The ESP Guitar Company

I bet it'll be alright, although lots of people have problems with them in ANY tuning. It'd probably be BEST if you replaced it no matter what.

Really? I've never had an issue.

I know that we've discussed this issue before and I believe the outcome was, that the compinsated nut could cause problems with alternate tunings. I also read that on "another forum" somewhere. If Gorsch isn't having a problem with it, then it could be that the guitar was not properly set-up to begin with.

Tehshred, has the intonation been set?

I was asking because a friend was eventually going to purchase the V-500 and it come with the Earvana. He was going to replace it with a bone nut, but I was wondering myself if it caused any problems and if it was necessary to replace it.

I spoke with the guy who invented the Earvana nut on the telephone some years back when I wanted more information on it because I was deciding whether or not I wanted to get my KL fitted for one. (At least that's who the guy claimed to be anyway).

He said the nut is compensated specifically for 25.5" scale guitars in standard tuning with 9-10 gauge strings.

Anything beyond that string gauge, scale, tuning etc the nut was not properly compensated for. He said it should behave just as a regular nut would. Which basically negates any benefit of having it.

I have also heard that people have had problems with the Earvana nut when using alternate tunings and string gauges etc. If you're playing in dropped tunings exclusively there's no reason to have the Earvana nut installed on your guitar.

We're back to just half step down dropped D (C#,G#,C#,F#,A#,D#) now but I've always done my own intonating and setups. I didnt see a problem other than it's hard to fit a 60in the nut slot, Ahh Huh Huh Huh.

I could do without it and not really care or notice a difference.

"He said the nut is compensated specifically for 25.5" scale guitars in standard tuning with 9-10 gauge strings."

If that was the case then why do they come on the EC's and vipers which are 24.75? Not doging you just the person who told ya that.

That would be a question to ask ESP.

I called the number on their website back around 2003-2004 and that's what I was told on the telephone. At the time I was having one of my guitars set up with 10-52's on a 24.75" guitar tuned to CGCGCE. He said that I wouldn't see any benefit with the Earvana nut as it wasn't designed to compensate for that scale/tuning.

However, I just dug up their site now and checked the FAQ and they claim no matter what your tuning "the Earvana system works".

Doesn't make a lot of sense though. If you read up on how the system is designed it would make sense that for every particular tuning you will need different compensation at the nut. This would especially apply for different scale lengths as the distance from the bridge to the nut would be different so it would require different string compensation.

I think it's a bit like the tonepros bridge systems in the sense that if your guitar already comes with it, great. But it's not worth retrofitting a guitar with it that doesn't come with it. The benefits you get are almost completely unnoticeable unless you're standing around with strobe tuner going "SEE!!! I told you!".