90 degree break angle at nut on headless guitar with tuners at bridge?

[Doug Anderson]

I'm designing a travel lap steel. Curious if it is a problem to have a 90 degree break angle at the nut with an aluminum L bend nut or a roller nut on headless guitar with tuners at the bridge?

Would this sound ok?

Would the strings break a lot?

[J D Sauser]

I'm designing a travel lap steel. Curious if it is a problem to have a 90 degree break angle at the nut with an aluminum L bend nut or a roller nut on headless guitar with tuners at the bridge?

Would this sound ok?

Would the strings break a lot?

I can relate to your desire to create a travel-"axe" which will fit into a normal suit case, in between shirts and pants, without shortening the scale beyond playability and tone.

IF I am understanding correctly, you want to go 90deg. "down" behind the nut (tuning end) towards some kind of vertically pulling "keyless" tuner?
Breakage may very well become an issue, but I would also be concerned with wound strings "jumping" coils while tuning due to the high downward pressure, which could conflict with smooth tunability.

I am not a fan of nut-rollers, but in that case I would use a roller-nut which would cure both concerns.


What worries me is TONE, because your string's tension is not "butting" against the length axis of your sound board. I am NOT saying that it will sound "bad", but it will sound different and it's difficult to predict what we may expect to come out..

Have you considered giving the strings a 30 or even 45 angel over an "edge" nut for an inch or so behind it, and then wrap it around over a secondary roller "bridge" to UNDER the sound board and tune there? Some travel guitars do that on the pickup (bridge) end even with gear tuners thru the body while the strings have been slung underneath the body. This could bring the total length of a 24" scale instrument to 26" or a 22" scale to 24". (24" will fit in any normal checked suit case. 26" will have to go diagonally (Yeah, I AM brainstorming around the same idea).... needs a tripod set of carbon fiber legs too and then "Lets Fly, Lets Fly, Lets Fly Away Tonight!"

... J-D.

[Michael Kiese]

Rather than designing a 90º break angle at the nut, why dont you just install a headless guitar nut?

https://reverb.com/item/92279790-42mm-g ... TcEALw_wcB

[Fred]

I wouldn’t use anything close to 90 degrees. You may have a reason but I can’t think of one. I’m assuming that you’re anchoring the strings at the nut. With virtually no string behind the nut a roller nut does nothing for you. I think on a lap steel roller nuts in general are unnecessary.