I own an Ibanez SR 655E and noticed one day that the G string makes a bend from the tuner to the nut. My only minor concern is does put a strain on the nut? I know from physics this makes no difference in sound quality nor anything else. I have seen other model bases with pins in the headstock to keep the string straight entering the nut, but think this is more a “signature” high end thing than anything else.
Any thoughts?
The string trees seen on other models are to pull the string downwards to maintain a break angle rather than to position the string horizontally.
Looking at that image, would routing the G string to the other side of that tuner give you a straighter run?
Wow, great minds really DO think alike! I am going to change the strings soon, and was going to try exactly that. Will make tuning the G and D strings in succession a tad confusing at first, but so what?
In fairness, it’s probably a non-issue.
Lots of Ibanez and Spector 5 strings have oddball string angles between nut and tuner. I’d probably just use nut sauce (or equivalent) at each string change to avoid any binding and keep it as designed.
Um, “nut sauce”? I never heard of such. I can guess that it is a mild, temporary lubricant to prevent subsequent string slippage but wouldn’t mind being educated a bit about the use of it.
Most people just use a pencil and get some graphite in there.
I’ve had two different Ibanez Soundgear 5-strings, they were both like that. Every Ibanez SoundGear 5-string I’ve seen is the same. I’m sure that if it were an issue, it would have been identified long before now.
I mean, if you really look closely, there is only one string that goes 100% straight from the nut to the tuner, the E string. Every other string bends at least a little bit right out of the nut.
Perhaps the difference between an 800 dollar bass and a 2000 dollar bass.
My SC-607 would like a word:
the really janky one on the on the treble side is a .010 tuned to E4 on a 27" scale, and I am a fan of string bends. I haven’t broken one yet 
As has been said this is to maintain the proper break angle. Some basses, and I have a couple, can develop buzz at the nut, The string tree creates a break angle and corrects this. It has nothing to do with keeping the string straight going into the nut, and Ibanez doesn’t use them because the headstock itself is angled back achieving the same effect.
I don’t think the strain on the nut is a concern, all the strings bend backwards from the angle of the headstock so none is actually straight, they just look straight from the front. From the side they all bend. And even expensive basses have this
I don’t think it’s something to worry over
Thanks for the detailed explanation. I didn’t realize what break angle meant until now.
Maybe I am a bit sensitized to excessive pressure on a guitar nut because when I was a guitar player many years ago, my guitar teacher had me for some reason change to thicker guage strings. I was playing a jam session on my new Strat when suddenly the lowest string (the E string, right?) snapped the nut sending plastic pieces everywhere. Kind of ended the jam session too.
Yeah, could be the nut wasn’t filed to accommodate the larger string. Nuts are in fact wear items that you can expect to replace over time. The crew here educated me on this a couple weeks ago when I was fretting over string wear on fret wires.
Having a spare nut is a thought. I have one on my shelf. They are cheap.
The break angle isn’t something I considered until I had a Fender P that got buzz on the open A string. The crew here educated me on that too. We’re all learning and this is a great place for it
This is the only bass site I frequent now. I haven’t once left a session where I felt that the time here was not well spent.
Have you tried the Pizza topping thread? 
Oh dear. I stand corrected.
It’s basically the best thread, after the covers thread 
Aw, hell yeah!
You want to reduce friction as much as possible. It’s not so common on basses but on guitars the strings will bind in the nut (esp the dreaded G on a Les Paul) and when you’re tuning you’ll keep turning the tuning machine and nothing… nothing… ping! and then you’re sharp and you’ll have to start over again. It also often leads to the guitar/bass going sharp over time. Many headstock designs do not optimize nut/tuner geometry; ideally you want the string to have as straight a run as possible through the nut to the tuner. If you look at a PRS 3+3 guitar headstock it has much better geometry than a Les Paul. There are devices like the “String Butler” to help improve that.
String trees also cause additional friction which can cause the guitar to go out of tune. I think it’s Graph Tech ratio tuners that are shorter/longer depending how far they are from the nut to improve the break angle without requiring string trees You can also make sure to have enough windings on the tuning machine so it pushes the string down…
I’m too cheap to buy that stuff too 
I just ground some graphite into a bit of vaseline which works great as long as your nuts are black.
