnecessary in many cases. If you don't have a locking bridge, you don't need a locking nut. If you do have a locking bridge, the consensus seems to be that you can get by with a standard and properly cut nut, if you're not a serious divebomber. If you're serious about your whammy use, get a double locking system.

 

[Phinox]

Thank you for the reply Lineman6.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

There's ongoing conversation about bending relating to total string length beyond speaking length of the string; outside the scale length.  Bridge type, headstock orientation, nut binding, nut material, straight pull, breakover angle, go through a tailpiece or wrap around, number of windings, locking tuners, staggered tuners, etc., etc.  All that goes out the window with a double locking system, be it trem or hardtail.  When it locks on both ends, the only place the string can stretch is in the trenches, and it can't bind on anything else.  In fact, the only need for a string tee is to keep it from going sharp when locking the nut.

 

[stubhead]

I dislike them, because I fell they make the sound "harder" - more metallic, less "woody" comic though that might seem. The lengths of string beyond the nut and bridge do store bits of energy, though I notice it far more on a guitar with a tunematic bridge and a few inches of string behind. Hit a chord hard and stop it with your palm, and you can still hear a bit of "reverb" from the leftovers. It can be subtle to idiopathic, but - when I make a list of the best-sounding tone guitarists, I get quite a ways down before I find a Floyd bridge & locked nut. A tonal description that's often applied to Floyd guys is "synthy."