Lok-N-Roll Compensated Locking Nut

The overall shape of standard Floyd style locking nuts leaves plenty to be desired. Too angular and pokey. A good set of files and some sandpaper can fix that, but you remove the plated finish where ever it's reshaped.
 
Man, I like experimenting with upgrades like this. I just finished upgrading all of the Floyd nuts on my non-collectible guitars to Titanium, so I can’t bring myself to swap them. Kind of bummed.

I did want to comment on this: stock Floyd nuts are not 12” radius, they are 10”, with the exception of the R10 which is a 15” radius. So if the Loc n Roll is a 12” radius you are getting a flatter radius than the standard unmodified Floyd nut. Are you guys sure the Loc n Roll has a 12” radius? The vendor website does not provide any specs or measurements for the nuts, merely says for 9”-14” radius.

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The stock Floyd R3 is a tall, medium spaced nut with a 10” radius. The height needs to be considered when swapping nuts. The shimming the OP had to do means the Loc n Roll R3 does not conform to the height of a stock R3.

The 10” radius on Floyd nuts has always bugged me, would love a 12” radiused nut for my 12”-16” compound radius Jacksons.

A compensated nut has nothing to do with radiusing. It has to do with string length and attempting to optimize the tuning in an equal temperament tuning system.

Agree with other posters about some of the more grandiose claims. As for ease of playing the single most significant playability upgrade for a Floyd is the heaviest set of springs you can find. They will soften the feel of bends and fretting considerably.
 
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Earvana tried this a few years back, but gave up.

I use their standard compensated nuts with locking tuners. They work miracles on guitars with higher action and/or nut slots, or guitars with the nut placed a bit too far from the first fret. A guitar with a well-placed nut and very low action won't benefit as much.

I've also had the situation where, after installation, the bridge saddles would not move far enough forward on some strings (especially the third) to bring the intonation back in line.

If I had a guitar with a FR nut, I'd give these a try.
 
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I just finished installing an R3 Lok-N-Roll to replace an existing R3 Floyd nut. No real surprises except I had to add every nut shim I had in the house to get it level and the action appropriately high. Turns out it neeed about .042" to get it playable. The nut radius looks to be 12" but it works fine on my 10" fretboard.

I haven't had the chance to really play it yet as I'm working on updating my III to 12.08b3. If I end up liking the nut I'll probably cut out and fit a custom ebony shim to clean up the look a bit.
 
I got mine today in the post. I’ve fitted it, and I’ve had to shim it. I didn’t have Floyd nut shims, but I’ve ordered some, and used some other shims that I had, to get it working for now. Looks like about 0.5mm (my verniers are at work and it’s the weekend).

This R-3 nut is to replace a Schaller R-4 which I put on when I built the guitar. (They don’t make an R4. The only difference is the string spacing - see chart posted by Capt Nasty above).

I noticed that the underside of the Lok-n-roll wasn’t perfectly flat - it had a slight hump from the casting and plating (Schaller ones are rarely flat either). It didn’t take much to flatten it on a diamond stone.

This is on a Warmoth 10-16 radius neck.
The regular FR nut was in there at a perfect height with no shims. It’s clear that this nut has to be shimmed to sit flat. The radius of the underside of the ‘shelf’ on the Lok-n-roll follows the radius of the fretboard exactly. With it flush on the fretboard, the string height is perfect with my medium jumbo Gold Evo frets.

The width of the Lok-n-roll is also a fraction less than the nut that it’s replacing. It’s slight, but I can feel it stepping in at the end of the fretboard.

So it needed a bit of adjustment to fit. These are small luthier level adjustments, and it’s not necessarily a drop in replacement ready for your average guitar player. I’d hate to see someone fit this to their guitar at an angle with a gap under it and angled screws holding it down. I guess that someone buying it probably knows a thing or two already about upgrading and maintaining guitars.

Having made these observations, and adjustments to fit this, I can confirm that it works very well, and requires minimal intonation adjustment at the bridge.
I’ve checked this with my Peterson tuner, and the pitch over the low frets are almost perfect. Much better than on a standard nut.

I have Earvana nuts on a couple of other guitars I’ve got, and really like the difference that compensated nuts make to playing in tune on the lower frets.

When I get my FR shims delivered later this week, I’ll re-string it, and sort out the minimal intonation changes at the bridge.
I’ll update here once it’s all settled in.
 
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I spent some time playing with the nut installed and liked it enough to put in the effort to get it dialed-in better. After flattening the underside, I made a new shim out of ebony to replace the stack of metal Floyd shims and to better match the ebony fretboard. As I mentioned previously, .042" was just right to get the nut to sit flat and lift the string height to an appropriate level on the first fret. The OFR nut sets flat without any shims and has perfect action so it kinda sucks this one has to be shimmed, but the ebony looks nice and works well.

I noticed that the underside of the Lok-n-roll wasn’t perfectly flat - it had a slight hump from the casting and playing (Schaller ones are rarely flat either). It didn’t take much to flatten it on a diamond stone.
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Yep, same here. Mine was cupped just slightly and easy enough to clean up and level.

The width of the Lok-n-roll is also a fraction less than the nut that it’s replacing. It’s slight, but I can feel it stepping in at the end of the fretboard.
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Mine was the opposite. The Lok-n-Roll is about .010" wider than the OFR R3 nut. Both are slightly narrower than the fretboard width (1 11/16").

This is on a Warmoth 10-16 radius neck. The radius of the underside of the ‘shelf’ on the Lok-n-roll follows the radius of the fretboard exactly.
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That is interesting. I also have mine on a Warmoth 10-16 and you can just see extra space on the bass and treble side vs the middle. It is a tiny difference, but noticeable. Regardless, it works just fine and I'd likely never have noticed it.
 
Manny Kuhn said:
That is interesting. I also have mine on a Warmoth 10-16 and you can just see extra space on the bass and treble side vs the middle. It is a tiny difference, but noticeable. Regardless, it works just fine and I'd likely never have noticed it.
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I’ve had a look at it again, and noticed that you’re right about this.

I’ve taken it off for now, until I get some shims.

Looking at the and of the fretboard, you can see that there was pressure in the middle from the shelf part of the nut.

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I’ve measured the underside of the overhang on the Lok-n-roll with radius gauges, and it’s about a 14” radius.

This seems a little unusual, as the Floyd Rose nuts that these replace are all made for a 10” radius board. It’s unusual that the dimensions of the Lok-n-roll nut aren’t exactly the same as the OFR nuts that they replace.

Here’s a picture of the bottom of the nut after levelling. This is a tiny amount that’s been taken off the corners to level it.
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I do really like this nut. The feel of playing the guitar is better, and the intonation on the first third of the fretboard is very good. This is all happily, in spite of the quirks that come with fitting it.
 
That is exactly how the bottom of my nut looked after leveling.

Here is a side view of the ebony shim I installed. The gap at the edge of the fretboard looks much larger than it really is due to the light and the way the edge of the nut and fretboard are contoured.

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Lok-N-Roll said:
Hi guys! I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy.
Thank you Tom for the review.
I just wanted to chime in. I’m available to answer any questions.
There are other reviews on our website and our Instagram.
On a side note, I’ve been using Fractal Audio for years. I’ve owned 4 now and desperately want a FM3.
gregory
Founder
Lok-N-Roll
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I'm curious to know if this compensated nut will work for a guitar tuned 1/2 step down to E flat, or if the compensation only works for standard E tuning.
 
Manny Kuhn said:
That is exactly how the bottom of my nut looked after leveling.

Here is a side view of the ebony shim I installed. The gap at the edge of the fretboard looks much larger than it really is due to the light and the way the edge of the nut and fretboard are contoured.

View attachment 67581
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DE7FA33A-190E-4878-83F8-28F13C28C057.jpeg I’ve got mine in and shimmed now. I made a shim at just under 1mm from some ziricote that I’ve had sitting around at work (I’m lucky to have the use of a three belt speed sander!).

I didn’t imagine that it would be such a thick shim that I needed. I made a few shim blanks from about 0.9 down to 0.6mm My estimation was slightly low, and I’ve sat it on an 0.2mm Floyd Rose metal shim. I’ll make another shim tomorrow, and fix it properly when I next change strings.

The other thing I did was to grind a very shallow amount from the middle of the underside of the ledge. This is closer now to the 10” fingerboard radius. It’s a tiny amount, but it won’t squash the end of the fingerboard like before.

As I said before, I am really happy with the intonation at the low end of the fretboard. It’s a good device, with a couple of design quirks.

I’ve changed from a set of 9-42 NYXLs to a set of 9-42 XT (the new coated ones). I did have to adjust the bridge intonation on each string, using my Peterson Strobostomp for reference. It’s all set up now, and intonated extremely well all the way up the neck.

I’d recommend this nut, but would advise to get someone with skills to shim it and install it.
 
I was looking into getting a Lok-n-Roll for another guitar and noticed a bit of new information on the home page:
Lok-N-Roll was engineered with a 15" radius. This keeps low action at the lower frets that reduces sharp notes on open chords, matches a Floyd Rose radius and is perfect for todays guitars with a compound radius fingerboard like Jackson, Charvel, ESP, EVH, etc
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This seems surprising as the majority of electric guitars, even most shredders, have a fretboard radius at the nut that is smaller than 15". Stock R2 and R3 Floyd nuts have a 10" or 12" radius.

Some nut shelves will need a shim.
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Understatement. :D
 
Floyd nuts were designed in the late 70’s-80-‘s. Most fingerboards were much lower radius back then. Later Floyd Rose developed the R10 that has the 15” radius. This worked better on our no industry standard compound radius fingerboards. Lok-N-Roll has a 15” radius for a few reasons. With a rounder smaller radius fretboard (10-12”) in many Cases when a player plays open chords On frets 1-3 they will notice chords being sharp. Especially the G string and so on. By providing a 15” radius the player will notice less sharp notes and by adding compensation points, there is a big overall improvement in notes, and chords.

another reason is the new compound radius fingerboards react so much better. Let’s face it, most of us using Floyd Rose tremolos aren’t just using the first 3 frets. Tapping, slapping, harmonics , string skipping, and so forth are much easier with the 15” radius on the entire fretboard.

Lastly , Floyd Rose tremolos run at basically a flat radius at the tremolo and a R2 Nut is a s 10”radius. R3 is a 12” radius. So for years all of us Floyd guys had to deal with sharp open chords and if we Used around radius fingerboard like a 9.5” we also suffered from strings fretting out past the 12th fret when bending notes. Many manufactures have improved their designs over the years. Hardware needs to Evolve too.
 
I guess I don't understand how, if a fretboard has a compound radius, say 10-16", it better that the string radius not follow the fretboard radius. Effectively the Lok is raising the outermost strings on the frets closest to the nut, the intuitive result being those strings have to be displaced further to fret them, resulting in notes that are even more sharp.

Also, don't Floyds come stock with a 10" (w/ shim) saddle radius (12" w/o shims)?
 
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The larger the radius the flatter the fretboard.
the flatter the fretboard the faster the guitar plays due to “ less” finger pressure is needed to hold down a note.

the 15” radius on the Lok-N-Roll keeps the strings closer to the frets at lower 1-5 frets and matches most compound radius boards as well as the Floyd Rose bridge itself.

Overall feel will fast, less sharp notes, and will shred on higher frets. Not to mention it’s compensated piano like clarity, less string breakage, and mutes won’t snag at the nut due to rounded design.

I hope this helps guys.
The higher the radius, the flatter the fingerboard. Flat fingerboards assist in faster playing. That’s why our top companies like Jackson , Charvel, EVH, ESP, Schecter, Vigier and most everyone uses them.
 
Yep. I get the reason for the flatter fretboards and for the compensation, I don't think that was ever in question (or at least insofar as guitarists can come to a consensus on anything), and the advantages for intonation and tuning are probably the primary reason most of us are in this thread.

It sounds to me like the reason you went with the 15" radius is because it is a reasonable average for more modern, faster playing guitars; those guitars with fretboard radii between 12" and 17", compound or otherwise, yet it can work outside those radii.

I suppose some of the confusion comes from calling the nuts 'R2' and 'R3' given there are very specific dimensions, string spacing, and radii for those nuts. I can see why you would call them that given those are the most common Floyd nuts, but I hope you can see how the nomenclature can also cause confusion for those who are retrofitting.
 
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