Bad to the Bone: Nuts, Saddles, and Bad Bones
I want to talk about punky nuts.
Or punky saddles.
Punky is a weird description that’s more at home in the lumber world. Anyone that works with wood will probably be familiar with punky wood. It’s a softer, less dense area in a piece of timber. Sometimes it’s rotted or almost rotted. But often it’s just a part that’s, well… softer than the surrounding wood.
Actual punky wood is frequently the result of a fungal infection in the tree but woodworkers can describe wood as punky just because it’s too soft to work well, even if no other infection or rot seems to be present.
As for nuts and saddles, well we commonly use bone for these parts. Bone is an organic material, like wood. And, sometimes, we get punky bone too.
It’s not uncommon to find a piece of bone with some darker spots or streaks. These can be thought of as punky areas. The bone there has a different consistency. It feels different when you’re working it — softer and even slightly ‘sticky’. You can see the bad parts in the nuts above — the Fender-style nut at the top is practically all dark, mottled, and punky.
A few smaller flecks probably isn’t anything to worry about but, if you’re making a bone nut or saddle, you’ll want to avoid larger, darker, or more widespread punky areas.
There is a definite potential for weird tonal issues. The density of the material under a vibrating string plays a part in how it sounds so you’ll ideally want that to be consistent under every string.
And, even if you can’t hear any difference in tone, punky spots will wear differently than the surrounding bone and could impact the part’s longevity.
And, let’s face it: It doesn't look great.
So, if you’re making a bone nut or saddle, examine the blank first. Hold it up to a light and you’ll be able to see darker punky spots. If these are larger or more extensive than you’d like, consider binning the piece and using a new one.
Worth mentioning is that the alternative, synthetic materials used for nuts and saddles don’t have this problem. Their consistency is even used as a selling point in some cases. That’s fair. Personally, I prefer bone so I’m happy to have a small (and it is small) amount of wastage on it. Every now and then, I’ll have to bin a blank. Not the end of the world.
Anyway, avoid punky nuts. Good advice.
This article written by Gerry Hayes and first published at hazeguitars.com
