Press

Guitar Player - June 1999

www.guitarplayer.com

Pickups and Gizmos
Low Budget Tone Boosters
By Lisa Sharken


EARVANA


Though the Buzz Feiten Tuning System may be the hot, new way to alleviate the guitar's inherent intonation problems, Earvana offers another alternative. Unlike the Feiten system, which requires a slight modification of the guitar's scale and the addition of precise intonation offsets, Earvana's system involves a pre-compensated nut that simply replaces the stock nut. This easy-to-install system provides the compensation needed to make your guitar intonate more pleasingly, and an added benefit is that you simply tune up and intonate as you would normally. The system is available in two nut widths-1 5/8" and 1 11/16" -that are compatible with Fender and Gibson-style necks.



Guitar Player - October 1999

Bench Tests
Gizmo Alert
by DARRIN FOX

The Earvana Nut

The guitar's inherent tuning problems are something we're all forced to deal with. No matter how well your guitar is set up, intonation discrepancies will always cause certain chords to sound as sour as three-month-old milk. The Earvana nut is available in
1 5/8" and 1 11/16" widths) is geared toward players who want to improve some of their intonation problems, without permanent modification to their favorite guitar. The two-piece Earvana includes a nut base that fits into your guitar's original nut slot, and a nut top that fastens to the base with three screws. Both pieces are slightly flexible so they conform to the neck's radius, but you may have to sand the nut base to make it lie flush with the fret board. After intonating your guitar in the traditional manner, you simply adjust the Earvana's nut top to make the 1st fret F on the high-and low-E strings read perfectly in tune. You then tighten down the nut top's screws and your done.

To our ears, the Earvana nut went a long way toward solving most intonation problems, especially those found in the first, second, and third positions. Also, chords played all over the neck seemed sweeter and more piano-like. However, we found this improvement came at the expense of unisons involving fretted notes and open strings. Guitars can never be intonated perfectly, but the Earvana nut provides a marked improvement over the status quo.